Sumatra

This chapter discusses the childhood of Amir Sjarifoeddin, who was born on April 27, 1907. Among the Bataks of Sumatra, Amir's family was among the most ancient. The Batak people came from “paganism,” “animalism,” or “savagery,” as put by the Europeans in the late nineteenth century. Islam and Christianity were equally new and sketchy and Amir's family projected it clearly. Amir's mother and her family were devotedly Muslim, while Amir's father was a Christian but converted to Islam. The chapter then looks at Amir's education at the Europese Lagere School (ELS), “European Lower School,” a Dutch colonial school in Medan. On December 4, 1917, Amir's father, Baginda Saripada, was appointed to succeed his father, Soetan Goenoeng Toea, and become a hoofddjaksa in Sibolga, a town across Sumatra. In 1918, Amir, who had just finished fourth grade in the Medan ELS, with family and servants, followed his father and traveled to Sibolga.