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List of contents
Contents
Introduction
Part I Backdrops
Colonial times and impact
Popular music in exile
Latin in the Lowlands
Part II Massada before Astaganaga
In the air
What’s in a name
Decisive break
The action years
Part III Massada’s Astaganaga
The making of
Track by track
Sleeve art and credits
Reception and rewards
Part IV Massada after Astaganaga
Bang the drum
Mission accomplished
Full circle
Hindsight
Part V Afterwork
Discography
About research
Literature
Thanks
About author
Endnotes
About the author
Lutgard Mutsaers is a pioneering historiographer of Dutch pop/rock/dance. She has worked as band musician, journalist, university lecturer, and editor. She is the author of several books and articles including Roep der Verten. Krontjong van roots naar revival (2014) and Haring & Hawaii, hawaiianmuziek in Nederland 1925-1991 (1994).
Summary
This book explores an album of popular music with a remarkable significance to a violent wave of postcolonial tensions in the Netherlands in the 1970s. Several “actions” were claimed by a small number of first-generation descendants of ca. 12,500 reluctant migrants from the young independent state of Indonesia (former Dutch East Indies). Transferred in 1951, this culturally coherent group consisted of ex-Royal Dutch Colonial Army personnel and their families. Their ancient roots in the Moluccan archipelago and their protestant-christian faith defined their minority image. Their sojourn should have been temporary, but frustratingly turned out to be permanent. At the height of strained relations, Massada rose to the occasion. Astaganaga (1978) is a telling example of the will to negotiate a different diasporic Moluccan identity through uplifting contemporary sounds.
Foreword
The story about and behind the legendary 1978 debut album by first-generation Moluccan musicians raised in postcolonial Holland.
