Ima, Alitipa and Lyumbi all have oral histories which began near Kandep station between 10 and 12 generations ago and are intertwined with one another. They were considered to be Atone people and intermarried frequently with other Atone tribes in the Kaumbo valley to the southwest. They trace their origins to the higher altitude areas around Kandep station, although in the early oral history of Ima, Lyumbi and Alitipa, it is mentioned that at least some of the people from these tribes kept gardens in the lower fertile Kaumba valley. Like many groups which relied heavily on hunting and gathering some 10 generations ago, Ima has rich and complex oral traditions. In contrast, Alitipa and Lyumbi have very sparse oral histories, as do many other groups who appear to have relied more heavily on agriculture early in their historical traditions.
Ima
Ima oral history begins with myth, moves into legend and then into more factual accounts of clan movements. Let us start with the myth that explains the creation of “modern” Atone people in the Kandep area:
In the beginning there was a woman. We do not know where she came from – she was just here. One day, she went out to hunt for bush rats, digging them out of their burrows. She started in the morning and dug all day long until finally in the afternoon she found two baby rats and took them home. She kept them as pets, fed them, and they grew bigger and bigger. One day she realized that they were not rats at all, but pigs. One was a sow and one was a boar. She bred them and the sow became pregnant and gave birth to five piglets. When the piglets were old enough to forage on their own, she bred the sow again and raised more piglets.
Another day the woman went into the forest to hunt for birds. In the forest she came upon a certain place where there was a nest of a pandai bird. Unlike other birds, pandai birds bury their eggs in the earth, and so the nest is covered with earth and looks like a sweet potato mound. She dug into the mound not realizing that it was the nest of a pandai bird until the mother bird came and began to scratch at the mound. The woman chased the mother bird away and dug further into the mound. The mother bird came back again and again to defend her nest, but each time the woman chased her away. Finally, the woman got tired of being pestered by the mother bird, caught her and tied her legs together with string from her net bag. The mother bird lay there helpless, squawking and flapping her wings while the woman kept digging.
As she dug further into the nest, the woman could not believe her own eyes. There in the nest lay a handsome human baby. She put the baby in her net bag, untied the mother bird and started home. The pandai bird did not want to let the woman get away with what she had found in the nest and tried frantically to perch on top of the woman’s head. She clasped the net bag with her claws and finally managed to balance on top of the woman’s head. When the woman reached the house, the mother bird jumped down from her head and went into the house, and there she remained.
The woman took the child and fed it with pork. She took good care of the child, and it grew strong and healthy. She had so many pigs in her house that she could slaughter them and feed the child pork fat every day. The mother bird stayed in the house with the child but longed for the forest which was her home. The flies and other insects in the house bit her, and everything about the house seemed foreign and forbidding. Finally, the mother bird could not stand it any longer and left the house for the forest that was her home. There she laid eggs thinking that she would give birth to another human baby. This time, however, she laid only eggs which hatched into birds, and though she tried again and again, she never had another human child. She was very disappointed.
The child grew up to be a man. His name was Endakali, or the first person. The pandai bird had been there ever since time immemorial, long before Ima came to be. The pandai bird gave birth to Aiamane, and when its eggs hatched, they became the Aiamane Atone people of Kandep.
(Luke Kumape of the Ima Yanali clan, Kandep station)
Later, the Aiamane ritual, a part of the Kepele ritual cycle, was held to commemorate the events described in this myth, the origin of, and settlement of people in the Kandep area, and domestication of pigs.
Although this myth can be taken for face value as a good story to explain how the Atone people of southern Kandep originated, it appears to have other meanings as well. The woman who found the pigs and the baby was a woman who lived by hunting and gathering. With her discovery of the piglets, she settled down and brought up the man who was the forefather of modern tribes, feeding him on pork. The description of the discomfort of the mother bird, her yearning for the forest, and her distress at being bitten by the insects in the house may very well be a metaphor for the difficulties of changing to a more sedentary life.
