Eastern Enga Overview

The Tsaka Valley

Inhabitants of the Tsaka, Minamba, and Lai Valleys are all Laeyapo dialect speakers. The fertile Tsaka valley lay at the center of early trade networks and served as a cradle of innovation throughout Enga history. We were fortunate to conduct research at a time when prominent elders were still alive and eager to pass on their knowledge of origin traditions and the development of the Yae Tee exchange cycle and ritual networks.

It appears that the first tribes settled in the Tsaka Valley were the descendants of Tsaka Pembe, the founding ancestors of Yambatane, Waimini, Pauakaka and Sikini. The legend of the gathering on Mt. Giluwe given in Chapter 2 outlines the relationship between Pembe’s descendants and groups from other areas who later dispersed with some migrating into the Tsaka Valley. These include six clans of Lyomoi who migrated from the Kaugel Valley to the Tsaka after Lyomoi married Pembe’s daughter Sangawana, to find six clans in the Tsaka. Offspring of his other wives remained in the Tambul area or moved to Mendi, bridging three linguistic groups.

Lyomoi’s migration to the Tsaka was followed by the influx of groups from the Southern Highlands, Ulidane, Gipini and Aiamane – linked through the marriage of one of Pembe’s granddaughters to a man from that region. After several generations, Aiamane, Ulidane and Gipini came into conflict with each other and other Tsaka tribes. Aiamane migrated north to the Kompiam area and founded one of the largest tribes in Kompiam today. A substantial segment of Ulidane returned to the Southern Highlands.

The tribes of Aluni and Itokone, who occupy the land between the Tsaka and Lai Valleys, also maintain strong cultural ties with the Kola-Tsaka cultural groups, although no widely accepted origin traditions link them to the Pembe line. As a nexus between regions and language groups, the Tsaka Valley became a focal point for cultural development.

The Minamba and Lower Lai Valleys

Just as there were numerous migrations into the Tsaka Valley from Tambul and Mendi, similar trends occurred in the Minamba Valley as reported in early historical traditions. Groups that migrated into the Minamba from the Kola area in the Western Highlands include the Pyapini, Yatapaki, Kumbi, Yoponda, Nenaini, Tokopetaini, and Maini.

Pyapini, who came from the Melpa region of the Western Highlands, was among the first to enter Minamba. They initially came to make salt at the Kopya salt pools, where they are said to have encountered a man from the Sambe tribe in the Lagaip Valley. They returned to their home and recruited members to join them and settle in the Minamba. Pyapini later gave their land to Nenaini, who migrated into Minamba in the eighth generation. Nenaini settled in the Yaramanda area, with some of their people later moving on to the Baiyer.

Yoponda joined their brother tribe two generations later, settling higher up the valley at Walya. Some Yatapaki and Kumbi groups remained at Yatamanda, while others continued into the Baiyer. None of the immigrant groups to Minamba penetrated the Wapenamanda area, most likely because of a pact between Yakumani and Waoni to keep out outsiders. The Minamba was a hotspot for conflict, sending many fragments of immigrant groups into the lower Lai Valley.

The mid-Lai Valley

The mid-Lai valley provided rich, agricultural land in the valley’s bottoms, land for pig forage on the valley slopes and high forested land for hunting and gathering in the upper reaches of clan land. Tribes on both sides of the Lai River were horticulturalists, cultivating taro, banana, sugarcane and other crops and raising pigs. Taro remained a staple for these tribes even after the arrival of the sweet potato.

The Wapenamanda area appears to have been populated by declining groups early on who welcomed three tribes from Mendi, the descendants of ‘Mandi Pupu’: Waoni, Yakumani and Kandowalini. Kandowalini fought with its brother tribe Yakumane and moved westward up the Lai valley to settle in the Yaibos area. Meanwhile, Waoni and Yakumani peacefully divided up the land in the Wapenamanda area and made a pact to defend it against intruders.

On the south side of the Lai River lived Aluni, Waiminakuni, Yoko and Itokone, who were closely linked to tribes of the Tsaka and Tambul and were active in the salt/stone axe trade.

On the north side lived Lungupini, Yandamani, Tinilapini, and Pumalini. These groups claim kinship links between their founding ancestors, although different versions of their genealogies connect these tribes in different ways. The most straightforward version holds that, that Lungupini, Tinilapini and Pumalini were ‘nephews’ of Yandamani. The related tribes of Lyongeni and Waingini lived across the river in the Pina-Akoma area.

Notably, the genealogies of north-side tribes are shorter than those of Tsaka and Tambul tribes, and their origin traditions are comparatively sparse. This suggests that they did not develop or preserve origin traditions uniting tribes to the same extent as their southern neighbors, though later historical events were transmitted. The relative paucity of origin traditions for north-side tribes was also noted in the work of R. Lacey in the 1970s.

In the early generations of historical traditions, Depe was a small group of people at Yopoposa at the headwaters of the Aiyele River. They grew by incorporating people of tribes from Kandep, the Tsaka Valley, and Sirunki. They also invited the Lyipini clans, who had left the Laiagam area after a dispute, to join them as a brother tribe. Having incorporated new members and allies, Depe expanded down into the Lai valley, taking the fertile land around Birip, and together with other Lai tribes, expelled Waingini, Tinilapini, Lyongeni, Pumalini and Aiamane from the Birip and Akoma areas to Kompiam where they are today.