World Heritage Status for Letters from Indonesian Women's Rights Advocate Kartini
UNESCO has recognized a large collection of handwritten letters and the archive of Raden Ajeng Kartini (1879-1904) as documentary world heritage. Kartini opposed gender inequality in feudal Javanese society, including forced marriages, polygamy and lack of education for women.
The letters and the archive are held in the collections of Leiden University Libraries (326 letters and related items), the National Archives in The Hague (9 items) and the National Archives of Indonesia (9 items).
The three collections have been jointly registered in the global UNESCO Memory of the World Register. This list contains documentary heritage that is of exceptional significance and must be preserved for future generations. We are grateful to UNESCO for this honourable award.
Kartini Letters - D H 1200
The Leiden Kartini collection contains 101 personal handwritten letters from Kartini from the period 1900-1904. The majority of these letters, written in Dutch, are addressed to Rosa Manuela Abendanon-Mandri. She was the wife of Jacques Henri Abendanon, Director of the Department of Education, Religion and Industry in Batavia. Their grandson donated the letters to the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in 1986. The collection was supplemented by donations from historian C. Fasseur (2001) and the Van Vollenhoven Institute (2014). The collection also contains letters from Kartini's sisters -Roekmini, Kardinah, Kartinah and Soematri- and documents related to Kartini. The Leiden Kartini collection, which is owned by KITLV, has been managed by the UBL since 2014.
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Kartini was born in 1879 as the daughter of Raden Mas Adipati Ario Samingun Sosroningrat, regent of Jepara. Sosroningrat had his children educated at European schools in the region. Kartini attended school until she was twelve, but then had to leave school to prepare for her forced marriage in seclusion, according to traditional customs. During her seclusion, Kartini wrote letters to various Dutch friends and acquaintances, in which she gave her views on Javanese culture, colonialism, religion and women's emancipation. She advocated the establishment of schools for women and opposed forced marriages, polygamy and the use of seclusion. In 1903, she was forced into marriage with Raden Mas Ario Djojo Adiningrat, regent of Rembang, on the condition that she would be allowed to receive education, establish a school and promote education for women.
“Even in my childhood, the word 'emancipation' enchanted my ears; it had a significance that nothing else had, a meaning that was far beyond my comprehension, and awakened in me an evergrowing longing for freedom and independence, a longing to stand alone.”
- Kartini (Japara, 25 May 1899)
Meaning for the world
Kartini died shortly after the birth of her first child. She wrote her last letter in 1904, six days before the fateful delivery. In 1911, parts of the letters were published by Jacques Henry Abendanon because of her modern ideas about education, emancipation and gender inequality. Translations followed in Malay, Sundanese, Javanese, Indonesian, English, Russian, Arabic, Japanese and French. After her death, her ideas about education for women were continued with the establishment of Kartini schools.
Kartini exhibition
Following the UNESCO recognition, the online exhibition Kartini, advocate of women’s rights was created about the Leiden Kartini collection. The exhibition uses pieces from the collection to discuss Kartini, the letters and her legacy.
Impact
Kartini is seen as an iconic feminist and her critical view of patriarchal society in Java and colonial racism inspired later generations of feminists and politicians. Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia, declared her birthday (21 April) Kartini Day in 1946 and declared her a national hero of Indonesia in 1964.
Six Leiden UNESCO-documents
With the award of documentary world heritage status to Kartini's letters and archive, the UBL now manages six collections with this international UNESCO status. In addition to Kartini, this concerns Ferdinand Magellan's first circumnavigation of the globe (video) in 2023, Hikayat Aceh (video) in 2023, Panji (video) in 2017, Babad Diponegoro (video) in 2013 and La Galigo (video) in 2011. All these documents have been digitised and are freely available for viewing via our Digital Collections.