Aluni and Waiminakuni
Aluni history, as remembered today, is a tantalizing one. The most told Aluni origin traditions give a simple and straightforward history – that the tribal founder Mangelonde was settled at Sambakamanda on top of the ridge between the Lai and Saka valleys. Mangelonde married and gave birth to Aluni. Aluni married two wives, one from the Yakumane tribe and one from the Waimini tribe. With his first wife he had Yakumau (also called Aluni), the founder of Aluni Yakumau, and with his second wife, he had Waiminakuni, the founder of Waiminakuni. This origin tradition is also cited in Waddell (1972), who studied Aluni agriculture, and Kee (1976), an Aluni who studied the history of his own tribe. The early oral history of the Yandamani and Waimini tribes of the Saka mentions close association with Aluni.
On first impression then, Aluni history is straightforward. However, in Aluni history there are other myths that are said to contain historical content, because their original meaning is no longer understood. The only Aluni man who seemed to have some understanding of their meaning, Kakoandalyo of the Kepeo clan, was too old to give coherent explanations.
These origin myths have two major themes. The first is an association between Mangelonde, the tribal founder, and a mythical snake that also represents groups to the west, namely the Bipi and Aimbatepa tribes of Kandep, the Potealini tribe of the upper Lai and Ambum valleys and the Depe tribe of Birip, amongst others. Most tribes associated with the snake trace their origins to higher altitude areas of Kandep and Sirunki and have strong hunting and gathering traditions in their oral history. The mention of the snake in Aluni oral traditions may refer to groups of people that came from the Kandep or Sirunki areas in the past and joined Aluni. This would not be surprising as most groups directly to the west of Aluni, on the south side of the Lai, also had origins or strong ties in Kandep and Sirunki, and hosted refugee groups from these areas in times of frost.
The second theme in Aluni legends is the rejection of ties with groups to the west, through time and orientation to the east. Before discussing this, let us first look at the origin myths themselves.
The first includes both themes:
From Sambakamanda, the snake went to Waimalemanda. From there, it went to Birip Lake. It left Birip Lake and came to Lenge and then went on to Lake Ipai at Sirunki.
The snake gave birth to Mangelonde. He lived at Sambakamanda. While he was there, two girls from the Kepeo clan came down from Birip. (The Kepeo clan is part of the Lyipini tribe that originally was at Sirunki and later migrated to Birip). They were dancing at the place you reach when you go down to Kumbakini. They were dancing naked. Mangelonde saw them and was insulted by their nakedness, so he whipped them.
“You mean man,” they yelled at him. “Stay here and work by yourself! We are leaving.” They left for Waimalemanda Lake where there are a lot of snake eggs. From there they went to Lake Birip.
There was a Kepeo woman at Birip when she met the two girls she asked, “From where did you come? I have heard that Mangelonde is dancing down there. I have been thinking of going down to see him.”
“We are going to Lenge to spend the night. From there we shall go to Apinae,” the girls answered.
The other woman pulled her grass skirts between her legs and went down to Kanamanda where the bridge is. Then she went up the ridge and came to the land of Maitipa. She made a fire and stayed there. It happened that Mangelonde came and had sexual intercourse with her. She gave birth to Aluni. Aluni had two wives, one from the Yakumane tribe and another from Waimini. With his Yakumani wife he had a son, Yakumau, (Aluni) and with his Waimini wife, another son, Waiminakuni.
(Kakaondalyo of the Aluni Kepe clan, Sambakamanda)
According to Kakaondalyo, at least part of the Aluni tribe was born from the snake who came down from Sirunki, in other words, from tribes of western origin. Mangelonde’s rejection of the two Kepeo women, and their reply: “Stay here and work by yourself!” may represent a refusal to accept more immigrants from the west, marriage ties being the key to immigration. Even when Mangelonde did father Aluni with the third Kepeo woman, the marriage was not legitimate and bridewealth was not paid. Since bridewealth was the beginning of exchange, this union did not create exchange ties between the two groups. The very same point is made in the Kepeo version of the legend (see Lyipini history). In this version, Lyipini Kepeo beats his sisters because they were behaving in a sexually provocative way. They run away to Sambakamanda on Aluni land where one of them gets pregnant and gives birth to Kepe. Kepe becomes wealthy, and Lyipini Kepeo laments driving away his sister and not making proper marriage arrangements to create exchange ties. Here again is the theme of Aluni’s rejection of ties with a group to the west.
Another Aluni origin legend mentions the snake as the first inhabitant of Aluni land and Mangelonde and his sister as coming later, presumably moving up from the Saka valley:
Before, all this land was grassland, and no one lived there. Only a snake lived at Kumaimanda and it used to go over to Wapenamanda to eat the honey from beehives. During the dry season, somebody set fire to the grass and cut down the vine that the snake used to cross the river. The snake was caught crawling on the vine and was thrown into the river along with the vine and washed away.
