Community Diversity and Unity in Witihama, Adonara1 R. H. Barnes (University of Oxford) Abstract For fourteen months in 2000-2001, I conducted research in the District of Witihama, east- ern Adonara. Witihama is a religiously mixed community, made up of Muslims and Catholics. However, both groups also practice blood sacrifice and carry out ceremonies required by adat. Muslims and Catholics are closely related by ties of marriage and descent. In the recent historical past, as well as in the ancient legendary past, the community has a remembered history of bloody warfare and murder, not linked to questions of modern religious allegiances, which provide incentives to take precautions to maintain community harmony and peace. Mindful of sectarian conflict elsewhere in Indonesia, Catholics and Muslims maintain close ties of cooperation and solidarity. On holidays like Christmas, Easter and Idul Fitri, for ex- ample, they hold community meetings to express mutual friendship. Members of the District have suffered from conflict elsewhere in Indonesia, for example during the fighting between Suku Batak and the ‘Flores people’ in 1999 in Batam, in the Moluccas and in the violence in Dili, East Timor. Refugees from these other conflicts came and went while I was there. There have been attempts at sectarian provocation in Witihama by people from elsewhere in the past, leading to their expulsion. There was an unexplained incident in which a hand grenade exploded in Witihama killing one child and injuring two others, causing considerable con- sternation within the community. Rumors of plans to bomb the Catholic church were taken seriously. Efforts to place East Timorese refugees in the Kabupaten of Flores Timur were strongly resisted on grounds of safety and local peace. Finally the national move toward regional autonomy led to Witihama becoming a separate Kecamatan and resulted in moves to turn Flores and Lembata into a separate Province. Introduction (Kecamatan Witihama), eastern Adonara.2 For fourteen months in 2000-2001, I con- Witihama contains a cluster of governmentally ducted research in the District of Witihama organized villages (desa), and its population numbers about 12,000 people. It is a religiously 1 This article is based on the paper presented at the panel on: ’How will Eastern Indonesia Maintain “Unity 2 in Diversity”? Responses to Religious-Ethnic Discord, The research was supported by grants from the Brit- Refugees and Regional Autonomy in East Indonesia’ at ish Academy, the Committee for South East Asian the 3rd International Symposium of the Journal Studies of the British Academy, and the Oppenheimer ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA: ‘Rebuilding Indonesia, a Fund. It was carried out under the auspices of the Indo- Nation of “Unity in Diversity”: Towards a Multicultural nesian Institute of Sciences. I am grateful for this Society’, Udayana University, Denpasar, Bali, 16–19 support and to Mentri Titus Puru Lamablawa and his July 2002. family and to the others who helped me in the field. ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA Special Volume, 2004 31 mixed community, made up of Muslims and sider clans, which incidentally are the most Catholics, who are closely related to each other numerous in terms of population, have lived by ties of marriage and descent. During the on Adonara for centuries and intermarried with period I was resident there, Indonesia contin- those who regard themselves as autochtho- ued to suffer sectarian conflict in areas such as nous. They have also acquired the local lan- Aceh and the Moluccas. From time to time I guage and culture and lost the languages and met people in eastern Adonara who had been cultures their original ancestors may have forced to return to their homeland in flight from brought with them. Witihama and adjacent dis- troubles in the Moluccas, East Timor, and Batam tricts, such as Hinga and Lama Bunga, are there- (where in 1999 there had been fighting between fore homogenous in language and culture, al- people from Sumatra and so called Flores though divided in terms of religion. people, which included all migrant laborers from Today Witihama is governed by an ap- Flores and the islands to the east as far as Alor). pointed Camat or District Head, but the village Several of these had lost all of their posses- heads are elected, except for the village of Wato sions and suffered threats to their lives after Ona, where a longstanding disagreement has years of living in the areas from which they prevented the election of a head. However, in were expelled. The community, therefore, had the past Witihama as a whole was ruled by a been indirectly affected by