Examining the History of the Kartini School Building in Bogor

Quoted from the Indische Letteren page. Jaargang 5 written by Hanneke Elderhorst-van Hofwegen said that on August 8, 1900, Abendanon visited the regents of Java to conduct surveys and research on education.

Abendanon knows how difficult it is to develop education, especially for women in Java, because there is a conflict with adat, namely when a girl is 12 years old, she has to be secluded.

While visiting the Regent of Jepara, R.M. Adipati Ario Sosroningrat, Abendanon and wife met Kartini and were amazed at the innovations Kartini had made to the spiritual development and education of indigenous women, even though they were kept in seclusion.

Since then Kartini began to communicate through letters to Abendanon and Rosa.

“That day will always be one of the most extraordinary in our lives,” wrote Abendanon after meeting Kartini.

Abendanon and Kartini shared the same view and struggle, namely to convince the Dutch government that improving and expanding education for girls in Java was an absolute necessity.

After Kartini died in 1904 at the age of 25, Abendanon and his wife took the initiative to collect letters sent by Kartini to her pen pals in Europe. These letters were sent to several people with the aim of gaining sympathy, one of whom was Conrad Theodore van Deventer, a legal expert and ethnic political figure in the Netherlands.

It was later this Canventer who became the chairman of the KartiniFonds committee.

A collection of Kartini’s letters was later made into a book by Abendanon entitled “Door Duisternis tot Licht” which means “From Darkness to Light”.

The book received extraordinary enthusiasm from the Dutch community at that time, especially ethical politicians. And donations and sales proceeds are used to fund Kartini School. (*)