Kei Islands

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Kei Islands
Topographic map of the Kei Islands
Topographic map of the Kei Islands
Waters Banda Lake , Arafura Lake , Seramsee
archipelago Moluccas
Geographical location 5 ° 45 ′  S , 132 ° 44 ′  E Coordinates: 5 ° 45 ′  S , 132 ° 44 ′  E
Map of Kei Islands
Number of islands at least 77
Main island Kei Kecil and Kei Dullah
Total land area 1438 km²
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The Kei Islands or Kai Islands ( Indonesian Kepulauan Kei , also Kay Islands , Ewab Islands , locally: Nuhu Evav or Tanat Evav ) are located in the southeastern area of ​​the Moluccas in the Indonesian province of Maluku .

geography

Overview

The Kei Islands are located south of the Vogelkop Peninsula of New Guinea , west of the Aru Islands, and northeast of the Tanimbar Islands . To the north are the Watubela Islands . To the west is the Banda Sea , to the east the Seram Sea .

Islands and administrative units

The majority of the Kei Islands form the administrative district ( Kabupaten ) of the Southeast Moluccas (Maluku Tenggara). In addition, Tual ( Kota Tual ), the main town of the archipelago, is an autonomous city, which administratively also includes smaller islands in the northeast and west. Maluku Tenggara and Tual belong to the Maluku Province . More than 70 islands belong to the Kei Islands.

The easternmost island is the elongated Kei Besar ( Nuhu Yuut or Nusteen , Groß-Kei ), which belongs to Maluku Tenggara. The center and northwest form the district ( Kecamatan ) Kei Besar with Nuhuyanan and three other offshore islands: Wat , Nota and Karod . The district of Kei Besar Utara Timur is located in the northeast of the island. The Kei Besar Selatan district is in the south. The offshore islands are Masular , Aran Laai , Aran Kot , Dufin and Nasu Lar .

To the west of Kei Besar, across the Nerong Strait, are the islands of Kei Kecil ( Nuhu Roa or Nusyanat , Klein-Kei ) and Kei Dullah , the main islands of the group. The provincial capital Langgur is located on Kei Kecil and is connected by a bridge to its twin city Tual on Kei Dullah.

Kei Dullah is divided into two districts that belong to the autonomous city of Tual. Pulau Dullah Selatan consists of the south of Kei Dullah with the archipelago capital Tual and the islands of Ut , Krus , Ubur , Kran , Fair and another small island between Kei Dullah and Kei Kecil . The Pulau Dullah Utara district consists of the north of Kei Dullah and the islands of Duroa ( Du Roa , Dullah Laut ), Moanumayanat ( Muhanuhujanat ), Dranan , Rumadan ( Rumadan Warohoi ), Rumadan Laer ( Rumadan Warwahan ), Sua , Baeer ( Bair ) , Maas ( Ohoimas ), Watlora and Adranan .

Kei Kecil is part of Maluku Tenggara Governorate. The north of the island forms the Kei Kecil district . These include the islands of Kalvik , Watlus , Ana , Daar and Nuhutuwak east of Kei Kecil . To the west of Kei Kecil, part of the district, are the islands of Er , Beor , Ngaf , Haeh , Ohoiwa , Nai , Verkuku , Hoa , Lea , Nura , Amut , Watokmas , Vatilmas , Wear Hu and Ngodan in the northwest of Kei Kecil.

Kei Kecil Barat is the district in the southwest of Kei Kecil. This also includes the islands of Liek ( Lik ), Taroa , Waha , Tangwain , Labulin , Warbal , Manir ( Waha ), Ur ( Uhr ), Utir ( Witir ), Nuhu Taa ( Nuhuta , Nuhutaa ), Far , Nuhuyanko , Tanimbar Kei ( Tanimbarkei , Kai Tenimbar , Tnebar Evav ) and two other small islands off Tanimbar Kei. The Kei Kecil Timur district forms the southeast of Kei Kecil .

A little further to the west are the Tayando Islands with the islands of Tayando ( Tayandu ), Walir , Heniar ( Haniar, Heniaar ), Ree , Reeyanat , Nusreen , Furalnur , Nuwait , Nuniai and Tam with three other small islands. This separated group forms the Tayando Tam district , which belongs to the autonomous city of Tual.

