There is a legend from long ago describing a gathering on the slopes of Mt. Giluwe (Kiumanda) in the Kola area including the founding father of Tsaka valley groups. Before their departure, people gathered on a plateau on the eastern side of the mountain where the cleared land ends and the forest begins (approx. 2600m). There they roasted sweet potatoes, pork, and many other kinds of foods. They unearthed some of the oven pits, feasted on the contents, and left others unopened.
After they held their feast, they were said to have left in pairs, each setting off in different directions: the Tsaka valley, southeastern Kandep, Mendi and parts of Western Highlands Province. Just before they left, they either chose or were given different kinds of crops to take with them. Some people say that evidence of their feast can be seen today in the remaining dog, pig, and human skeletons as well as in the unopened earth ovens.
This historical tradition was told to us in 1986 by Katimbi Tumuanga of the Yanuni tribe in Tambul, a very important figure in organizing the Yae Tee exchange network who had an excellent overview of surrounding areas. The legend does not tell why people gathered at that spot, why some of the ovens were never opened, nor why the people departed for other areas. The central point of the legend seems to be to establish unity between the people in the Kola area (northeastern side of Mt. Giluwe) and those of immediately surrounding areas. As Katimbi pointed out, people in Tambul and surrounding areas were more unified in the past, as reflected in the fact that many people in the Tsaka valley, Kaugel valley, northern Mendi and southeastern Kandep areas today are still bilingual in the languages of their respective areas. Today these people still feel strong ties with Mt. Giluwe and claim that in the past, many cultural traditions originated there and subsequently spread outwardly.
The Mt Giluwe legend goes on to tell of the founders of tribes now settled in Tambul and the Tsaka valley who left the gathering at Mt. Giluwe:
From the slopes of Mt. Giluwe, one young man named Kiualumuita and his sister set off in the direction of Tambul. The young woman is said to have chosen the “heavy” foods while others who left for the Tsaka, Mendi and parts of western Highlands Province chose the “lighter” foods. The girl chose mapu planaki (a variety of sweet potato), anga mendema (wild pandanus), kalea lopya (a variety of sugar cane that can be grown in high altitudes), mina potombele and mandakapo sisimi (two kinds of pitpit grasses) and kaingapa enemi and mandakapo sisimi (greens).
After the feast and distribution of crops, the young man and woman went to my area in Kola. The young woman remained at Tapu and her brother continued to the northwest, taking the Lakale route. He passed through Lamandaimanda and went on to Lakale. When he arrived at the mouth of the Tale River, he built a house and settled there. Later, he moved down to Alumanda taking the Sumbu route and made his home there. He married and had a son named Pembe. Pembe was the founding father of many Tsaka tribes including Yambatane, Pauakaka, and Waimini.
Meanwhile in Tambul, Kuialumuita’s sister went to a place called Wapako to collect elyoko branches to make twine for weaving a net bag. She found a bird’s nest in a kanamai elyoko tree, climbed the tree, and found an egg in the nest. Because she could not climb down the tree with the egg in her hands, she put it in her mouth. As she climbed down, she accidentally bumped her jaw against a branch, the egg broke, and she swallowed it. She returned home, conceived, and gave birth to a son.
One day when the young woman was in her garden weeding with her child where the Kalu Bridge is today, an eagle swooped down and brought cuscus and kumbingi birds to her. He flew away and slept at Wapokosa. Another time it caught and brought her snakes, and from the meat of these animals, she fed her child. Some time passed and the eagle brought her a snake which she swallowed whole, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a second son, the father of whom was the snake. The eagle named his son Yanuni, and the snake named his child, Kisane. Today Kisane lives at the eagle’s home, Wapokosa, and Yanuni at the snake’s home, Pakapuanda. Today Kisane and Yanuni fear and respect the kalapu snake which lives there.
Much later, in the fifth or sixth generation, there was a fight over fire tongs between Yanuni and Kisane during a ritual for the ancestors. It ended with the sub-clans of Yapu and Kasimu from Yanuni leaving Kola and settling at Sangutapa in the Tsaka. Others migrated to the Mendi area.
(Katimbi Tumuanga, Yanuni Kasimu clan of Pakapuanda (Tambul))
The Separation of Pembe’s Sons
In the Tsaka valley, this legend is no longer generally known, and most of Pembe’s descendants in the Tsaka only say that they heard that their founding father came from or was associated with the Kola area. According to Tsaka traditions, Pembe first settled at Kukune where the Yambatane ceremonial grounds are currently located and then moved to Alumanda. With his first wife, he had Waimini, Pauakaka, and Yambatane and a daughter who married Lyomoi from Tambul. With a second wife from the Mai Enga region to the west, he had Sikini. Some deny that Sikini was a son of Pembe and Sikini does not play a role in early legends of Pembe’s sons (see Sikini origins).
