How does this help explain the experience of Aceh following decolonization?
Aceh was one of the last places for the Dutch to invade. Bali came after. But Bali was always several kingdoms and did not have the relatively unified identity that the Acehnese had under the several-hundred year sultanate. Aceh’s place in the Indian Ocean world, rather than as part of the Archipelago, also helped the Acehnese keep a sense of difference from the rest of Indonesia. That sense of being Acehnese helped them fight the Dutch. And in the immediate post-World War II years, during Indonesia’s independence struggle, while the Dutch regained all of the Dutch East Indies, only Aceh (and a small strip of Java) remained free. The sense of identity and the awareness of their unique history remained strong in the first years of Indonesian independence. Jakarta’s actions and the ensuing spirals of conflict of the past 50-something years made the Acehnese even more aware of who they are. One of the people you speak to in the documentary says that the struggle of the Acehnese is not abo
