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Letter From West Java
How Indonesia’s viral housewives’ band freed a village from the loan sharks
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Mother Bank drumming on claypots and sashaying along kampung dirt paths as they croon about borrowing money at high interest rates from blood-sucking moneylenders.
PHOTO: NISSAL BERLINDUNG
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JATIWANGI, West Java – It’s not every day that a girl band made up of middle-aged Indonesian housewives takes the Internet by storm with folk tunes about the everyday struggles of village life.
But Mother Bank have done just that, beginning with their hit, Jalan-Jalan, in which they croon about borrowing at high interest rates from blood-sucking moneylenders, and the struggle to repay the debt.
