Finding inner peace

By KEVIN PAMBA
MY two articles over the last two weeks showed that there are groups of people in the highlands who have consciously abandoned tribal fighting many years ago.
This is contrary to a plethora of social research and media coverage that present an overly generalized image of the region as being caught up in a perpetual cycle of tribal violence.
I featured how people from the greater Ialibu region spread between Imbonggu and Ialibu-Pangia districts of Southern Highlands abandoned tribal warfare with much ease following advice of the pioneer kiaps and missionaries over 60 years ago.
There are other cases where tribal communities discarded tribal warfare after signing peace agreements with adversaries or where inner peace was achieved within their own communities.
The KomKui who reside on the outskirts of Mt Hagen city in the Western Highlands is one tribal community that did some soul searching and resolved within themselves to live in harmony with tribal adversaries and other people 36 years ago.
A study by Catholic missionary and expert on alternate conflict resolution Brother Patrick Howley FMS reports that the KomKui signed a “Covenant with God” on the 18th December, 1980.
The Covenant placed God first and encouraged people to refrain from tribal retributive recourses such as tribal warfare and animosity and focus on improving their lives.
The “KomKui” is a union between two Mokei tribes, the Mokei Komonka and the Mokei Kuipi at the time of the signing of the covenant.
Br Howley (now retired to Brisbane, Australia) recounts the story of the KomKui covenant and its history in his 2008 book “The KomKui who made covenant with God”.
The Marist Brother published an excerpt of the story in Divine Word University’s Research Journal while he was lecturing at the University. Br Howley’s article in the DWU Journal partly reads:
“In its briefest form the Covenant required the KomKui to place God first; to make all decisions of the tribe in conformity with teachings of Jesus; and most significantly in their cultural situation, they made a vow that they would never go to war or retaliate against those who harmed the KomKui, its people and its property. The day was 18th December 1980, which for all KomKui is remembered as the day they made a Covenant with God.”
Br Howley reported that the KomKui people had their last tribal fight back in 1942 and then lived in fear, hatred and animosity against their tribal ‘enemies’ afterwards until 1980 when they signed the Covenant.
The covenant signing allowed them to forgo all ill-feeling and to be at peace through the Word of God.
They set up their own Council of Churches made up of seven denominations represented in the community which provided them guidance throughout.
Over the years, many positive things came out of their finding of peace through God.
High among them was that the KomKui people kept away from harmful activities that trap so many other highlands communities, chief among them being the mentality of “payback” or revenge.
Brother Howley recounts incidents of the KomKui “turning the other cheek” as it were when their members were involved in or affected by certain unlawful activities or trouble.
The other notable outcome from the KomKui covenant signing was that their community successfully ventured into business through their “Komkui business arm” in the oncoming years.
As a result, the KomKui at one stage were among the most enterprising tribal communities in the entire Western Highlands, (then inclusive of the three Jiwaka districts) and Highlands region with investments, particularly in real estate, worth in the millions.
Two of their notable investments were the iconic six-storey “KomKui Haus” in the centre of Mt Hagen and the two-storey AGC Haus opposite it in the central business district of Mt Hagen city.
It was the tallest building in the Highlands, until the erection of the seven-storey Agiru Centre in Mendi, Southern Highlands in 1998.
The KomKui like all human beings are not infallible and they have and their trials and tribulations over the years, but for the most part have kept the core tenet of their covenant.
All in all, their story is exemplary.
Tribal communities like the KomKui and the people of greater Ialibu region are role models that other Highlands groups presently trapped in the destructive cycle of tribal warfare and hatred for each other can learn from and emulate.
They can if they chose to do it.
The bottom line is that there is no winner in a tit-for-tat cycle of tribal violence and harbouring of unrelenting hatred and suspicion of tribal ‘enemies’ in this day and age.