An oasis of peace

The National Weekender

By KEVIN PAMBA
MUCH social research and commentary has been accorded to tribal fights in parts of the Highlands as highlighted in last week’s article. The media has also given wide coverage to the traditional retributive recourse.
Conversely, little is known about parts of the Highlands where tribal fighting has not occurred since it was banned by the Australian colonial administration.
Today’s article is about one group of people in the eastern part of Southern Highlands Province (SHP) who discarded tribal warfare after the first contact with the pioneer Kiaps (Australian government patrol officers) and Christian missionaries over 60 years ago.
The people of the greater Ialibu region took heed of the counsel of the kiaps and missionaries to accept the rule of modern law and the Christian teaching and they have not looked back to tribal fighting.
The greater Ialibu region is split between the Imbonggu and Ialibu-Pangia open electorates and the regional administration centre, Ialibu town sits on the border of the two districts. The Ialibu people occupy four local level governments – Ialibu Basin Rural LLG and Imbonggu Rural LLG in Imbonggu Electorate and Ialibu Urban LLG and Kewabi Rural LLG in Ialibu-Pangia Electorate and they speak the Imbonggu and Kewapi languages.
Prior to the introduction of the reformed provincial and local level government system in mid-1995, this region had only one LLG called the Ialibu Local Government Council which started in 1964 with the Council Chamber being at Ialibu town. The Ialibu region was also under one open electorate called “Ialibu-Pangia” until the 1977 national election when the Imbonggu Open came into existence by combining majority of the Ialibu population (mostly the Imbonggu speakers and a small number of Kewapi speakers) with Lower Mendi people from the former Mendi electorate. John A Ballard in a review of the 1977 national election in SHP published in 1983 observed that the creation of the new electorate enabled “a clear lalibu dominance within lmbonggu”.
This part of eastern SHP has prided itself as an oasis of peace and order where tribal fights do not occur and issues are addressed through lawful means including through traditional mediation while women, children and men move around freely from village to village.
One of the last officially recorded tribal fights on Ialibu soil was in Nagop village which is now inside Imbonggu electorate near the border with Tambul, Western Highlands Province. A historical record published by the National Statistical Office (NSO) in the “Notable Events Book” for the 2000 National Census reads: “1952 – Government Patrol from Mt. Hagen arrives in Ialibu area to stop heavy tribal fighting in the Nagop area.
“1953 – Another Government Patrol from Mendi to stop further fighting at Nagop and to establish Government Station at Ialibu. Airstrip started (in Ialibu).”
The above intervention by the colonial administration in the Nagop tribal fight and the resultant truce made by the tribal leaders is now woven into modern Ialibu history as a defining moment which led to positive ripple effect on all tribes in greater Ialibu society.
The modern generations of people of Ialibu in both Imbonggu and Ialibu-Pangia electorates consider themselves as a fortunate group whose great grandparents, grandparents and parents had the foresight to abandon tribal warfare on recommendation by the early kiaps and missionaries over six decades ago. Their Wiru speaking kindred in neighbouring Pangia who share much in common with the Imbonggu and Kewapi speakers have also been living in relative peace without tribal fights after their first contact with the kiaps and missionaries.
The people of these parts of eastern SHP of course have disputes and law and order challenges to contend with every now and then. But tribal fight is not an option for to ‘resolve’ their differences. By and large, the temperament of these people continues to be challenged by contemporary events such as:

  • the national election which is a highly emotive and tribalised event in the highlands;
  • advent of claims of sorcery “introduced” from other parts of PNG; and
  • the ever-present risk of imitating contemporary tribal warfare in other parts of the Highland

The reported proliferation of illegal firearms into tribal communities across the Highlands brings its own set of challenges to the people in greater Ialibu but fortunately so far it has not presented itself as a major issue in this part of SHP.
Philip Alpers in his Small Arms Survey in SHP in 2004 for the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies reported that while there may be illegally obtained guns in the possession of individuals in greater Ialibu and Pangia areas there were no records of killings using guns there:
“No firearm-related deaths have been reported in the Kewabi area of Ialibu district since a police crowd dispersal shot killed a young man in 1993.”
“Tribal fights are uncommon, and the use of firearms even more so.”
“Although guns are occasionally used to threaten and intimidate, it’s said they are rarely fired.” “Local leaders report no known gun injuries, and no firearm-related suicides.”
“They (local leaders) say that residents of Ialibu’s 27 local level government wards are likely to keep two or more guns per ward, and estimate that perhaps 20 of these would be factory made firearms, including World War II .303 rifles,” wrote Alpers in the Small Arms Survey brief.
In the case of the Pangia area, Alpers wrote: “Although a local businessman was killed in a political shooting at a roadblock during the 1997 national election, this is said to be the only intentional firearm-related killing in an area widely known to be peaceful.”
“One man was shot dead by his brother in a hunting accident, and a local councillor also shot and injured his son while bird hunting. Community groups know of no gun suicides, and they estimate that between six and 20 factory made firearms are in the area.”
Since the Alpers report an uncharacteristic tribal clash occurred between two tribes in Pangia in 2010 as reported by The National ( 25th June, 2010) in which a Baptist pastor and his son were gunned down in a retaliatory attack during a conflict. This remains an unwelcome glitch on the nature of the people of Pangia. Appropriate mediation and a peace-ceremony have since taken place.
Despite the pressures from what goes on around them, the Ialibus and their kindred in Pangia have insulated themselves and steadfastly continue to amicably address their problems in lawful ways, chiefly through traditional mediation.
Village elders and community leaders with the backing of local businessmen, educated elites and elected leaders are quick to mediate an amicable solution every time an issue arises with payment of agreed compensation following soon after. A recent case in point was when the Imbonggu MP Francis Awesa and local leaders appeased tension between the Kole-Perai Tribes of Tona and Piambil villages and the Pupai tribes of Nagop, Tukupangi, Napiye, Ilopugl and the Bunenomuiyes over the death of a man from Kole-Perai last October as reported by The National (26th October, 2016).
The challenge that every Ialibu man and boy in both Imbonggu and Ialibu-Pangia districts plus peers from Pangia face going forward is to maintain the status quo of peace and order and respect for authority and rule of law that the forefathers set in motion over 60 years ago.

  • Next week: Why the people of greater Ialibu have not resorted to tribal fighting as a means to ‘address’ their differences.