Timitopa and Yamape origin traditions begin at Taisandaka near Bioko between the Lai and Wage rivers near the border with S.H.P. Some say that two men, Yama and Timitopa, were born from a kaipu or tato tree, while others trace their origins further to the west with the Huli-Opene myth. At Taisandaka, the two “brothers” lived under strained relations, and neither was allowed to touch the property of the other nor to trespass on his land. Timitopa had the land to the east of Bioko that extended into the Kaumbo valley. There it had contact with other groups to its east such as Aimbatepa and Kambitipa. Yamape’s land was further to the west in very high country of 2440m to 2600 in altitude, interrupted by pocket valleys. There is little in their oral history that tells of the lifestyle of Timitopa and Yamape tribal founders, but due to the high altitude of their land, it appears that they depended heavily on hunting and gathering, supplementing their diet with agriculture before the arrival of the sweet potato in the mid-1600s.
Timitopa and Yamape oral history begins with a gruesome tale:
This legend is from the Wage side of Kandep. Yama and Timitopa were born at Taisandaka in the Bioko area, where the two families lived. Timitopa had ten sons, while Yama had several sons, one of whom turned into a cannibal. One day Timitopa’s first born son went hunting around Taisandaka and did not return home in the evening. The next morning, his family was worried about him and so the second born son set out to find his brother.
When he did not come home, the third born son set out in the direction that his two brothers had taken. When he did not return, the fourth born son went out looking for them and did not return. The next four brothers went out one by one to look for them, but they also did not return.The youngest brother wondered what had happened to the others and grew so worried that he decided to set out to find them by himself. To prepare for the journey, he slaughtered a white-haired pig and roasted it. He took a net bag and filled it with pork, carefully wrapping the stomach in leaves and putting it in the bag. Then he set off on his perilous journey.
Before long he came across the footprints of his brothers. He followed their track until he reached Laiandaka at the end of the forest. He came out into the Biaka bush and grasslands. There at the forest edge, he saw a very old woman sitting by the path. Her frail body was no more than a skeleton, her skin was pale, dry and wrinkled, and her eyelids drooped from age. She appeared to be hovering between life and death. When he took a closer look, he noticed that she had been trampled by passers-by. Near where she sat was a broken-down shack open to the weather on all sides. She had defecated in one spot near the shack, and the area was swarming with flies. Her body was covered with feces. She was simply too old to look after herself.
The youngest brother was so moved by this pitiful sight that he just stood there, almost forgetting the purpose of his trip. Then he approached the old woman and asked, “My grandmother, I have come this way looking for my brothers. They went in search of my eldest brother who went out hunting and did not come home.” He then explained how his first brother had gone hunting and had not returned and how the others went out looking for him and did not come home. “I am the youngest of ten and am very worried about what might have happened to my brothers, so I have come looking for them. By any chance have you seen them go by?”
“Yes, I saw them pass by,” the old woman replied. “They did not stop to greet me but were a rough bunch of young men. They grabbed me around the neck, stepped on me, slapped my face and urinated on me. I thought that I would not live through it. You are the only one who greeted me and enquired about your missing brothers.”
“I am very sorry to hear that,” the boy answered. He did not have to ask if there was anything that he could do to make up for what his brothers had done; her needs were all too clear. “Grandmother, I can see that you are in a miserable situation here by yourself. Your house is in shambles you have little to eat, and your body is covered with your own waste.” With that he drew his axe from his belt and set about building a new hut for her. He cleaned her up, built a fire in the hut, and gave her the pork he had brought for his brothers.
The frail old woman was overcome with joy and tried to think of ways in which she might repay him. “Do not worry,” she said, “I will help you avenge the death of your brothers.”
The young man waited anxiously to find out what she would do. “Did she possess some magic that would allow him to take revenge against the men who had killed his brothers? What could such an old woman possibly do?” He wondered.
The old woman took the young man outside the hut and said, “Do you see that tato tree over there? Well, the cannibal Yama lives in a hollow up in the tree. It is he who devoured your brothers. Can you see all the jaw bones hanging from that branch? Well, those are the jaw bones of your brothers.”
(I have told you earlier that Yama and Timitopa were brothers. Well, Yama turned into a cannibal and ate the nine sons of Timitopa)
The old woman then turned to the boy and told him of a plot to kill Yama. She took a stone that she had kept hidden away in her shack, built a fire and heated the stone until it was glowing hot. Together they wrapped the stone in the fatty meat that the youngest brother had brought with him and bound it with leaves. They fastened the bundle to a forked stick with amapu vines and made sure that it was securely attached.
