Massada's Astaganaga

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.