Minahasan people
The Minahasans or Minahassa are an Austronesian ethnic group native to North Sulawesi province of Indonesia. The Minahasa people sometimes refer to themselves as Manado people. Although the Minahasan pre-Christian creation myth entails some form of ethnic unification, other sources assert that before the nineteenth century the Minahasa region was in no way unified. Instead, a number of politically independent groups existed together, often in a permanent state of conflict.
Minahasans are the most populous ethnic group in the Minahasan peninsula of North Sulawesi, a Christian-majority region in a Muslim-majority country. The indigenous inhabitants of Minahasa are 'Austronesian' people who are the descendants of earlier migrations from further North. Prior to contact with Europeans, people living in the Minahasan peninsula primarily had contact with the people of North Maluku and with Chinese and Malay traders from within the Indonesian archipelago. From the 1500s onwards, the region had contact with the Portuguese and Spanish. Ultimately, however, it was the Dutch who colonized the region; firstly through the Dutch East India Company and, from 1817 onwards, through the administration of the Dutch nation state.
There are nine languages that are indigenous to the Minahasan peninsula. All languages belong to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family, and five of these comprise the Minahasan microgroup, while two, namely Bantik and Ratahan, are part of the Sangiric microgroup. Another language is considered moribund and is part of the Gorontalo–Mongondow microgroup. The language of wider communication, Manado Malay, contains numerous loan words from Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch - a result of contact with European powers from 1523 onwards. While Manado Malay bears some similarities with other varieties of Malay spoken in eastern Indonesia, it also displays many differences. It has been termed both a creole language and a dialect or variety of Malay.
Minahasa Raya is the area covering Bitung City, Manado City, Tomohon City, Minahasa Regency, North Minahasa Regency, South Minahasa Regency and Southeast Minahasa Regency, which are altogether seven of the fifteen regional administrations in the province of North Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Historically, the Minahasa region was located within the sphere of influence of the Ternate Sultanate. The links with the Ternate people are evidenced by lexical borrowings from the Ternate language; moreover, Manado Malay originates from North Moluccan Malay. The Minahasa people, however, resisted Islamization. In the Dutch East Indies the Minahasa people identified strongly with the Dutch language, culture and the Protestant faith – so strongly, in fact, that when Indonesia became independent in 1945 certain factions of political elites of the region even pleaded with the Dutch to let it become a province of the Netherlands. The centuries-old strong bond between the Minahasa and the Netherlands has recently been studied and explained using the Stranger King concept.
There is a considerable number of people from the Minahasa living in the Netherlands, as part of the Indo community.
History
The word 'Minahasa' is made up of the prefix ma-, the infix -in-, and the independent word esa 'one'. In English this translates as 'become one' or 'united'. The name Minahasa appears in written sources for the first time in 1789.North Sulawesi never developed any large empire. In 670, the leaders of the different tribes, who all spoke different languages, met by a stone known as Watu Pinawetengan. There they founded a community of independent states, who would form one unit and stay together and would fight any outside enemies if they were attacked.
Until well into the 19th century, the Minahasa was made up of rivaling warrior societies that practiced headhunting. Only during 'Pax Neerlandica' of the formal colonisation of the Dutch East Indies did the state of permanent internal warfare and the practice of headhunting subside.
Origin of Minahasa people
The province of North Sulawesi was the location of one of the first southward Austronesian migrations patterns in the late third and second millennia BC. The generally-accepted hypothesis is that the Austronesian people originally inhabited Taiwan, before migrating and colonising areas in the northern Philippines, the southern Philippines, Borneo, and Sulawesi before splitting into separate groups, with one heading west to Java, Sumatra, and Malaya, while the other moved east towards Oceania.According to Minahasa mythology the Minahasans are descendants of Toar and Lumimuut. Initially, the descendants of Toar-Lumimuut were divided into three groups: Makatelu-pitu, Makarua-siouw and Pasiowan-Telu. They multiplied quickly. But soon there were disputes among these people. Their leaders named Tona'as then decided to meet and talk about this. They met in Awuan. That meeting was called Pinawetengan u-nuwu or Pinawetengan um-posan. At that meeting the descendants were divided into three groups named Tonsea, Tombulu, and Tontemboan corresponding to the groups mentioned above. At the place where this meeting took place a memorial stone called Watu Pinabetengan was then built. It is a favourite tourist destination.
The groups Tonsea, Tombulu, and Tontemboan then established their main territories which were Maiesu, Niaranan, and Tumaratas respectively. Soon several villages were established outside these territories. These new villages then became a ruling center of a group of villages called puak, later walak, comparable to the present-day district.
Subsequently, a new group of people arrived in Pulisan peninsula. Owing to numerous conflicts in this area, they then moved inland and established villages surrounding a large lake. These people were therefore called Tondano, Toudano or Toulour. This lake is now the Tondano lake.
In the following years, more groups came to Minahasa. There were:
- people from the islands of Maju and Tidore who landed in Atep. These people were the ancestors of the Tonsawang ethnic group.