When this was done, the old woman gave the boy careful instructions. “Take the stick with the stone fastened onto it to the foot of the tato tree and climb the rope ladder swiftly. You must not make a sound. When you reach the top, Yama will stick out his head from the big hollow in the tree. His eyes will be red like two balls of fire, and his tongue will flicker like that of a snake. It will be a ghastly sight, and you will be terrified. That is the ugly beast who ate up your brothers. If you want to avenge their deaths, cram the hot stone down the mouth of the creature and make sure that he swallows it. He should be eager to eat it, since he will think that it is human flesh that he relishes so much.”
The young man did as the woman said, and the creature swallowed the stone. The boy then poured water into the beast’s mouth, and the hot steam rose up and burned the stomach, throat, and mouth of the cannibal creature. The pain was unbearable, and the creature emerged from its hole in the form of a snake. It went into convulsions, uprooting trees and crushing everything in its path. Slowly though, its heart was being cooked by the steam, so it dragged itself to the site where he used to hold the Tondaka ritual. It rested its head at Pauandaka, took one last breath, and died.
The place where the snake came to rest was by a river called the Sasa that flowed between the Wage and Andabare rivers. The Sasa flows underground for some distance and comes out at a place called Kati, where helicopters land today. From there, the river flows underground again until it surfaces near Paipai Tepetepe. That was where the brother of Itame hid a sharp stone in the bark of the matopa tree in the Kuli-Opone myth (see section on general origin myths). When they used to roast food during the Tondaka ritual, the smoke from the fire surfaced here after going through the underground passages.
The cannibal was a descendant of Yama and had he eaten the last brother, there would be no Timitopa tribe today. The young man was named Noa Pondota which in Huli means ‘the one who was not eaten’. The old woman was from the Yalipuni tribe, and her name was Longalya Puu. The last places where the snake crawled before he died all have significance in the Tondaka ritual – the Biaka bush and grassland, the trail he took and the matopa tree where Itame’s vagina was formed – were all within the grounds for the Tondaka ritual. While rules for other rituals were flexible, those for the Tondaka were not. Even men who participated in the Tondaka in the past will not tell their sons about what happened during this ritual – even today, they will tell nobody. It was strictly forbidden to even look in the direction of the Tondaka site and those who did became deformed.
(Papo Walipa of the Timitopa tribe, Titipa, Kandep)
The above myth is the myth for the origin of the Tondaka (Dindi Gamu) ritual, a complex of highly elaborate and extremely secretive rituals that seems to have cross-cut three language groups – the Duguba, the Huli and the Enga, with only one major site in Enga, the Tondaka site, and one smaller branch at Tipinini near Porgera and perhaps one at Lyeimi north of Porgera near the border with East Sepik Province. The ritual held at Tondaka site was attended only by male members of Yamape clans, both those in fourteen or more Yamape clans plus Yamape men who had married out into other tribes. Unlike most other rituals, which were directed at placating the ancestors and achieving balance, harmony and fertility, the Tondaka not only involved fertility but also prediction concerning the welfare of groups, warfare and widespread environmental disasters such as frost or flood. Representatives from tribes in Porgera, the Lagaip and the rest of Kandep came to hear the predictions of the Tondaka ritual experts when they emerged from the ceremonies and brought the news back to their respective tribes.
Although the Tondaka had ritual influence in Enga, there appears to be no association between the mythical Molopai python mentioned in this myth and the Molopai in the histories of other Enga groups such as Bipi and Kuu, Aimbatepa, Maulu, Pyaini Potealini, Depe, Tiani and others. In the Yamape case, the cannibal who can turn himself into a snake represents evil and destruction. The ritual is held to commemorate the slaying of the beast. In contrast, the Molopai of other Enga groups is shy, benevolent, and harmless and serves as a totemic protector of the tribe, provided that the appropriate rituals are held.
The Yamape-Timitopa myth is an origin myth for the Tondaka ritual and thus may not have any historical basis. However, Timitopa elders interviewed did say that a real conflict between Yamape and Timitopa did occur as suggested in the legend. It is said that Timitopa and Yamape have been enemies since this time and for this reason Yamape will never see the land near Tilya in the Kaumbo valley that belongs to Timitopa and Maulu. Whether or not the conflict was over this land is not known. That Timitopa was depleted from this fight during the early generations of their historical traditions can be seen in their genealogy – a high percentage of the clans and sub-clans are founded by Timitopa’s daughters who brought their husbands and relatives to their places to recruit more men in the tribe.
