Telling Lives, Telling History: Autobiography and Historical Imagination in Modern Indonesia

These two memoirs provide windows into the Sumatran past, in particular, and the early 20th-century history of south-east Asia, in general. Originally published soon after the Indonesian Revolution (1945-1949) liberated the island chain from Dutch control, these narratives recall the authors’ boyhoods in rural Toba Batak and Minangkabau villages. In reconstructing their own passage into adulthood, the writers inevitably tell the story of their country’s turbulent journey from colonial subjugation through revolution to independence. The book’s introduction illuminates the importance of autobiography in developing historical consciousness and imagining a national future.