The Pulau Pulau Kur district , the western end of the Kei Islands, also belongs to Tual . These include the islands of Mangur ( Manggur ), Wonin and Fadol , a little further north Kur ( Kuur ) and in the far north-west Kaimear ( Kaimeer, Keimeer ), Tengah and Bui . The total land area of ​​the Kei Islands is 1438 km².

Kei Besar is mountainous and reaches a height of 900  m . Kei Dullah and Kei Kecil, on the other hand, are flat and largely cut down. The other islands are densely forested. Shallows surround most of the islands.

fauna and Flora

The Kei Islands are part of Wallacea , a group of eastern islands in the Malay Archipelago . Here the Asian fauna and flora mix with the Australian. There are only a few originally native mammal species, many were introduced by humans. For example, there are feral pigs. The largest part of the native mammal fauna make up the bats and fruit bats. The following 20 kinds were detected on the Kai Islands: greenish naked-backed fruit bat , long-tongued nectar bat ( Macroglossus minimus ) Nyctimene keasti , melanopogon Pteropus , Syconycteris australis , emballonura alecto , emballonura beccarii , emballonura nigrescens , Taphozous agate , Aselliscus tricuspidatus , Hipposideros ater , Hipposideros cervinus , Hipposideros diadema , Rhinolophus euryotis , Rhinolophus keyensis , Rhinolophus philippinensis , Miniopterus australis , Miniopterus Schreibersii , Myotis adversus and Myotis stalkeri .

The rodents here include the gold-bellied swimming rat ( Hydromys chrysogaster ), Uromys siebersi , Melomys lutillus, as well as introduced house rats ( Rattus rattus ) and Pacific rats ( Rattus exulans ).

The Insectivore are by the musk shrew ( Suncus murinus ) and Crocidura maxi , marsupials by the common cuscus ( Phalanger orientalis ), the Guinea-Filander ( dusky pademelon ), the Sugar Glider ( Petaurus breviceps ), the Dickkopf-sting nose Beutler ( Echymipera rufescens ) and the Creeping cats represented by the introduced Fleckenmusang ( Paradoxurus hermaphroditus ).

The endemic bird species include the gray-eyed bird ( Zosterops grayi ) and the tual-eyed bird ( Zosterops uropygialis ).

There are different species of turtles on the reefs.

The flora includes fig trees , ironwood, and various palms and mangroves.

Residents

Natives from the Kei Islands during the Dutch colonial period
Historical image of the
Namaai Catholic Church

An estimated 74,000 people lived on the islands in 2000. The native population consists of Melanesians who have mixed culturally with Malay ethnic groups. The eastern islands are very homogeneously by mixing ethnic going from Bugis and Makassaressen apart who immigrated as traders, Javanese officials and soldiers in Tual and Eilat and Chinese shop owners and businessmen who came as refugees from other parts of the country. The dominant population belongs to the Kei ethnic group . However, it is divided into different religious communities. Land mostly belongs to the village community and arable land to the person who cultivates it.

languages

Three Austronesian languages are spoken on the Kei Islands: Kei ( Saumlaki, Veveu Evav ) is the most common. The language is spoken in 207 villages on Kei Kecil, Tayandu, Heniar, Kei Tenimbar, the south of Kei Besar and the neighboring islands, as a lingua franca also on cure. There is no native writing system for kei. The Dutch Catholic missionaries wrote this language using a variant of the Roman alphabet.

The Kur language is spoken on Kur and the other western islands from Fadol to Kaimear. Kur is closely related to Teor , which is spoken in the Watubela Islands.

The ancient Bandanese language is spoken in the villages of Banda-Eli ( Wadan El ) and Banda-Elat ( Wadan Elat ) to the west and northeast of Kei Besar. Immigrants brought the language, which is very different from the other languages ​​of the South Moluccas , from the Banda Islands . They were driven from their old homeland by the Dutchman Jan Pieterszoon Coen between 1619 and 1621. There the language died out.

religion

The majority of the population consists of Christians (45% Catholics, 15% Protestants), but the proportion of Muslims is very high at 40%. Since mostly entire villages assumed one faith as a whole, the religious communities are usually not spatially mixed. Converted Muslims also often founded their own settlements away from their old hometowns to keep them free from dogs and pigs. Nevertheless, there are family ties across religious boundaries and traditional law has a higher significance. Kur and Banda speakers are predominantly Muslim, while the Kei speakers are both Muslims and Christians.

