Which way now? Exploring the colonies with a Model T

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The first thing we thought of upon seeing this great photograph was Noël Coward’s song Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Look up the lyrics before you play the tune on YouTube. It's the colonial style, of course, including riding boots, bow tie and white sports jacket against a background of dense ferns and palm trees. Still, that man pointing at the signpost is more likely to be a Dutch than an English expatriate, exploring the roads with his Ford. Talawaan Mapanget and Likoepang lie in the province of North Sulawesi on the island of Sulawesi, or Celebes, in Indonesia—part of the Dutch empire at the time.

The funny thing is, when you look up both places on your fold-out map or on Google Maps like we did, you will find that there are some 18½ miles between Talawaan Mapanget (now just Mapanget) and Likoepang (now Likupang). What’s more, the road roughly consists of two straights with just one crossing between them. And so it seems likely that this picture was taken at that very place.

There’s a third hand on the signpost but it’s hard to make anything out from what’s written on that. The last two letters could be ‘DO’ or ‘BO’. The map provides clarification once more: it’s the road to Manado.

Words: Jeroen Booij; picture: archive
 

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