Vara Jambak

The Acehnese people of northern Sumatra, Indonesia is a matriarchal society. This was stated by some foreign journalists and foreigners involved with the people of Aceh after the Tsunami. It goes without saying that they did not claim that the people of Aceh is “matriarchal” but rather “matrilineal“, as the term matriarchal itself is often misinterpreted and still meets strong resistance in the Western world. Conversely, the term “matrilineal” and other terms are preferred, because it only emphasizes the basic understanding of just one characteristic of those societies, e.g, only about the lineage (in this case matrilineage) or about their egalitarian characteristics.

An interpreter who worked for groups which helped the victims of the Tsunami in Aceh and who was also aware of the existence of matriarchal societies in Indonesia such as the Minangkabau, also expressed the same thing. “The Acehnese society is matriarchal“, the interpreter said. The interpreter, a Javanese woman who was studying German literature at a university in Berlin as the Tsunami occurred, said that she got the information from the results of some interviews with some male victims of the Tsunami that the land which was considered as the property of these men, turned out to be that of their wives and their wives’ family.

Up to the present time, newspapers and news about Aceh  almost only deal with stories deemed suitable for the media consumption such as “separatist movements of Aceh”, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Samudra Pasai (Acehnese Sultanate), implementation of Sharia Law in Aceh, the source of gas and oil which also was and still is the source of the sufferings of the  Acehnese people, and other similar stories. There is almost no report on the culture and the Acehnese people. In fact, stories about Cut Nyak Dien, laksamana Malahayati, the resistance of the Acehnese people against the oppression, Acehnese queens (Acehnese sultanas) like Sultana Inayat Syah, and Acehnese women who were extraordinarily strong and independent, only showed the characteristics of a matriarchal society. Women like Cut Nyak Dien (the leader of the guerilla war of the Acehnese people against the Dutch colonials), Sultana Inayat Syah, other Acehnese Sultanas and laksamana Malahayati -the commander-in-chief of female warriors made up of widows known as  Inong Balee, who waged wars against the Portuguese and Dutch conquest-,  would not exist in a patriarchal culture which indeed humble, marginalize, demean and abuse women. Sultanas or queens in the world kingdoms, based on whichever religion, would not exist due to the fact that the realm of power and patriarchal religions be “masculine.” The nature of the Acehnese resistance against the oppression, praised by Pramudya Ananta Tour -a Javanese writer and author- as “people with strong individual courage“, is the true character of people or individuals coming from matriarchal societies which can not accept oppression.

Unfortunately, after the Tsunami, the nature of land ownerships in Acehnese society has changed significantly. According to foreign journalists working on Tsunami issues in Aceh, the problem of land ownership arose because in general the original owners can no longer get their land back and it is no longer based on matrilineally communal ownerships but private ownerships.