The next event mentioned in Yamape history is the Atone-Katinja fight, the Atone including the people living to the east of the Kaumbo and Lai rivers and the Katinja, those to the west. Atone people were characterized by their bark belts and Katinja by rope belts. The major tribes involved were Aimbatepa (Atone) assisted by Maulu and Yamape (Katinja) assisted by Yalipuni, although others joined as allies. The legend of this fight, which is said to have started with Aimbatepa and Yamape boys quarreling over a bow long ago, is given in Aimbatepa history. The outcome of the fight was that the Atone tribes held back the Katinja, but that the fight was a costly one and, in the end, Aimbatepa had to give its land in the Kaumbo valley to Maulu as compensation for Maulu men killed and property destroyed. Aimbatepa then moved eastward to settle in their former hunting grounds near Lakalapa. Timitopa did not become seriously involved in this fight.
We could not obtain further information on Yamape history. Yamape elders in general were hesitant to talk because they feared that others who saw them talking to us would think that they were revealing the secrets of the Tondaka, a revelation that would lead to the end of the world. Such a fear was also mentioned by informants to Meggitt (1959) on his trip into the Yamape area in 1956: “The Karintsu (here he is largely referring to Yamape) have had little to do with whites… Karintsu statements also indicate that an important reason why they do not welcome the whites’ arrival is that they fear interference with ritual life – even though this appears to be much less elaborate than among the Waka.” (Meggitt 1957:124). In Meggitt’s case, the patrol passed through the area without even being told of the existence of the Tondaka.
Throughout their historical traditions, Yamape and Timitopa formed the border groups between the Enga and Huli, speaking Enga, Huli and Wola, a language of the Mendi-Wola region. Their central position between the Enga of the Lagaip and Kandep and the Huli and western Mendi (Wola) and the western Mendi/Wola made them important middlemen in the trade.
members interviewed
Timitopa and Yamape
- Papo Walipa, Pakiti Pyatasa and Kandaso Napu, Katadailya of Aiamane
- Taimu Goteandaka and Kombea Lenge of the Timitopa Lanjepa clan, Titipa
- Itai Yakawane of the Timitopa Taia clan, Potokale
- Sakatisa Piua, Maso Sakapa of Timitopa, Titipa
- Kepasa Yama of Timitopa, Kandep
- Alingi Penge of Yamape, Wau, Kandep
- Lakai Kaipale of Yamape, Kandep
- Yapa Kumbano and Taiu Misakani of the Yamape Tatame clan, Mambala
- Robin Tia of Yamape Nanage, Mambala.
CLANS AND LOCATIONS
Timitopa and Yamape
Sons of Tato tree, Kaipu tree or Opene
(according to different origin myths)
• Yama
• Timange
• Mangane
Sons of Timange (Timitopa)
• Nine sons eaten by Yama
• Noa Pondota
Sons of Noa Pondota
• Aene
Sons of Aene
• Lua
• Tuingi
Sons of Lua
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Tokeala | Pakaita | Potokale |
Children of Tuingi
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Taia | Angalolya | Titipa/Potokale |
| Pamo | Kuiakale | Titipa/Potokale |
| Maulu | Taulya | Titipa |
| Amango | Yangalu | Titipa |
| Saia (f) | Tao | Titipa |
| Luname (f) | Wao | Titipa |
Children of Mangane
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Ombea | South west of Titipa near S.H.P. | Pelyapea |
| Utuma | Andakoea | Pelyapea |
| Wapeleme (f) | Taisandaka | Pelyapea |
| Sakilya | Tekema | Pelyapea |
| Maitange | Ketati | Pelyapea |
| Belua (f) | Matopaipaka | Titipa |
| Lanjepa | Titipa |
Sai married Wao; Lunami married Kaeali, a Huli man; Belua married a Monaini man and Wapeleme married a Lungane (S.H.P.) man. In all four cases, the husbands settled in their wives’ places.
There are 13 generations in Timitopa genealogy.
Timitopa is a large tribe with many clans and sub-clans. We were not able to obtain complete agreement on this genealogy.
CLANS AND LOCATIONS
Yamape
Because Yamape is such a large and dispersed tribe, we were unable to get informants to agree on a Yamape genealogy. The following is a tentative list of clans descended from Yamape, although we could not obtain complete agreement on this nor did we go to the Bioko/Margarima area to further check this list.
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Kae | Bioko | Titipa/Margarima |
| Balu | Kunduli | Titipa/Margarima |
| Sakape | Lumbipaka | Titipa |
| Nanange | Mambala and Bioko | Titipa/Margarima |
| Waimbia | Bioko | |
| Maitange | Bioko | |
| Sambailya | Lumbipaka | Titipa |
| Kokati | Laguni | Titipa/Margarima |
| Pandi | Bioko (half at Bioko, half in S.H.P.) |
In addition to the above, we were given another 10 Yamape clans across the border in S.H.P. – Kona, Tilia, Hendea, Himulae, Wangailya, Lanake, Pali, Tombe and Tataka.
We identified 12 generations in Yamape genealogies.