After that it happened that an unmarried girl and her brother Mangelonde came up from somewhere and lived on Aluni land. The girl wanted to become a mother of fertility. One day when her brother had gone to Mapamanda on Sikini tribal land to discuss an upcoming pig feast, the girl decided to go see her brother. While he was speaking in public, she arrived on the scene naked and embarrassed him. He took a stick and angrily threw it at the girl. It hit her and wounded her seriously. She fled in terror and on her way home dropped her net bag full of yams down the Aluni side of the land and her bag full of taro down the Waiminakuni side. To this day Aluni (Yakumau) are known for growing yams and Waiminakunis for growing taro. Then she turned into a sacred ancestral stone that brings good fortune to the tribe. Her brother married two wives, one from the Yakumani clan and another from the Waimini clan. He called his son from the Yakumani wife Aluni and his son from the Waimini wife Waiminakuni.
(Yaku Sukutasia of Aluni, Sambakamanda)
This origin myth has a similar theme to the other. Mangelonde’s sister arrives at a gathering on the land of the Sikini tribe to the west and behaves in a sexually provocative way. Mangelonde avoids possible marriage links to the west through his sister by driving her home. In staying home in the east, she becomes the ‘mother of fertility’, bringing prosperity to the tribe. Note also that in the beginning, the snake is on Aluni land and relations with groups to the east across the river are hostile, but with the removal of the snake and the coming of Mangelonde, Aluni marries a Yakumane wife and strengthens ties to the northeast.
Finally, in the Kepe clan of Aluni, there is another well-known origin myth of a different nature, but with similar themes:
“I (Kepe), have originated from a snake. This is the story. In Saianda, there were two girls who planted taro. When they were finished, one of them went to collect pandanus leaves to make a rain shield and discovered a nest with an egg in it. She put the egg in her mouth so that her hands would be free to climb down the tree and then swallowed it by mistake.
The two girls went home from the garden and while they were in the house, the girl who had swallowed the egg felt a strange sensation in her stomach. She told her sister that something was wrong with her stomach and that it was aching. Later the girl who complained of a stomachache gave birth to a son. The baby grew up to be a young boy who followed his mother and her sister everywhere. Often, they went to the garden to work while the boy played. On one occasion, he picked up a digging stick and tried to dig up a large taro. He tried many times but could not get it out for he was still only a small boy.
Later when it was time to harvest taro, the sisters went to the garden and dug up the tubers while the boy played at the garden’s edge. The taro which the boy had tried to dig up and considered to be his, had been eaten by taro beetles and gone bad, so they threw it away. After gathering the taro plants and roasting some of the tubers, they selected a large plant and set it aside for the little boy. The boy followed his mother and her sister home where they gave him the big taro.
“This is not my taro,” he said. “Where is mine?” He asked.
They told him what had happened, but the boy kept asking for his taro, the one that he had tried to dig up. The mother and her sister tried to comfort him by telling him that the one they gave him was exactly like his in size and shape, but he persisted. Finally, they became annoyed with him and went to sleep.
When they were asleep, the boy got up and found some fibers that belonged to his mother. He managed to twist them into string and then took one end of the string and tied it to the pillar of the house (house post). He held the other end of the string in his hand and left the house. Still holding on to the string, he went to Milikini and Naitamanda. There he took another string he had brought with him and tied it on the one he held in his hand. He went on his way and when he reached the end of the second piece of string, he tied another on to it and continued on. He was about to reach the top of the mountain when the string ran out. He tied on a third piece and continued.
The mother and sister woke up and realized that the boy was not in the house. They got up, found the string and followed it to Andama pond. As they drew near, they saw the boy going into the pond. The water was already up to his neck, and it was too late to rescue him. As he was drowning, he said:
“Mother, I cried for my taro, but you did not give it to me. Instead, you whipped me with a Mandi stick and lashed me with a Kanata branch.” With these words, he drowned in the pond.
The mother plunged into the water to save him, but the water engulfed her and she drowned. The mother became a lipame tree. The tree had two breasts and grew in the middle of the pond. I have seen it with my own eyes before it dried up and fell over. The other sister had sexual intercourse with a snake and gave birth to Kepe. It is not told where the sisters came from, but the snake lives in the pond.
The snake’s home is in the pond and sometimes the snake appears to people in the form of a man who leads us to fight. People from other clans jokingly say that the Kepe clan is descended from a snake. When our land is taken over by others in a tribal fight, the snakes flees to Waimalemanda on the land of the Depe Koepe clan. Then it goes to Birip Lake. From there, it goes to Kubalisa and Lake Ipai.”
