Denkend aan Depok, zie ik... Herinneringen aan Depok in Nederland

The foundation for both individual and collective memories of Depokkers in the Netherlands lies in the almost three hundred years of Depok's history. When the Dutch VOC official Cornelis Chastelein died on June 28, 1714, and bequeathed his estate Depok under conditions to 'his' 150 to 200 enslaved individuals, the Depok culture began to take shape, gradually evolving into a culture of memory. To better understand the dynamics of memories of Depok within the Depok community in the Netherlands and to ascertain how Depokkers have attributed meaning to the history of Depok between 1945 and 2021 in the Netherlands, this research utilized the interpretation of the scientific concept of memory culture as employed by cultural scientist Susan Hogervorst.

Collective memories provide the framework within which the individual memories of Depokkers in the Netherlands are shared. This is evidenced by the interviews conducted with Depokkers for this research. Prominent among these are the stories of the twelve families, descendants of enslaved individuals from the eighteenth century, the Depok heritage of Cornelis Chastelein, and the pemuda violence on October 11, 1945. The cultural mediums of remembering have contributed to the generation of collective memories, including the annual reunions and the Depok periodicals until the 1980s, as well as the publication of two historical books and two exhibitions in the 2000s. This is intertwined with developments within the memory culture of the Dutch East Indies in the Netherlands. Developments within the Indo-Dutch memory culture are reflected in the Depok periodicals and reunions.

The interaction between individual and collective memories complements each other, as also evidenced by the interviews. Second-generation Depokkers engage with the memories of their (grand)parents and the collective memory within the Depok community, such as the pemuda attack on Depok. However, their appropriation of these memories, their distribution, and production thereof, ensure that the collective memories remain nourished. The conclusion, therefore, is that individual and collective memories cannot exist without each other: they need each other to shape a memory culture, including that of Depok.