Belanda Hitam

"Black Dutchmen" redirects here. For the Black population of the Netherlands, see Afro-Dutch people. For the ethnonym in the United States, see Black Dutch (genealogy).
A Black KNIL soldier during the 19th century.
Two KNIL soldiers in 1885. The soldier of the left is Indonesian, while the one on the right is Black.

Belanda Hitam (Indonesian; "Black Dutchmen") was an Indonesian language term used to refer to Black soldiers recruited by the Dutch colonial empire for service in the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL), the colonial army of the Dutch East Indies. The recruitment of Black soldiers into the KNIL resulted from a combination of factors, including the heavy losses suffered by Dutch forces in the Java War and concerns over the reliability of indigenous KNIL troops. Between 1831 and 1872, over 3,000 West Africans, mostly Akan people, were recruited from the Dutch Gold Coast for KNIL service in the East Indies.[1]

  1. ^ Blakely, Allison (2001). Blacks in the Dutch World: The Evolution of Racial Imagery in a Modern Society. Indiana University Press. p. 244. ISBN 978-0-253-21433-1.