The tribes founded by Pembe’s sons remained centered in the Tsaka, although legends tell of their separation into independent groups. The following legend tells of a quarrel among Pembe’s sons which led to their dispersal within the Tsaka:
Pembe lived with his three sons Waimini, Pauakaka and Yambatane at Alumanda. One afternoon they decided to build a new house, so Pembe told his sons to go out and chop poles for the house frame. The three brothers went off to the bush. Waimini and Pauakaka got two long poles and carried them home, leaving their younger brother alone in the bush. Meanwhile, poor Yambatane had chopped down a large tree, stripped it to a pole, and tied a rope around one end to drag it home. It was so long and heavy that he couldn’t manage to drag it home alone and so by dusk he was still struggling with it far from the house. He decided to sleep in the bush and try again the next morning.
When Pembe heard that his older sons had returned without his younger son, he was very worried and asked them where they had left him. They replied that they did not know where their younger brother was. Pembe was so worried that he could not sleep that night and early the next morning, he and his two older sons set out to find Yambatane. When they found him, he was still struggling with the pole, so they helped him drag it home. When they completed the house, there was wood leftover from Yambatane but none from Pauakaka and Waimini, so they did not have enough to build a second house, and all lived in the same one. Pembe was annoyed that his elder sons had not cooperated with his younger son, so he threw them out of the house. Waimini went to Katapitimanda and Pauakaka to Yalesamanda.
Even though they lived away from home, Waimini and Pauakaka did not make their own gardens, but just dressed and slept in their own houses and went to the house of their father and younger brother to eat whatever had been prepared. When Yambatane grew up, he was tired of seeing his lazy brothers hanging around and decided to drive them further away. He drove Waimini out to Yakatumanda and Pauakaka to Topokanda, remaining alone in the central Tsaka.
(Yambone Itioko of the Yambatane Yana clan, Poketamanda (Laialama))
That is the Yambatane side of the story. A Waimini legend gives a different version, but with a similar outcome. Waimini clansmen also talk of conflict between Yambatane and Waimini, but portray Waimini as being a stubborn and conceited (bikhet) rather than lazy and wanting to take all the land for himself since he was the eldest son:
Pembe’s three sons lived together at Alumanda, but Waimini thought that he was more important than the others because he was the eldest son in the family and acted conceitedly towards the other sons. He also decided that he wanted all the land for himself, so in the end the others drove him away.
It happened like this. One day Waimini complained that Waimini men were the only ones building the Tale Bridge and that no Yambatane men were helping. Even though he complained, Yambatane men did not come to help, so that when Waimini men were finished, they put a “tambu” sign on the bridge indicating that it was closed to Yambatane. Then they watched very carefully to make sure that Yambatane were not using the bridge.
When the Yambatane saw the “tambu” signs, they decided to cross the Yale River at another place and so made a pathway right through the middle of Waimini gardens. This made the Waimini men angry and a fight broke out after which Yambatane and Waimini separated and Waimini moved to Angutumanda and Menaimanda.
(Councillor Inu Lai of the Waimini Nene clan of Kwia)
The meaning of the legends is clear – as the tribes of Yambatane, Waimini and Pauakaka grew, they became too large to cooperate effectively, fought over land and dispersed establishing their own identities. The fighting between Waimini and Yambatane, which began so long ago, continued when Europeans arrived in the area, and Waimini was pushed out of their original land to the north side of the Wagime River. A tribal fight over a bird trap within Waimini in the seventh generation drove out the Waimini Inapini clan to near Winikosa in the Kompiam district where it is a large tribe today.
In approximately the third to fourth generation, serious internal warfare broke out between two branches of the tribe, Kungu and Tsaka, and the descendants of the Kungu Nene clan moved into the Kwia area.
Relations between Yambatane Pauakaka were more peaceful than those with Waimini, however, one serious fight is mentioned that led to loss of land. It occurred between the fifth and seventh generations when Yambatane and Pauakaka had a quarrel over land and a Yambatane man visiting Epelesa was killed by Pauakaka men. A fight broke out in which Yambatane drove some Pauakaka clans off to the Yumbetesa area, while others who had not become involved in the conflict remained at Epalesa (Konainanda). In the fifth generation, Yambatane chased several clans from its “brother” tribe Sikini out of the Tsaka into the Lai for what were apparently political reasons (see Sikini origins). Fights such as those between Yambatane and Waimini, Pauakaka and Sikini served to spread Pembe’s sons out in the Tsaka, leaving Yambatane in the central position at Tsaka Laiagam.
