Servants’ Struggle for Equality

KOMPAS/AHMAD ARIF

A man from the Kahumbu Nganji family of the lowest ata caste (right) poses with the Meurumba village head, who comes from the Balla Nggiku noble maramba caste, on 22 June 2019 in Kahaungu Eti district, East Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara. The Balla family has recently allowed the Kahumbu Nganji family to claim basic human rights, including education and social welfare. The recent social transformation in Meurumba is expected to drive change in other areas of East Sumba that still practice the traditional caste system.

As a family of ata, the family of Kahumbu Nganji, 50, has served the family of Meurumba village head Balla Nggiku, 60, for generations. Now, Kahumbu feels honored to have been appointed as a staff member at the village office.

As a servant in Meurumba village office, Kahaungu Eti district, East Sumba regency, Kahumbu receives a monthly salary of Rp 500,000 (US$35.88). He is proud, not of the salary but because he gets to wear an official uniform, which boosts his social status. Even on Saturday (22/6/2019), he was wearing the brown uniform.

He was the only staff member in the village office wearing a uniform. That morning, he served drinks for participants of a village meeting without making any noise.

“This is a huge thing for my family. In the old times, it was impossible for us to get a position and a uniform, let alone participate in a village meeting,” Kahumbu said, his eyes getting watery.

In Sumba’s culture, people are divided into three castes based on ancestry, namely maramba (royalty), kabihu (free people) and ata (lowly). The ata people are socioeconomically servants to the maramba. In the old times, ata people used to be offerings, bought and sold or be exchanged with cattle.

“I never went to school as I had to guard the livestock,” said Kahumbu, who has managed his master’s 60 cows since he was 10.

Balla Nggiku said that as old-fashioned royalty in Sumba, his father was strict with “house workers”, a euphemism for ata people. Balla’s father saw ata people as worthless and was often violent with them.

“He prohibited them from going to school. At most, they were allowed to go to elementary school as the maramba did not want to compete with the ata,” he said.

Balla has a different perspective. After his father died, Balla, who inherited 30 ata families, changed things. He gave ata children the freedom to finish school and find work, including Kahumbu’s children, who graduated from high school.

“I believe that they have equal rights as citizens,” he said.

KOMPAS/AHMAD ARIF

A family sits on the porch of their elevated house on 23 June 2019 in Meuramba village of Kahaungu Eri district, East Sumba, East Nusa Tenggara. Thirty percent of the population in Meuramba, as well as most villages in East Sumba, are of the lowest ata caste that have been the slaves of the noble maramba caste for many generations. Many people of the ata caste were previously not accorded basic rights, including education, but Meuramba has been making recent changes.

If the ata people reach independence, the maramba’s responsibility will be reduced.

“After they become successful, they will maintain a good relationship with us. Every time we ask them to help us with customary ceremonies, they come,” Balla said.

University of Southern California anthropologist Janet Hoskins (2004) wrote that the ata-maramba relations was a form of modern-day slavery. The phenomenon has been going on for a long time and it peaked during the Dutch colonial era. Sumba was known as the Sandalwood Island by Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the island ran out of wood and its exports were replaced with horses, buffaloes and human slaves to be exchanged with gold, steel and weapons.

In her research in East Sumba in 1988, Hoskins saw the handover of a young ata woman during the burial rite of King Kapunduk. An envoy from the Wunga village brought a 19-year-old woman as an offering to the family of the departed.

Ade Siti Barokah, in her 2016 thesis at the Netherlands’ Erasmus University, wrote that slavery in East Sumba remained in practice because of a strong attachment to traditional cultural symbols. The hegemonic ideology of believing in “blood purity” and the might of the maramba is preserved. Local institutions and social sanctions enforce people to adhere to traditions.

Not all regions in Sumba preserve the tradition.

“The tradition is strong only in East Sumba. In Meurumba village, around 30 percent of the population are ata and have to work for the maramba people,” Balla said.

Opportunity for change

“There are too many sad stories about the ata,” said Lai Ria, 31, a maramba from Meurumba village who is also a trainer at the Partnership Care Program for Meurumba and Mauramba villages.

Tragedies are often wrapped up in traditions and untouched by positive laws. This includes cases of ata children beaten by maramba and dying, but their mothers are forced to take the blame and they are arrested instead.

Lai’s family is a pioneer in changing traditions by allowing ata children to go to school. An ata man of Lai’s age currently serves in the military in Java.

Stepanus L Paranggi from the Partnership Care Program said that changes were implemented by raising the maramba’s awareness about providing basic rights to the ata. Many ata lack ID cards and have no access to basic rights, including health and education.

Meurumba and Mauramba villages give ID cards to all residents. Those that were previously not registered now have access to cattle donations, among other assistance programs. Partnership Care Program manager Yasir Sani said he appreciated the changes in Meurumba. The program, in partnership with the Nusa Tenggara People’s Foundation, has trained locals in Meurumba since 2015.

“Practices of social caste contradict human rights,” he said.

It also contradicts the Constitution. Slavery must not exist in this country.