The Ima myth for the origin of the forefather of modern Kandep Atone tribes is followed by a second one concerning the origin of the Ima tribe:
Once in this land there was only one man whose name was Ima. He had no wife and lived in Wauma. He built a round house with a center post in the middle. He collected spinach plants (aoa) that had gone to seed and tied them to the center post of the house to dry so that the seeds would drop off into a pile on the floor below. The center of his house was always filled with a pile of aoa seeds.
One day when Ima came home, he found the door to his house open even though he was sure that he had closed it. While he was trying to find out who might have opened the door, the door shut by itself. He decided to pretend that he was going away on a long journey and then hide nearby to find out who was opening the door to his house. He dressed in traditional attire and made it look like he was setting out but then crept back and hid in the bushes. He waited there quietly for some time but then grew impatient and went to the bush to defecate. When he returned to his hiding place, he noticed that the door of the house was open. He ran over to the house and stood in the doorway listening to see if the intruder was in the house or had left.
Suddenly, the house shook and a large hawk (yaka kambi) broke out of the house and flew away. Ima was so stunned that he just stood and watched. After the bird was out of sight, he went into his collapsed house to see if anything had been stolen. There he saw that vegetable seeds were scattered all over his sleeping place. He went over and began to sweep the seeds together when he noticed that a young bird was sitting among the seeds. He realized that something was strange, so he went away leaving the young bird sitting there among the seeds.
He left the bird for some time and then one day he went over to check and see what it was doing. There he saw a handsome young man sitting where the bird had been. He asked him where he came from, but the young man just answered that he had been just sitting there all alone. He was the son of the hawk named Toeao.
The bird had not mated with a pig or woman but had just laid an egg which hatched into Toeao. Toeao grew up into a bird man and resembled his parents. He had wings and flew around stealing from people’s houses and gardens, and sometimes murdering people. Toeao had a sister, but she was infertile. It was Toeao, the son of the hawk, Kambi, who was a thief and murderer and flew around causing trouble.
In Toeao’s time there lived a man named Alitipa Kapiulu who was tired of compensating people for the trouble caused by Toeao. One day Kapiulu had an idea. He killed a pig and told Toeao to tear apart the meat with his powerful claws. While Toeao was busy butchering the pig with his claws, Kapiulu took out his bamboo knife and chopped off his wings. Toeao ran away wingless and later settled down and had a son named Ima Kano. Ima Kano had two sons, Kanda and Mamangu.
(Luke Kumape of the Ima Yanali clan, Kandep Station)
Names in the early myths of Ima history are not consistent. Some say that at times Ima is one and the same as Toeoa, while others say that Ima brought up Toeao. As will be seen later, the Alitipa version of the above legends says that Toeao’s son Ima Kano was a troublemaker and thief, and that Alitipa killed him in the end. All versions of the origin myths for Ima agree on basic points, however, that the first forefathers of the Ima tribe were rovers and troublemakers and that in the end, a man from the neighboring tribe of Alitipa put an end to the troublemakers from Ima. The descendants of the troublemaker then settled down and founded the clans of the Ima tribe. It might be added that Ima is the only tribe around Kandep station that has oral traditions which imply a strong reliance on hunting and gathering some 10-12 generations ago. The early oral traditions of Alitipa and Lyumbi are those of more settled people who raised pigs. Ima may thus have inhabited the forest and relied more on hunting and gathering until the arrival of the sweet potato at which time it settled more permanently near the swamps.
After the myth explaining the origin of the Kandep Atone people and the origin of the Ima tribal founders comes a myth accounting for Ima’s shift from a lifestyle of a roving hunter to a very successful, powerful tribe settled in the southeastern corner of the swamps. It also describes the beginning of more ordered social relations. All of these abilities were “stolen” from Lyumbi according to the following myth:
The Matapangaita ritual first belonged to Lyumbi, Ima’s Toeao’s neighbor. One day Toeao climbed to a mountain top and looked out over the surrounding landscape. When he looked over at the area where inhabitants of the Lyumbi tribe lived, he saw the land tremble with an earthquake and a flame shoot up. He was curious to find out what it was.