Tual is predominantly inhabited by Muslim immigrants. Langgur is the center of Christians.

In Tanimbar Kei, the residents call themselves Hindus , but practice more or less the traditional ancestral cult .

history

Girls clean kapok under the supervision of a Catholic nun
Catholic teachers with their families

Around 2500 BC Melanesians came from the Asian continent to the Kei Islands. They made cave paintings near Ohoidertawun in the northwest of Kei Kecil. Their settlements were in the interior of the islands, where they were protected from slave hunters from New Guinea.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, possibly as early as the 14th century, Malay ethnicities immigrated to the Kei Islands from the west and north of the Malay Archipelago. They came from Bali , Java , Luang , Sumbawa , Sulawesi , Ambon , Seram and Ternate and were believed to be groups that were defeated in power struggles in their homeland. Legends tell that the original population asked the newcomers to take power. There are no traces of violent conquests. Rulers of both parts of the population formed blood brotherhood by drinking each other's blood. As “siblings”, marriages between the ruling families were no longer possible, so that a caste system emerged. There were three castes: the Mel-Mel , descended from the immigrants, the Ren-Ren from the indigenous population, and the Iri-Iri , the slave caste. The latter were the descendants of prisoners of war or offenders who were sentenced to death. The Iri-Iri had their own gardens and were only excluded from political power and were not allowed to marry outside their caste. During this time, the settlements were relocated to the coast and grew in size. Small empires were founded.

1817 took Dutch East India Company (VOC) the islands in possession, as part of the Dutch East Indies were. In the second half of the 19th century, the number of Muslims on the Kei Islands increased through conversions. In 1860 only the descendants of the refugees from the Banda Islands and a few traders from Makassar in Tual and Elat were followers of Islam, but in 1887 the number of Muslims was 5,893, a third of the population. The German entrepreneur Adolph Langen therefore proposed in a letter to the apostolic vicar in Batavia that the population should be Christianized. In 1888 the first Catholic mission was founded in Tual. In 1889 the missionaries treated cholera sufferers in the Tual opposite Ohoingur on Kei Kecil. As a result, the first residents were baptized and in 1890 the mission was relocated to Ohoingur, which was later renamed Langgur in honor of Adolph Langen. It is still an important center of the Catholic faith in the southern Moluccas today.

Sometimes the village elders first persuaded a resident to convert to Christianity and waited to see what happened. If one was satisfied with the result, the whole village was baptized. Within two generations, the locals gave up the previously common community houses in favor of accommodation for individual families. A local elite was trained in mission schools and found work in missions, the colonial army and administration, or as a teacher throughout the eastern part of the Dutch East Indies. In 1919 there were already 78 elementary schools. Western clothing was adopted and conversion to Islam, Catholicism or Protestantism took place in villages. The residents of Tanimbar Keis are the exception among the kei speakers. In 1900 the Protestant Indian Kerk of Ambon also began missionary work on the Kei Islands. In 1905 they established their center in Elat.

In the 1950s the Kei Islands were part of the Republic of the South Moluccas , which tried to gain independence from Indonesia. In 1955 the last remnants of the secession movement were defeated by the Indonesian army . Many families fled to the Netherlands. During the New Trim policy of Suharto in the 1970s and 1980s were the Kai Islands more involved in the economic structure of Indonesia. Indonesian law was also enforced in traditional village communities, which led to conflict. Government projects brought in money and the population began to use imported goods. Nevertheless, the kei were able to retain parts of their culture, according to the Larvul Ngabal , the traditional legal system.

In January 1999 there were clashes between Christians and Muslims on Ambon, which resulted in over 5,000 deaths and 500,000 refugees. The interreligious conflict also spread to other islands in the Central Moluccas, such as Seram, Buru , Tanimbar and also the Kei Islands, where it was not expected due to the harmonious coexistence of religions. On March 29, however, a 16-year-old boy wrote abusive comments on the walls of a mosque in Tual. The boy later claimed he was responding to anti-Jesus graffiti. Muslim protesters called for the perpetrator to be investigated and punished, but because he was under 17, the police let him go after a warning. The following night, barricades were erected and youth gangs attacked each other in Tual and Faan (a Christian suburb on Kei Kecil, south of Langgur) with machetes, spears, bows and arrows, bamboo cannons and Molotov cocktails. The Muslims with white headbands, the Christians with red. On the second day, the riots on Elat spread to Kei Besar. A dispute between a Protestant and a Muslim politician probably led to an attack by residents of the Christian Weduar Feer (Kei Besar Selatan) on the Muslim village of Larat . Several neighboring villages were drawn into the fighting, which then spread along the coast of Kei Besar and then on to Kei Kecil. The unrest did not end until June. A total of 200 people were killed, 30,000 people (a quarter of the total population of the Kei Islands) were displaced and 4,000 buildings were destroyed. Malaria and other diseases claimed more victims in the refugee camps.

economy

Rice, plantains, yams, corn and tobacco are grown.