After the dispersal of Pembe’s sons into their current tribal groupings, there is a well-known Yambatane legend which links Yambatane Mama clans with the beginning of the Yae Tee ceremonial exchange cycle:
Yambatane had two sons, Mama and Lyoangi. Mama in turn had four sons, Punanga, Tombe, Pyoale, Kitalini and one daughter Kuame. One day an old woman who lived with them asked them to go out and collect saunana caterpillars that live on tree leaves. After they had collected them, each of the boys ate one and then brought the remaining caterpillars to the old woman. She was annoyed with them for having eaten some of them and so her ill feelings spread yama, a sickness transmitted by bad thoughts, to the boys and it killed them. The only one who survived was the youngest of the brothers, Kitalini, and his sister Kuame took care of him until he grew up. Then she married an Itokone man.
One day when Kitalini was a young man, there was a sing-sing held by the Yandamani clan, so Kitalini dressed up and went to it. While he was dancing, three young women joined him, one a Usine woman, another a Yandamane woman and the third a Yanana woman. They danced throughout the day and late that afternoon, he brought the three women home and married them. His Usine wife named her son Winau, his Yandamane wife named her son Yandamau, and his Yanana wife named her son Yana. One of his wives later had a second son named after his grandfather, Mama.
(Yombone Itioko, Yambatane Yana clan, Poketamanda)
In another much more elaborate version of this legend told by Saiakali of the Winau clan, Kitalini through his three marriages channels bride wealth and exchange gifts down the trade routes in such a way as to begin the Yae Tee ceremonial exchange cycle. The marriage of his sister Kuame to Itokone also created an important major link for the Yae Cycle.
In summary, the oral history of Yambatane, Waimini and Pauakaka is one of the growth, division, fighting and redistribution of the groups through time, beginning in the Kola area. The border between Enga and Western Highlands Province today makes an artificial separation between the Tsaka and Kola areas. Historically, Tsaka residents were more closely tied to the Kola area than to adjacent parts of Enga, their western boundary falling at the limits of the valley and their northern one at the Lai River.
members interviewed
Yambatane:
- Saiakali Yaki Watenge, Lai Saiakali and Lakalyo Kupakali of the Yambatane Winau clan, Kukuma (Laiagama);
- Yombone Itioko and Walopa Kolia of the Yana clan, Poketamanda;
- Lipu Tapoko of Yambatane, Laialama and Liangao Naeangakali of Yambatane, Pumakosa;
- Telepa Injo, Atai Nalenge and Mapu Itapi of the Yambatane Neala clan, Kendolimanda.
Pauakaka:
- Pingina Yalyanda, Leo Ketambo, Pawa Apalane and Apalane Talyokone of Pauakaka, Yumbitesa.
Waimini:
- Inu Lai, Kuwito Lama and Puu of the Waimini Nene clan, Kwia;
- Tama Kepa, Lyandao Kepa and Kolambao Kepa of the Waimini Kombakini clan, Londo;
- Buakao Itioko of the Waimini Indapakini clan, Aiakosa;
- Makao Auti of Waimini.
Yanuni:
- Katimbi Tumuanga and Pota Maka of the Yanuni Kasimu clan, Pakapuanda (Tambul).
CLANS AND LOCATIONS
Yambatane
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Yana | Poketamanda | Poketamanda/Laialama |
| Mana | Kaingapamanda | Pumakosa |
| Winau | Pumakosa | Pumakosa |
| Yandemau | Kembemanda | Pumakosa/Laialama |
| Pange | Kendolimanda | Alumanda |
| Neala | Kendolimanda | Alumanda |
| Poeo | Yokotesa | Anjomanda/Waimba |
| Kumbaia | Yokotesa | Anjomanda/Waimba |
Pauakaka
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Lyomatakini | Sapudisa and | Yumbitesa and |
| Konainanda | Laialama | |
| Paimakuni | Maikomanda and | Yumbitesa and |
| Konainanda | Laialama | |
| Milyakini | Yumbitesa and | Yumbitesa and |
| Konainanda | Laialama | |
| Penale | Lapamatesa | Yumbitesa |
| Walupu | Pitipasa | Yumbitesa |
| Yakaemandane | Konainanda | Laialama |
Waimini
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Nene | Kwia | Kwia |
| Malalya | Angutamanda | Kwia |
| Koelelya | Angutamanda | Kwia |
| Indapakini | Aiokosa | Kwia/Imangaposa |
| Kupakini | Lanemanda | Kwia |
| Lyokendakini | Lanemanda | Kwia |
| Kyoatakini | Londo | Laiagama |
| Kombanekini | Ipamale | Laiagama |