Toeoa went into the nearby bush and killed two possums in a heavy rainstorm. Dripping wet, he took the two possums and went to the house of Lyumbi. Lyumbi asked him why he had come, and he answered that he was just wandering about when it started to rain, so he came to Lyumbi’s house for shelter. Lyumbi welcomed him and offered him some sweet potato, and Toeao gave Lyumbi the possums in exchange. Lyumbi pretended to go out and roast the possums, but when he thought that Toeao was not looking, he threw one possum on the rubbish heap and laid another next to the fire. Toeao saw everything.
They went to sleep, and at dawn Toeao got up and told Lyumbi that he had to go home, but that he would come and visit him on another day. He went back to Pombaiya Mountain where his house was and remained there for three days hunting. On the fourth day, he made two bundles of possums with twenty-four possums in each and went to visit Lyumbi. It was a fine day and Lyumbi, who had been working in his garden, was resting when Toeoa arrived with his bundles of possums. Toeao told Lyumbi that the possums were his usual daily food and that he had brought them here to share with him. Lyumbi was very pleased and thanked Toeao for the many possums he had brought with him. Toeao ate some roasted sweet potato with sugar cane but decided to avoid eating the possums with Lyumbi. He wanted to leave Lyumbi to cook and eat the possums alone and then try to find out what he was doing with all of them, so he said he was sick to his stomach and remained in the house, coming out now and then pretending to vomit.
Lyumbi was very worried about him and tried to persuade him that they should indeed eat the possums together. Toeao told him not to worry because he had eaten too much possum meat before he came and whenever he ate too much of anything, he got sick. Lyumbi went on tending the earth oven and when he began to uncover it, Toeao stuck his head outside the door and bent over double as if vomiting so that he could see what Lyumbi was doing. Lyumbi took the twenty-four possums out of the earth oven, threw twelve on the rubbish heap and brought twelve into the house. He asked Toeao once again if he was sure that he did not want to eat, but Toeao replied that his stomachache was getting worse and worse. Later that evening, Toeao told Lyumbi that he had a bad dream that something was wrong at home and that he wanted to leave early in the morning. Lyumbi told him that that was fine since he had lots of work to do in his garden in the morning and wanted to get an early start as well.
Early the next morning, Lyumbi thanked Toeao once again for the possums and each went his own way. Toeao did not go far, however, and then crept back and hid behind the house. Lyumbi picked up the bag of roasted possums and collected a bundle of firewood so that he could build a fire in his garden and went on his way. Toeao knew that Lyumbi was headed for his garden and so he came out from his hiding place behind the house and went over to the earth oven. As he approached the oven, he noticed that there was a second house there surrounded by a special kind of grass with beautiful colorful flowers. The door to the house was closed, so he knocked. Somebody from inside asked who was there and then pushed the door open from inside. To Toeao’s amazement, he saw two beautiful women. They were very surprised to see him and told him that they had never seen another human before and asked how he knew where to find them. He replied that he had heard their names before, Kepame and Kendapume.
The two women told him that they could not leave the house but had to stay there forever. Toeao told them that he would try his best to build a bridge and path by which they could leave. He told them that he was the son of the hawk and that he could find possums for them in every corner of the forest. He told them that he knew how to get them out of there and that they should wait just outside the house while he went to his home on the mountain. From there he built a long ladder from his house to the place where Lyumbi’s house stood and where the two women were. It was noon when Lyumbi was about to arrive; the two women asked if he had completed the ladder. He said that he had and then took the two women by the hand and led them up the ladder towards his home. The two women were the Matapangaita women named Kepone and Kendapumi.
Meanwhile, Lyumbi returned from his garden and was about to eat some of the possums when he realized that everything had grown darker. When he looked into the house of the two women, he noticed that they were not there. He looked around for them and then, as he looked towards Toeao’s mountain, he saw some figures there in the distance and recognized them as the two women by the quaking earth and the flame.