- people from Tomori Bay. These were the ancestors of the subethnic Pasam-bangko
- people from Bolaang Mangondow who were the ancestors of Ponosakan.
- people from the Bacan archipelago and Sangi, who then occupied Lembeh, Talisei Island, Manado Tua, Bunaken and Mantehage. These were the subethnic Bobentehu. They landed in the place now called Sindulang. They then established a kingdom called Manado which ended in 1670 and became walak Manado.
- people from Toli-toli, who in the early 18th century landed first in Panimburan and then went to Bolaang-Mangondow
- and finally to the place where Malalayang is now located. These people were the ancestors of the subethnic Bantik.
- Tonsea
- Tombulu
- Tontemboan
- Tondano
- Tonsawang
- Ratahan
- Ponosakan
- Sangir
- Bantik
Among the Minahasan heroes in the wars against Bolaang-Mongondow are: Porong, Wenas, Dumanaw and Lengkong, Gerungan, Korengkeng, Walalangi, Wungkar, Sayow, Lumi, and Worotikan.
Until the dominance of Dutch influence in the 17th and 18th century, the Minahassans lived in warrior societies that practised headhunting.
European era
In the second half of the 16th century, both Portuguese and the Spanish arrived in North Sulawesi. Half-way through the 17th century, there was a rapprochement between the Minahasan chiefs and the Dutch East India Company, which was given concrete form in the treaty of 1679. From 1801 to 1813, the Netherlands were occupied by the French imperial forces of Napoleon and the Minahasa came under English control. In 1817 Dutch rule was re-established until 1949.At the time of the first contact with Europeans the sultanate of Ternate held some sway over North Sulawesi, and the area was often visited by seafaring Bugis traders from South Sulawesi. The Spanish and the Portuguese, the first Europeans to arrive, landed in Minahasa via the port of Makasar, but also landed at the Sulu archipelago and at the port of Manado. The abundance of natural resources in Minahasa made Manado a strategic port for European traders sailing to and from the spice island of Maluku. Although they had sporadic contacts with Minahasa, the Spanish and Portuguese influence was limited by the power of the Ternate sultanate.
The Portuguese and Spaniards left reminders of their presence in the north in subtle ways. Portuguese surnames and various Portuguese words not found elsewhere in Indonesia, like garrida for an enticing woman and buraco for a bad man, can still be found in Minahasa. In the 1560s the Portuguese Franciscan missionaries made some converts in Minahasa.
The Spanish had already set themselves up in the Philippines and Minahasa was used to plant coffee that came from South America because of its rich soil. Manado was further developed by Spain to become the center of commerce for the Chinese traders who traded the coffee in China. With the help of native allies the Spanish took over the Portuguese fortress in Amurang in the 1550s, and Spanish settlers also established a fort at Manado, so that eventually Spain controlled all of the Minahasa. It was in Manado where one of the first Indo-Eurasian communities in the archipelago developed during the 16th century. The first King of Manado named Muntu Untu was in fact the son of a Spanish Mestizo.
Spain renounced her possessions in Minahasa by means of a treaty with the Portuguese in return for a payment of 350,000 ducats. Minahasan rulers sent Supit, Pa'at and Lontoh where they made an alliance treaty with the Dutch. Together eventually gained the upper hand in 1655, built their own fortress in 1658 and expelled the last of the Portuguese a few years later.
By the early 17th century the Dutch had toppled the Ternate sultanate, and then set about eclipsing the Spanish and Portuguese. As was the usual case in the 1640s and 50s, the Dutch colluded with local powers to throw out their European competitors. In 1677 the Dutch occupied Pulau Sangir and, two years later, the Dutch governor of Maluku, Robert Padtbrugge, visited Manado. Out of this visit came a treaty with the local Minahasan chiefs, which led to domination by the Dutch for the next 300 years although indirect government only commenced in 1870.
The Dutch helped unite the linguistically diverse Minahasa confederacy, and in 1693 the Minahasa scored a decisive military victory against the Bolaang to the south. The Dutch influence flourished as the Minahasans embraced European culture and Christian religion. Missionary schools in Manado in 1881 were among the first attempts at mass education in Indonesia, giving their graduates a considerable edge in gaining civil service, military and other positions of influence.
Relations with the Dutch were often less than cordial and the region did not actually come under direct Dutch rule until 1870. The Dutch and the Minahasans eventually became so close that the north was often referred to as the 12th province of the Netherlands. A Manado – based political movement called Twaalfde Provincie even campaigned for Minahasa's integration into the Dutch state in 1947.
Portuguese activity apart, Christianity became a force in the early 1820s when a Calvinist group, the Netherlands Missionary Society, turned from an almost exclusive interest in Maluku to the Minahasa area. The wholesale conversion of the Minahasans was almost complete by 1860. With the missionaries came mission schools, which meant that, as in Ambon and Roti, Western education in Minahasa started much earlier than in other parts of Indonesia. The Dutch government eventually took over some of these schools and also set up others. Because the schools taught in Dutch, the Minahasans had an early advantage in the competition for government jobs and places in the colonial army. Minahasans remain among the educated elite today.