20. The Revenge: A True Papuan Christmas Story (Background Info Updated)

By CELLY AKWAN

The Revenge, a true Christmas story from West Papua, occurred in Raja Ampat Archipelago, west of Sorong, a small town west of Manokwari,  presumably in the 1930s or before World War II. Babs Kamma, the original writer of the story who is from Holland, tells us about the mistrust and hostility that must have existed between the people of two coastal villages, Makebon (pronounced as “mackeBBON”) and Yenkate (pronounced as “yenKATTay”). Their suspicion and enmity would find their expression again in the scheme of some men from Makebon for revenge on a young man from Yenkate to justify the earlier death of  another young man from Makebon believed to have been caused by the sea spirit of the coral reefs near Yenkate. They believed that by doing so, they would appease the wrath of their ancestors on them. Their scheme, however, was aborted through the power of  Christmas. To understand the story well, it is considered necessary to provide some background information for readers with less or no knowledge of the traditions involved .

The location of Raja Ampat Islands (in red lined box)

Some Relevant Info from Church History

The first Western missionaries in Western New Guinea (nowadays Papua and West Papua) were two young men from Germany: C.W. Ottow and J.G. Geissler, both were Protestants. They first landed in 1855 and stayed for some time on Mansinam, a small island near Manokwari, later the capital of the former Dutch New Guinea and West Papua, an Indonesian province in Eastern Indonesia. Then, they moved to Manokwari. 

Both were then followed by Dutch Protestant missionaries sent by the Utrecht Mission Society in Holland. From 1855 to 1907, they all worked around the Geelvink Bay (later called the Cendrawasih Bay) in Central North New Guinea. Some worked in Manokwari and its vicinity, but others worked in Windesi, a coastal village south of Manokwari, and Roon, an island north of the Wondama Peninsula, which lies south of Windesi, and Meoswar, an island north of Roon.  From 1870 to 1956, their mission work became part of the Dutch Reformed Church Mission.

After the Great Spiritual Awakening of the Geelvink Bay Papuans that started in Roon in which the Rooners converted in masses to Christianity on January 1, 1907, this new spiritual awareness also spread to other places in the Geelvink Bay. It spread to Wondama, Windesi, Manokwari and its vicinity, Kebar, Biak-Numfor, Yapen-Waropen, and Nabire. Christianity was then disseminated to other places along the northern coasts of Western New Guinea: the Raja Ampat Archipelago to the west of the Geelvink Bay; Kaimana and Arguni Bay along the southern coast of Western New Guinea; and some other areas to the east of the Geelvink Bay, including Sarmi, Depapre, Tanah Merah, villages in and around the Humboldt Bay (near the present-day Jayapura, the capital of Papua province), Sentani Lake, Genyem, and Nimboran. The spread of this main-stream Protestant Christianity of Calvinistic background was then expanded to other coastal and hinterland areas or villages in Western New Guinea before WW II; after this great war, it reached the northern part of the highlands, including the Baliem Valley in the Central Mountain Range, Teminabuan and Ayamaru hinterlands near Sorong.  In 1956, still during the Dutch period, the work of the German and Dutch missionaries that began in 1855 and spread to other parts of Western New Guinea resulted in the establishment of the Evangelical Christian Church in Netherlands New Guinea. In 2006, this church had a membership of 600.000 people, making it the largest Christian church in Papua and West Papua.

Christianity in Raja Ampat 

Something of the past history of Raja Ampat Archipelago has been told in this blog. You might want to review this in the stories of Gurabesi and Fakoki and Pasrefi. 

The missionaries from the Dutch Reformed Chruch Mission reached the islands for the first time in 1913. However, three missionaries from Manokwari had reached, during their missionary voyages, these islands before 1913: Geissler, Van Hasselt, Sr, and his son, Van Hasselt, Jr, who became a guest of the King of Salawatti in 1894.

Raja Ampat Islands

Serious missionary attention was given to Raja Ampat after two requests for propagating the Gospel came from Waigeo and Salawatti, two main islands of the archipelago, in 1912. Van Hasselt, Sr in Manokwari then sent two teachers to have  a closer look at the possibility of establishing a new mission post there: Rumbekwan, a Papuan teacher from Biak, and Tatengken, another mission teacher from Sangir (North Sulawesi).