Lyumbi immediately called for help from the rest of the Lyumbi people. He told them that Ima was attacking them and that they should rally to fight. They assembled and tried to attack Ima, but the mountain was too steep for them to climb. Toeao stood on the top of the mountain and told the Lyumbi people that he had stolen the two women and would not give them back. He told them to prepare a bridge from the log of a large papane tree so that he could send bride wealth for the two women. The papane tree was chopped down at Patuli Pau near Kandep station and the bride wealth paid.
That is how Toeao stole Kepome and Kendapumi from Lyumbi. He dug a hole in the ground and hid them there so that Lyumbi could not get them back. He fed them in their home in the hole. They were not wild women but after some time they turned into long and slender stones. When the stones were to be fed, people would dress up, paint their faces red and black and hold a ceremony. Ordinary people could not touch the stones, but if they happened to, they would become very rich. It is the Matapangaita women who made the Ima tribe rich and powerful. The stones representing the two women used to be fed ritually so that the sons of the Ima tribe would be good warriors and the daughters would be able to attract wealth and pay the compensation.
(Luke Kumape of the Yanali clan, Kandep station)
After the kidnapping of the Matapangaita women from Lyumbi, Ima settled more permanently near the swamps and grew into a powerful and rich tribe. With sons who would become skilled warriors and daughters who could raise pigs and attract wealth for compensation payments, Ima lost the status of rover, thief and murderer, with the ability to replace wanton murder with more formalized warfare and in the end to re-establish peaceful relations through compensation. The myth implies that Ima may have then assumed the dominant position in the area which was previously held by Lyumbi.
Following these origin myths, Ima oral traditions move into legends. Well-known all over the province are the legends of Ima Toeao’s son, Ima Kano. Ima Kano is a man caught between two ways of life and thus is at once the idiot, the trickster, the fool and the conservative. Although the sweet potato is said to have come to Kandep around Ima Kano’s time, Ima Kano is said to have eaten only taro. (There lives a man near Kandep station today who eats taro, but never sweet potato, and he is said to be like Ima Kano). Ima Kano is too primitive to observe the modern restrictions on sexual behavior and has sexual intercourse with his wife while her parents are there. Ima Kano is too stupid to realize that his net bag is not a person and cuts it up when it does not obey his orders. The tales of Ima Kano have undoubtedly been enjoyed and embellished by many story tellers over the generations. Although we cannot present all the Ima Kano legends, here we will include three of the most well-known. The first is a legend of Kano as a hunter and idiot:
Let me tell you some stories of the things that Kano did. He was an unpredictable man and somewhat of an idiot. Kano was a hunter. One day he went into the bush to hunt for possums. After he killed several possums, he put them into his net bag which he called Andae Nuu and said to the net bag,
“Will you take these possums home and roast them. Also check the pandanus trees on your way.” After saying these things, he went on his own way hunting. It began to rain and Kano got wet. When it began to really pour, Kano hurried home expecting that his net bag would have followed his orders and prepared a fire and food. He was looking forward to sitting by the fire and eating possum meat.
When he arrived home, there was no sign of his net bag, Andae Nuu. There was no smoke rising from the house, the fire had gone out, and it was cold and clammy inside the house. Kano stood in front of the house and called for his net bag. There was no answer. Kano looked around for the net bag and went back to where he had last seen it. There he found the net bag, the possums and the firewood. Kano asked the net bag what had happened and when it could not explain, he flew into a rage, picked up his axe, and chopped the bag and possums into pieces. Then he gathered up the bits and pieces and brought them home. He built a fire in his house and roasted the possums. When evening fell, he ate and went to sleep.
