“A long journey/ Looking for my darling/ Where are you?/ Why did you leave without saying goodbye?” This is how the first lines of ‘Pergi Tanpa Pesan’ (Departed without notice) go: melancholic, full of longing and loss. This song plays softly as background music in the Indonesian Netflix series Gadis Kretek (Cigarette Girl), when the main character desperately searches for his long-lost childhood love on his deathbed.
When producer Shanty Harmayn wanted this song for her TV series, she assumed it belonged to the Jakartan band Sore, which released it in 2006. But earlier this year, as production for the series was almost complete, she was told heard from Netflix – which is very strict with copyrights – that the song was composed by Leo Masengi, an Indonesian who died in the Netherlands. Masengi played for decades in Dutch indo-rock bands, including the Tielman Brothers.
The search for Masengi’s relatives was successful thanks to an online message from 2012 about the local ribbon shower in the Sittard-Geleen News. One of the recipients of a royal award was Linda Adriaens-Masengi, founder of Bloempje, a foundation that supports people with social disadvantages. Linda turned out to be Leo Masengi’s youngest daughter.
The news came as a surprise to Linda (68) and her family. “We didn’t know he had made this song at all,” says Linda. It did fit in with the turbulent history of the Masengis.
Leo and his wife, the Indian-Dutch Lena van der Water, lived with their children in a kampong near Bandung. After Indonesia’s independence, life became increasingly difficult for the family due to the mixed background of the father and mother. After Leo’s death in 1998, his children only found out that he had been part of the KNIL, the Royal Dutch East Indies Army.
Their plan to leave the country was complicated, because at the time a Dutch woman lost her nationality if she married an Indonesian man. So Lena and Leo made a drastic decision: they decided to divorce, so that Lena could leave for the Netherlands in early 1958 together with their young children. To make matters worse, their only son died of dysentery just before departure. A few months later, Leo left for the Netherlands as a stowaway on a boat. Upon arrival he was promptly detained.
The family was eventually reunited through a royal intervention. Queen Juliana was visiting the recently repatriated families from Indonesia, who were housed in Roosteren in Limburg. When Lana, the eldest Masengi daughter, gave a bouquet to the queen, she asked “if Daddy could please come home.” Two months later that wish came true.
Linda suspects that her father composed his song during the period when he was left alone. But the details of the origins of this song full of homesickness will never become fully clear. “My father was a man of few words. He didn’t talk about many things,” says Linda.
The Masengis see the song as a beautiful gift. “Every time I listen to it I get emotional.” Linda and her sisters Lana and Laura decided to donate the copyright fee of 300 euros to an orphanage in Yogyakarta.