(Peter Pingina of the Aluni Kepe clan, Sambakamanda)
In this origin myth, once again Aluni’s relation to the snake is mentioned. The meaning of the rest of the legend is no longer known amongst Aluni, but it appears that the boy in this legend is also the mythical snake, both from his disappearance into the pond and from the words he sung as he drowned, which are very similar to those sung by the snake in Potealini legends.
Thus, Aluni history appears to be one of dual origins – a central core of people in the Sambakamanda area joined by people with western origin, in the Sirunki or Kandep regions. Perhaps these migrants came as visiting kin during times of severe frost and remained, bringing with them the tradition of the snake. Claims of associations with the mythical snake are the strongest in the Aluni, the Kepe clan. In addition, the legends suggest that through time, western ties were discouraged in favor of stronger association with other groups to the east, perhaps with the growth and expansion of the Yae Tee exchange cycle from the Saka to tribes to the north.
The Separation of Aluni Clans
After the settlement of Mangelonde at Sambakamanda and the birth of his two sons, Aluni history tells of a fight between Waiminakuni and Yakumau (Aluni) which led to their separation:
This is how the tribal fight broke out between Yakumau and Waiminakuni. One day the two brothers built a new man’s house at Pokotisa and went out to collect sugarcane husks to put on the floor. When they brought them back to the house, they could not agree on how to divide up the house between them. Their disagreement escalated and they fought. Since that time, it happens that when there is a problem between them, they become bitter enemies and fight. But one might find that the next day the fight unexpectedly quiets down again, and they have become friends once more, licking each other with their tongues.
(Lato Tambaia of Aluni, Sambakamanda)
According to Kee (1976) after this initial split, Waiminakuni then moved to Mukuramanda, and Aluni remained at Sambakamanda. This was the beginning of generations of fighting between the two groups, interrupted by alliances between them when one or the other was threatened by a clan from another tribe. Waiminakuni and Aluni considered themselves too closely related to intermarry until approximately two generations ago.
Yoko
Long ago, the Yoko tribal founder Embe was settled at Embemanda near Sambakamanda. Yoko owned the land from the Sambakamanda ridge down to what is now Luia on Waimini land. This land was bordered by Waimini land to the south and Aluni land to the north. The following is the story of how Yoko was displaced from its land and came to live near Mukuranmanda:
Waimini came and settled at Polosa and Asa and then went up to Kungumanda. From there Waimini saw Yoko working on the land and said to him, “I am living on grassy land. Would you give me a plot of your land to cultivate?”
Yoko gave him a plot of land called Ipamasa and two Waimini men, who were born from Aluni mothers, came and worked their new land. They were father and son. At this time, Waimini was engaged in conflict with Yakumane and asked Yoko to kill the Waimini men and bury them. Yoko came and killed the two men with a pole used to support sugarcane, dumped their bodies in a ditch and buried them. As a result, a fight broke out between Yoko and Waimini and Yoko fled to Yakumane land. Yakumane gave him land which he then called Kumbasakama in memory of Kumbasakama at Kuia.
Since the two murdered men had Aluni mothers, Aluni fought alongside Waimini and together they took over Yoko’s old land. After Yoko had been driven out, Waimini claimed the land on one side of Ikiale creek and Aluni the land on the other side, claiming it as compensation.
Not long after, Yakumane drove Yoko off his land at Kumbasakama because he claimed that Yoko was raping women. Yoko fled to Wanepayokosa. Later Yoko was driven on to Mukuramanda where they are today.
(Compiled from information given by Pepea Kana and Tiambo Dita of Waimini and Kumbu Mauane of Yoko)
In summary, Aluni and Yoko were originally settled in the area between the Saka and Lai valleys. Legends from the Aluni Kepe clan indicate that Aluni at Sambakamanda were joined by people from the Sirunki or Kandepe areas early in their oral history. Squeezed between the large tribes of the Saka to the south and those of the Wapenemanda area to the north, Aluni and Yoko lost land to surrounding tribes and remained small. Nonetheless, they were wealthy and played a very important role in the Yae Tee exchange network.
members interviewed
Aluni and Yoko
- Kumbu Mauane and Tiambo Dita of the Yoko clan, Mukuramanda;
- Joseph Kambao and Teke of the Aluni Waiminakuni tribe Tatomanda,
- Mose Kia, Peter Pingina, Yaku Sukutasia, Lato Tambasia, Wailyo Kai, Maki and Kakondalyo of the Aluni tribe, Sambakamanda.
CLANS AND LOCATIONS
Aluni
| Clan | Location |
|---|---|
| Aluni | Sambakamanda |
| Yoko | Mukuramanda |
| Waiminakuni | Mukurumanda |
Sons of Mangelonde
- Aluni
Sons of Aluni
- Yakumau (Aluni)
- Waiminakuni
Sons of Yakumau
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Limalima | Sambakamanda | Pumakosa |