(Yalope Mainu of the Ima tribe, Kandep station)
There are other stories of Ima Kano as the trickster, particularly those telling how he seduced women. Trickster tales are common in the Kandep area and in parts of the province. The following is one of the several Ima Kano trickster legends:
On one occasion a sing-sing was held at Kandep. One woman who attended stood out from all the others because of her beauty and was wooed by all the men. Kano watched her carefully, but she took no notice of him whatsoever, so he made a plan to get her. That evening when the crowd dispersed, Kano went to the forest and killed an angata possum. He cleaned it carefully and collected the feces from the intestine and put them in his net bag for the night.
In the morning, Kano dressed himself as attractively as possible, picked up his net bag, and went to the dance. When evening fell, the crowd dispersed and people from distant places went to sleep in any house where they could find space. Kano was one of many who followed the woman to the house. While the other men were singing courtship songs to the girls, Kano just sat in the corner and watched. Just before dawn when everybody was tired, the beautiful woman slipped silently into the house and slept by the center house post. Kano, who had been watching her every movement, waited a few minutes to be sure that she was asleep and then went into the inner room where she was sleeping. Kano crept over to the woman and lay down with his face close to her buttocks. He quietly took out the possum’s feces, smeared his face with them, and then slept.
In the early morning, the girl’s mother woke up and went to make a fire. When she saw Kano’s face covered in feces she exclaimed,
“Somebody has excreted on Kano’s face! Who was the woman who slept here? She must have been the one who did it!” Everybody present was indignant at the girl and agreed that in recompense that she must marry him, so they gave the beautiful girl to Kano as his wife.
He took his wife home. On the way, he stood on the ridge top and enjoyed the view of the landscape. The clouds below were casting shadows on the landscape. He went down to see what lay below but then realized that the shapes he saw were only made by the mist and clouds. On the ridge top he met another man and asked him,
“Could you give me some of your clouds and I will give you some of mine in exchange.”
(Yalope Mainu of the Ima tribe, Kandep station)
The third legend once again portrays Kano as the fool. Note that in this legend, Ima Kano and his wife leave their usual home near the forest where they have been hunting possums and gathering pandanus and go to harvest taro in their gardens at her parent’s place in the Kaumba valley:
One day when Kano woke up in the morning, he went out into the forest and built a hut for roasting pandanus nuts. Then he went home, got his wife and child and brought them to the hut and roasted pandanus for them. While they were there his wife said,
“Let us go to Ima by the Kaumbi River and harvest taro. Let’s go tomorrow.”
The next morning, they left for Kano’s parent-in-law’s place near the Kaumbi River. This time, as always, Kano had sexual intercourse with his wife in the presence of his in-laws. His wife was very embarrassed and tried to think of some way to avoid this happening in the future. Then she had an idea. On the way home she picked a yumbi leaf near the Lai River and followed Kano up the river. When Kano had crossed the bridge and was on the other side, his wife stood on the bridge and called out to Kano. He looked up and she said,
“Kano, you keep bothering me, especially when you force me to have sexual intercourse with you in front of my relatives. Now you can just leave me alone because I am throwing the thing that you are so fond of into the river. With those words, she pulled the yumbi leaf and threw it into the river.
Kano, who was a sex maniac, thought that she was throwing away her vagina. He jumped into the river to retrieve the yumbi leaf but could not reach it. The leaf floated away ahead of him, carried by the current. He drifted downstream in the current but could not catch up with the leaf. His wife gave a sigh of relief and waited for her husband to return. Sometime later Kano reappeared, exhausted and out of breath.
They went home, and his wife was happy to be free of Kano’s constant desire for sex. They ate lots of pandanus and later that evening Kano’s wife grew very thirsty. Her thirst made her restless and she could not sleep, so she asked,
“Kano, could you go and fetch me some water? If you do, I will try to get back what I have thrown away.”
“Are you telling the truth?” Kano asked excitedly.
“Yes, I am,” she answered.
With that, Kano ripped down a rafter from the ceiling, split it into pieces, tied them together, and made a torch. He went outside and by torchlight diverted a small stream by digging a ditch straight into the house where his wife was sitting. His thirsty wife had all the water she could ask for.