these difficulties Kepala Besar (Great Head), whose position was and was quite aware of the consequences that hereditary. Leadership was provided by a fam- would derive from a collapse of community ily in a lineage of the Lama Tokan clan. This solidarity. Furthermore, Witihama was fully lineage now calls itself Goran Tokan but was aware of its own conflict-riven past. Evidence formerly referred to as Seran Goran. According for past conflict comes not only from remem- to their tradition their ancestors originally lived bered history of actual or putative events. in the Moluccas. Myth and legends concerning the origins of the various clans are replete with similar de- Goran Tokan scriptions of violence. Apart from one small Haji Muktar Lebu Kelake Kei recounted the war in a region adjacent to Witihama on the story of his group for me. Once there were two south slope of the Boleng volcano, east brothers (he was uncertain which was the el- Adonara was, however, peaceful during my der and which the younger); one of them owned period there. a leader wire for attaching a fishhook to a fish- ing line. According to a version of the story Witihama recorded by Pater Stevanus Kopong Keda The villages of Witihama consist in a series Lamahoda, the leader (in his version a fishhook) of patrilineal clans linked by marriage. In fact belonged to the elder brother. The unusual the larger clans, such as Bahi and Lama Tokan, thing about this leader wire was that it was are actually alliances of otherwise unrelated made of gold. In any case, one of the brothers groups, and they are spread over a wide area borrowed it from the other to go fishing. He of Adonara. Individual clans have traditions of went out to sea in his sampan and let down his either being autochthonous or of deriving from line. Before long it was seized by a shark. The ancestors who came from elsewhere, usually line broke, and the shark took the hook together Sina Jawa (i.e, China Jawa, but actually mean- with the leader wire. The brother returned to ing the west), the Moluccas or Timor. The out- shore and told the owner that the leader and 32 ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA Special Volume, 2004 the hook broke and were taken by a fish. The Kelepak answered, ‘I have not yet tapped.’ owner did not take this news in good spirit. He ‘Who is it then?’ ‘Someone is sleeping in the said: ‘Return my leader wire and its hook, do temple.’ They surrounded the temple and asked, not substitute another.’ He wanted exactly the ‘Who are you? Why are you sleeping here? same leader in exactly the same condition it Why are you making so much noise, when our had been in when it had been borrowed. If it raja is sick.’ He answered, ‘Excuse me, I did was not returned in this fashion, he threatened not know. If I give him medicine, he will get that there would be war. well.’ They went up to the palace and told the The brother who had borrowed the leader elders: ‘There is someone in the temple who could not sleep that night worrying about the says he can cure the raja.’ They said, ‘It is consequences of the loss. Very early the next true, yesterday we heard that someone said he morning he went to sea in his sampan. He rec- could cure the raja, but we did not believe it. ognized the place where the loss had occurred Call him.’ They called him to the palace. and let down his anchor there. He thought, ‘My When he arrived, he said, ‘I can cure him, life is worth nothing, it is just as well I risk it but I must check him first.’ Everyone was gath- trying to get the leader back.’ He climbed down ered around the raja. [The raja, it turned out, the anchor rope to the bottom of the sea. There had the form of a shark.] The brother said to all he found a village. Near the village there was a of the men and women gathered around, ‘Ex- well. Lots of men and women were collecting cuse me, but you may not see my medicine, water from the well. He was surprised and please go outside first. If my medicine fits, I thought that perhaps they were having a feast. can cure him.’ When they left, he began to in- He asked, ‘Are you having a feast?’ The women spect the shark’s head, which was swollen up. answered, ‘We are not having a feast. Our raja He opened its mouth and saw the golden leader is sick. Everyone has gathered around, and we wire. He called the people to come back in and are hauling water in order to feed them.’ He told them that he had seen that the illness fit realized that this was not an ordinary village. his medicine. ‘I will go and collect my materi- He told them, ‘Maybe I can cure the raja with als.’ He went and gathered roots and leaves in my medicine.’ The women went back and told any old way.