Seeds of Trouble

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              "text": "Fort Concordia, built by the Dutch. A small fort was first built in this location in 1630 to protect the village from pirates. In 1732,\nit was replaced by the current larger square fort with three corner bastions. After the end of colonial era, it was looted by\nvillagers living nearby as a source for building material. Today, it is relatively intact with only one bastion having been\ncompletely demolished.",
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              "text": "A figure of Christopher Cole inside his former house in Banda Neira. He led a successful British Navy attack against the Dutch\r\nin the heavily fortified Banda Islands. The British then removed many nutmeg trees and transplanted them to Ceylon, now Sri\r\nLanka, and other colonies. This action contributed to the downfall of the nutmeg trade.",
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              "text": "A reproduction of a portrait of Pieter van den Broecke, in the home of his descendant Pongky van den Broeke in Banda Besar\r\nIsland. He was in Banda in the service of the Dutch East India Company and served as the head of the Banda Islands after Jan\r\nPieterszoon Coen. The original painting, by Frans Hals, is now hanging in Kenwood House, London.",
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              "text": "The village of Rhun as seen from the hill above it. Here, there is no freshwater source and electricity only runs for a few hours\r\nin the evening from a small generator. In the past, the island was a source of dispute between the English and the Dutch. By\r\n1667, through the Treaty of Breda, the English surrendered it to the Dutch in exchange for Manhattan. Today, Rhun’s residents,\r\na little over a thousand people, mostly work as nutmeg farmers and fishermen.",
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              "text": "Fort Belgica was the strongest Dutch defence structure ever built in Banda to protect the nutmeg trade. Today, there are at\r\nleast six surviving forts spread on the islands.",
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              "text": "Although nutmeg is no longer as important a commodity as it used to be, Banda still exports the spice. Many islanders still\r\nregard nutmeg farming as their main income.",
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              "text": "Teenagers spend an afternoon atop a watchtower of Fort Belgica in Banda Neira.",
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              "text": "A villager in Rhun takes an afternoon nap on a floor mat. The average day of an islander mostly consists of working in the\r\nnutmeg farms or going out in the open sea for fishing.",
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              "text": "A storm cloud above Banda during the western monsoon season. It was the same season that led the arrival of early traders\r\nand Europeans in Banda.",
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              "text": "Teenagers get together near Fort Hollandia, which overlooks the strait between Banda Besar Island and Naira Island.",
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              "text": "Nutmeg being laid to dry in a smokehouse owned by Pongky van den Broeke.",
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              "text": "Portrait of a performer during a local war dance ceremony known as the Cakelele. His traditional outfit is adorned with a replica\r\nof a Portuguese army helmet.",
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              "text": "Nutmeg is vulnerable to Banda’s scorching sun and heavy rain. The big Kenari trees give it natural protection.",
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              "text": "Shafira is among the young locals who are not content with the future of Banda Islands. After working briefly in a hotel in Banda\r\nNeira, she decided to move out. She is now working in Bali.",
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              "text": "The late Mustika Latar, a resident of Banda Eli, in her house. She was among the people of Banda Eli who sing the traditional\r\nindigenous Bandanese songs that speak of the oral history of the community.",
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              "text": "La Mane, a fisherman in Rhun Island, shows his catch of the day: a yellowfin tuna. Many islanders, who are not lucky enough\r\nto have a nutmeg farm, choose fishing to support their families. Tuna, which is abundant in Banda Sea, is often just as valuable\r\nas nutmeg.",
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              "text": "Colonial-era artefacts in the Rumah Budaya museum in Banda Neira. The Dutch used this kind of iron bell at the nutmeg\r\nplantations to signal to labourers when the work day began.",
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              "text": "The house of P Schelling, a Dutchman who resided in Banda. It is one of the best examples of colonial architecture in Banda\r\nIsland that is still somewhat intact. Today, the house belongs to a private owner.",
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              "text": "The gate of a former nutmeg plantation in Ay Island with the inscription “Welvaren,” a Dutch word meaning prosperity.",
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In 2014, the photographer Muhammad Fadli first visited Banda, a tiny archipelago of 12 islands in Indonesia. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, these islands were coveted and fought over by Western colonial powers for a rare spice that grew only on its shores: nutmeg. Once a crucial player in the world’s spice trade, the Banda islands today lie largely abandoned and erased from public memory.

“Surrounded by deep and wild seas, the Banda Islands is one of those forgotten places,” Fadli and the journalist Fatris MF write in their photobook The Banda Journal. “The remote islands once exploited for centuries by European powers have now faded into obscurity, as if blotted out from the world map.” The photobook is the outcome of a three-year project, in which the duo travelled to Banda to trace the remnants of its past and document its present condition.

A native of Sumatra, Fadli had briefly read about Banda in history textbooks. But it was only on visiting the islands, he said, that he truly understood how decades of colonisation had defined the island’s past and present. He realised it was a compelling story, one that he wanted to tell.