“Now let me tell you this,” she said. “Don’t ever ask to have sexual intercourse with me again in the presence of my relatives, otherwise this thing that you are so fond of will run away again.”
“No, I will never do it again.” Kano said.
(Yalope Mainu of the Ima tribe, Kandep station)
In addition to being a legendary madman, according to Bishop Philipo Pyakai of the Ima Waili clan, Ima Kano was a man who brought many innovations to Kandep. He acquired the sweet potato in the Tari area and planted it at his place even though he himself wouldn’t eat it. He brought the earth worms on which pigs feed to Kandep and traded a kina shell to obtain certain arrows from the Mendi area. Thus, he represented both the innovator and the idiot, a man who seems to have been caught between two worlds in a time of change.
After the Ima Kano legends, Ima oral history moves to more factual accounts of major battles and marriages contracted in the time of Kano’s sons or grandsons which established ties between Ima and groups in the Lai valley such as the Depe tribe at Birip. These marriages both facilitated the flow of trade and allowed people from Ima to migrate to the Lai in times of frost. Historical traditions also tell of how small segments of Ima migrated to the south and southwest to create other temporary residences in times of frost.
From historical traditions, it was possible to determine that direct trade ties between groups near Kandep station and those in the Lai valley had existed for generations. Traders would either journey back and forth from Kandep to the Lai and vice versa or meet in the high country between the two regions for trade.
Alitipa
Compared with Ima, Alitipa has a very sparse oral history. Alitipa is said to have been born from a dog and a cassowary at Saui near Kandep station. We were unable to get any further information on Alitipa’s origin except for one brief legend that tells of conflict between Alitipa and Ima. From this legend, it is apparent that some ten generations ago Alitipa was settled near the swamps and was in possession of many pigs:
There was a man by the name of Alitipa who had many pigs. Another man named Ima Kano always stole his pigs and Alitipa grew tired of this.
One day, as usual, Ima Kano went to Kapiulu Alitipa’s place and stole one of his pigs. He took it home and slaughtered it. Just as he was removing the intestines and preparing to roast it, Alitipa came looking for it.
Knowing that Ima Kano had stolen this pig and others, Alitipa pierced Ima’s chest with his long thumbnail (it is said to be a Huli tradition to grow long thumbnails), directly in the heart.
Ima Kano died, and his sister came to mourn upon hearing of his death. She kept repeating to herself,
“I told you to stay close to Andae, I told you not to leave Kungu, but you did not listen.”
(Neme Yaku, Alitipa tribe, Saui, Kandep)
In another version of this legend told by Yama Lai of Alitipa, after Alitipa kills Ima Kano, he fled up into the forest beyond Kapusamanda to the foot of the cliffs. There he made a bridge of tai and kaipu trees, walked up it and disappeared into the clouds. It is said that if you go into the forest, you can see the site where Alitipa built his house and roasted pigs. When Alitipa disappeared into the clouds, he left one son behind named Mapipini. Mapipini in turn had four sons, Kapusa, Angu, Wapae and Komai, and a daughter Kekeme who married a Sikini man in the Lai valley. She returned home with her sons Teke and Keowane to settle in Kandep.
Like Ima, Alitipa has strong ties with groups in eastern parts of the province, particularly in the Saka valley where Alitipa families take refuge during times of frost. Fragments of Alitipa are also settled near Monokama in the upper Ambumu valley, at Kondaka near Nipa in S.H.P., and at Paepa near Mendi. All of these provided ties for alternate residences during times of frost.