Trade goods are copra , wood, sea cucumbers ( trepang ) and turtle shells. The main port is Tual. Langgur airport is only approached by propeller planes.

Culture

Craft

Ceremonial boat (1900/01)

The inhabitants of the Kai Islands are considered to be skilled wood carvers and basket weavers. They are also first class in traditional boat building.

music

Drum from the Kei Islands

Despite the centuries-old diverse trade contacts and the arrival of settlers from all over the eastern Malay island world, traditional music has remained very homogeneous in its structure and tonal system . There are numerous songs called siksikar that are performed at festive events. Songs sung only by men are called siksikar marwehe belaan , siksikar sosoi or similar sung by women and siksikar ngel-ngel sung by both . Most of the songs serve to accompany the dance.

As in the music of New Guinea, there are bamboo slit drums : the letlot is 40 centimeters long and has a slot. Sticks (ontai dakdak or singatar) are also made of bamboo and are hit against each other and used for special jumping dances. A medium-sized humpback gong ( dada) with a diameter of 30 to 38 centimeters was imported from Java via Makassar . These bronze gongs are or were an important part of the traditional dowry . The drum tiva is covered on one side with a calfskin membrane. There used to be a three-stringed idiochorde bamboo zither , the shape of which resembles a simple sasando . Even today, various bamboo flutes called savarngil or sawergnil are better known . Flutes are between 10 and 35 centimeters long, a 30 centimeter long instrument has six finger holes at the top and a thumb hole at the bottom. The snail horn ( Charonia tritonis ) is called atwur or tewur .

Web links

Commons : Kei Islands  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Map of the Maluku Province
  2. ^ Map of Kota Tual
  3. Map of the Eastern Kei Islands
  4. Penduduk Indonesia menurut desa 2010 ( Memento from March 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (Indonesian; PDF; 6.0 MB), accessed on January 26, 2013
  5. a b c d East Indonesia.info: Kei Islands
  6. ^ Website of the Southeast Moluccas
  7. Map of the Kei Islands ( Memento of the original from August 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.websitesrcg.com
  8. Map of the Maluku Province
  9. Dedi Supriadi Adhuri: Selling the Sea, Fishing for Power - A study of conflict over marine tenure in Kei Islands, Eastern Indonesia , The Australian National University, 2013, ISBN 9781922144829 .
  10. a b c d e f g h i j k Encyclopedia Britannica
  11. ^ A b c Tim Flannery (1995), Mammals of the South-West Pacific & Moluccan Islands, ISBN 0-7301-0417-6
  12. Joseph Del Hoyo, Andrew Elliot, David A. Christie (Eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 13: Penduline-Tits to Shrikes . Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2008, ISBN 978-84-96553-45-3 . Pp. 454, 455
  13. a b c d e f g h i j k l Musibah: Entitlements, Violence and Reinventing Tradition in the Kei Islands, Southeast Maluku, Paper submitted for the International Association for the Study of Common Property 9th Biennial Conference, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
  14. ^ Language map of the Moluccas and West Papua
  15. Ethnologue: Kei
  16. ^ Ethnologue: Kur
  17. Ethnologue: Banda
  18. see ethnologue entries for the individual languages
  19. ^ East Indonesia.info: Tual & Langgur: The Twin Capitals of Kei
  20. ^ East Indonesia.info: Tanimbar Kei
  21. a b c Kei Livelihoods (English)
  22. ^ Jaap Kunst : Music and dance on the Kai Islands. 1945. In: Tropenmuseum, University of Amsterdam (ed.): Jaap art. Indonesian music and dances. Traditional music and is interaction with the West. A compilation of articles (1934–1952) originally published in Dutch. Amsterdam 1994, pp. 205-230