Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 1820 – 19 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli (from Latin multa tulī, "I have suffered much"), was a Dutch writer best known for his satirical novel Max Havelaar (1860), which denounced the abuses of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia). He is considered one of the Netherlands' greatest authors.
Family and education
Eduard Douwes Dekker was born in Amsterdam, the fourth of five children of a Mennonite family: the other children were Catharina (1809–1849), Pieter Engel (1812–1861), Jan (1816–1864), and Willem (1823–1840). Their mother, Sietske Eeltjes Klein (sometimes written "Klijn"), was born on Ameland.
Multatuli's father, Engel Douwes Dekker, worked as a sea captain from the Zaan district of North Holland. Engel inherited the surnames of both his parents, Pieter Douwes and Engeltje Dekker, and Multatuli's family retained both names. Multatuli's elder brother, Jan Douwes Dekker (1816–1864), was the grandfather of Ernest Douwes Dekker, a politician of Dutch-Javanese descent.
As an adolescent, Multatuli attended school in Amsterdam, at the Latin school located at the Singel. A precursor of the present day Barlaeus Gymnasium. His father originally intended for Eduard to become a minister, though the idea was later abandoned. Eduard then worked for a time at a textile firm, as a clerk.
Natal, Sumatra
In 1838, he left on one of his father's ships for Batavia (present-day Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies, where over the next two decades he held a series of colonial government posts. Initially employed in the general accounting department, he was promoted in the following years to administrative officer, although he disliked financial work.