Lyumbi
Lyumbi, like Alitipa, has a sparse oral history. Some Lyumbi elders state that a man named Mande was found nursing on a pig and later married and had a son named Lyumbi as well as two sisters who were the Matapangaita women stolen by Ima. Others attach a myth to Lyumbi’s origin. Note that this is a frequently told Enga myth, one version of which is also told as the Tatali origin myth:
A pig gave birth to Mande and Mande was brought up by the pig. When Mande grew up and was old enough to marry, he had trouble finding a wife because few people lived nearby. To assemble people he called out,
“Mande is dead!” and pretended to mourn over his own dead body. At first nobody came, but later a group of women arrived to mourn Mande’s death. When they gathered around him, he grabbed one whom he liked by the arm and the rest ran away. The woman begged for him to set her free, but he would not let her go. She changed herself into a snake, a stone, a tree or anything that she could think of in order to get away, but he held her fast. The woman finally turned herself back into a person and said,
“You are hurting me, release your grip. I promise I will not go.” Mande released her, she stayed and lived as husband and wife.
The woman gave birth to a son who they named Lyumbi. One day she said to her husband,
“I will bear children for you, make gardens and do other things as well, but I must warn you of one thing. Never call me the daughter of those things I changed into when you caught me.” He promised never to call her such names.
Sometime later, Mande returned to his house hungry. The baby was crying and no food was prepared. He got angry and yelled at his wife,
“You daughter of a pig, you daughter of a dog…” In doing this he broke his promise. He had said the words he had promised never to say. Leaving the child behind, the mother ran away and jumped into the Pakelema River. He ran after her and jumped into the river, but the current kept washing him ashore. He tried again and again but to no avail. For many years, he went down to the riverbank hoping that she would return, but she never did. She was gone forever. Feeling miserable, he went home. There he lived with his son Lyumbi. Lyumbi grew up and married a woman from the Yamape tribe, and their descendants make up the Lyumbi tribe.
(Yai Wakuma of the Lyumbi Koneyame clan, Kokasa)
Ima, Alitipa and Lyumbi Rituals for the Ancestors
Ima, Alitipa and Lyumbi each held its own celebrations of the Kepele ritual. The origin myth for Ima’s Aiamane ritual is one and the same as that given above for the origin of pigs and people. Ima, Alitipa and Lyumbi also held Sangai, bachelors’ cults, obtaining their sacred objects and spells from groups in the Lai and Saka valleys.
CLANS AND LOCATIONS
Ima Clans and locations
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Kuli | Nangulama | Kandep |
| Kalepa | Nangulama | Kandep |
| Tanga | Yangapengesa | Kandep |
| Yanali | Sakalosa/Pambai | Kandep |
| Nene | Sambakamanda | Kandep |
| Takapya | Kandep | |
| Waili | Kandep | |
| Kengeta | Tatalimanda | Kandep |
| Kepa | Kandep | |
| Aia | Kumbali | Kandep |
| Kamani | Pokatisa | Kandep |
Kengeta, Aia and Kamani were clans founded by Ima’s daughters. Kengeta married a Depe Kiotani man in the Lai valley. Aia married a man from the Mendi area and Kamani married a man from the Kamani tribe in Kandep. All three returned home with their sons to be the founders of Ima clans. Tanga married a Depe Waipalini woman from the Lai valley, and his son married a Sikini Lyonai woman from the Lai, giving the Tanga clan strong ties in eastern Enga.
Alitipa
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Komai | Patoli | Kandep |
| Wapae | Saui | Kandep |
| Teke | Eskalema | Kandep |
| Keoane | Lipala | Kandep |
| Angua | Mangeta | Kandep |
| Kapusa | Kokasa | Kandep |
Teke and Keoane are founded by Alitipa’s granddaughter who married a Sikini Lyonai man and returned to Kandep with her two sons, Teke and Keoane.
Lyumbi
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Maitaingi | Poketamanda | Kokasa (Kandep) |
| Koneyame | Kitipiso | Kokasa |
| Kimbupi | Kupae | Kokasa |
| Itaputini | Kumbulu | Kokasa |
| Yandape | Tengetae | Kokasa |
| Yakani | Malai | Kokasa |
Note: Itaputini, Yakani and Yandape clans were founded by Lyumbi’s daughters who married into other tribes and later returned to Lyumbi with their sons. Itaputini married an Itapuni man from near Wabag, Yakane a Yakane man from the Wabag/Lenge area and Yandape a man from the Wake area to the west.