In 1913, the first official mission work began in Raja Ampat. On December 25, 1913, M.E. Tamtelahitu, a mission teacher from the Moluccas working for the Dutch Reformed Church Mission in Western New Guinea, conducted the first service in Sorong. After the New Year, a Christian elementary school was opened which, however, had Muslim children as its pupils. 

Three other mission posts were later opened in Meos Su, Salawatti, and Waigeo in Raja Ampat. Two Muslim kings lived in Salawatti and Waigeo. 

In 1928, Dutch missionaries began to visit these remote posts more often. They included Van Hasselt, F.J. Jens, and Grondel. Acting on the behalf of the Dutch mission in Manokwari, M.E. Tamtelahitu was appointed as a “Guru Besar (Chief Teacher).”

On Januari 1933, F.C. Kamma, one of the prominent Dutch missionaries in Western New Guinea (and his family) started his work in Sorong. This Dutch missionary, anthropologist, sociologist, and church historian is one of the “giants” in scientific research on the Papuans (particularly, those of the northern coasts)  in Dutch New Guinea. At the time he began his work in Sorong, there were twelve teacher posts: four were established in the mainland and the rest on several islands in Raja Ampat. 

The possibility of disseminating the Gospel beyond those posts was wide. The Word could be propagated by a lot of Christian Biak immigrants whose pagan ancestors had lived on several islands in Raja Ampat for centuries before the Gospel reached them. For centuries, they had established business contacts as traveling blacksmiths with hinterland Papuans in the mainland; after they became Christians, they made sure that the Gospel they had come to believe in was also spread to their fellow-Papuans in the hinterland.

Traditional Values in the Story

The Christmas story from Raja Ampat implies the lores, mores, and ethos of the islanders living in Raja Ampat. They are typically of Biak’s influence and, therefore, suggest that the characters involved in the story were Biakkers living in Raja Ampat. 

The lores

Their oral knowledge handed down by their ancestors included their belief in the sea spirit living in coral reefs  in the sea where a nearby coastal village had more rights than another far away to fish there. A fisherman with no fishing rights who unwittingly fished there would prompt the wrath of the sea spirit on him, which made him mysteriously sick. Once he was punished this way, he would have a slim chance of getting better. If he died and the cause of his death was identified through divination, then his fellow-villagers could take revenge on a person in the village whose sea spirit had caused the death of their fellow-villager. The village they attacked would also take another revenge on their attackers. In such a way, a vicious circle of revenge could happen between two villages, a circle that also developed into mutual  mistrust, hatred, and hostility that could last for years. 

An edible fish lying on a coral reef  of an island in Raja Ampat

In the Christmas story, however, the vicious circle was broken by the impact of the King of Peace, Jesus, on the two coastal villages which for perhaps many years had been victims of the vicious circle they had created. The fate of Yenkate the village identified through divination as the culprit of the death of Yamuni (pronounced as “yaMUnee”) was then prevented from this non-Christian spiritual influence. As a result, both villages lived in peace.

The mores

In addition to the lores, the story also implies some mores of the villagers. They include the exercise of authority of older or married women on family members and betel-nut chewing.

The true Christmas story opened with the description of women not only taking care of the sick Yamuni who was also visited by Kaneri (pronounced as “kaNEree”). It also revealed the exercise of authority they (particularly, Yamuni’s mother) had on younger men as noticed from Kaneri’s reaction or response to the insistent or commanding voices (a typically Biak character) of several married women; in addition, their tendency to be temperamental, assertive, and aggressive implies other character traits of the Biakkers. Some time later in the story, the authority of the women on their family members turned into decision making when one of the old women said: “We will seek the offenders.”

A Raja Ampat stilted house

Is the traditional Biak family maternal, then? No, it  is paternal. The authority of married women  is limited to internal family matters. Married men  are heads of their families, defenders against threats, and providers of  their daily needs, such as food.

Another established custom was betel-nut chewing. It had various roles, individual and social,  for traditional coastal villagers in Western New Guinea. In modern-day life, chewing betel nuts (a custom still practiced today, particularly, in the Papuan rural areas) is comparable to smoking cigarettes, a custom practiced for various reasons, such as stress alleviation and mood elicitation for an individual. In addition, chewing betel nuts had a social role; it could serve as a means for strengthening human bonds, including matchmaking rituals in which the host of the gathering offered his guests betel nuts and strong chewing tobacco called prompi (pronounced as “PROMpee”). 

In the story, betel-nut chewing (and probably strong-tobacco chewing) was practiced by the old women. Actually, this custom was, and still is,  practiced by both  men and women, young and old. The individual and social roles of both customs could be implied from the women chewing betel nuts in the story.

The ethos

What about the ethos of the community? Some of the shared fundamental traits suggested in the story include the attitude of an old woman toward the guru (pronounced as “GOOroo”). Its general meaning is “teacher”. He introduced new community “laws” that contradicted the old ones she revered and defended. To her, the guru was a stranger and a new inhabitant among them, one who did not know the traditional community ethos. “What does the guru know to tell us about?” she said scornfully. “He is a stranger in our village. He has just come and lived among us. And since then, our young men have no longer  known what the ancestors have taught us. They neglect the old laws: they dishonor everything, what was formerly sacred for them.”

What the old woman said indicate the transition from the old community she represented  to the new one, represented by the guru and his pupils. The guru can be viewed as an agent of social change.

Raja Ampat natives in their traditional attire

In the story, however, the guru was more than what the word generally means. He was both a Christian three-year elementary school teacher and a guru jemaat (a “parish teacher”). As a parish teacher, he preached, kept records of the development and problems of his parish, conducted the children's or church choir and bamboo-flute orchestra, led funeral rituals, baptized children, led the Holy Communion, advised them on matters not closely related to his main jobs (such as informing them about health problems), and some other related duties. Playing such diverse but virtually related roles enabled the guru to win the respect of the community and to guide them to the new Papuan community he and the Dutch Reformed Church Mission that employed him had envisioned.

Another shared fundamental trait of the old community was its belief in the sea spirit. This belief has already been explained.

Still another type of ethos of the traditional community is the habit of what might be called participatory or empathic criticism. This simply means expressing criticism as a participatory or empathic experience, another Biak character also practiced by some other tribes in Dutch New Guinea. In order to criticize members of his congregation who planned to take revenge on another young man in Yenkate to justify the death of Yamuni (this always involved men), the guru who was not involved but wanted to persuade the plotters to abandon their scheme spoke to them as if he had been one of them. Such a type of criticism is considered not only judicious but  also effective in achieving its aim. Participatory or empathic criticism for the Biakkers and other Papuan tribes is a traditional means of persuasion.

As noticed by Dr. F.C. Kamma, the Biak-Numforese people are also known for their communication skills and mastery of the "art of listening". Generally being extroverted, they can easily establish relations with other Papuans; they are also capable of understanding correctly things "said between the lines" and of responding correctly to the real message. Both character traits seem to have been well understood by the guru who tried to persuade them, particularly, the men who wanted to take revenge.

The guru forwarded his traditional persuasion in three ways. First, he imagined  himself to be one of the potential raiders, he put himself in their “shoes”, through his frequent  use  of the inclusive subject pronoun “we”. Addressing his congregation in Makebon, the name of the village where he lived and worked for,  he cautiously used the general word “people” that would not offend the men he wanted to criticize: “People of Makebon.” He then switched to the inclusive “we”: “We have already celebrated Christmas. … the feast of the Child who will bring peace among  peoples. … We have buried a young man. … We gather in the twilight … to draw up a war strategy because … soon after this, we will pull our canoes to the sea and prepare our machetes; we will murder somebody because of our fear for the wrath of our ancestors on the death of one of our young men.” Second, having presented the facts that he knew the men would accept as being true and judicious, he then continued with his rhetoric questions that hit  their belief and revengeful nature and led them to the new "rules” or noble values of Christianity: “Aren’t we Christians? Why don’t we harass … the [sea] spirits; isn’t Lord Jesus on our side?” Third, he continued his persuasion by using negations, suggestive actions, and actions. Having posed his rhetoric questions, he continued by saying, “No, people of Makebon. We will blow off our candles; we will finish the Christmas because tomorrow, we will sail to Yenkate and celebrate another Christmas with the people of Yenkate. This will be our revenge.” When the people of both villagers met and celebrated Christmas together, the Makebon people, who still remembered the old rules, were first hesisant to eat the food prepared by the Yenkate people: the food could be mixed with poison that could kill them. The guru who understood their hesitance set a persuasive example: he and his pupils ate the food offered. The Makebon villagers were convinced by this type of persuasion through action and joined the meal.

Peace

What happened after this Christmas? Since then, both villages have lived in peace. This ideal was one of their deepest desires they and their ancestors had been searching for throughout the ages but had missed. That peace was then discovered in and through the power of the King of Peace. 

Copyright © 2010. All rights reserved. Published with written permission from the author.