History Muna: the island, the people

1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 5 aries had a good command of the language and parts of the New Testament have been translated in draft form. In addition to a Catholic church there are two small Protestant churches in Raha, the members of which are almost exclusively non-Muna.

1.1.7. History

It is not yet clear where the Muna people came from and how long the island has been inhabited. The greatest dialectal variation is found in the southeast Gu, suggesting a population movement from south to north. Also, no datings of the cave drawings mentioned in 1.1.2 have yet been published In 1.1.1 a legend was mentioned that the first people to arrive on Muna were Sawerigading, the prince of Luwu, and his crew. The place where his ship is said to have run aground on the coral is a hill near the village of Bahutara in central Muna. Another important legend concerning the origins of Muna is that of Bheteno ne Tombula, the first king of Muna, who appeared from a bamboo stem and who married Tandiabhe, the daughter of the king of Luwu who had been expelled from her native country and reached Muna by sea. This legend is to be found in the Appendix Text 4. It seems likely that the first inhabitants of the island were hunters and gatherers. The old times are called dhamani momaano karaka the time of the frog-eaters. According to one story it was the Portuguese miendo Porotugisi who introduced maize kahitela Castilla to the island. For a long time the people lived close together, but the growth of the population led to the expansion of the people into four villages and later four districts ghoera. Gradually an intricate system of political organization emerged, probably modelled after Buton, which developed into a politically important area in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Vonk 1937. At the head of the Muna people stood the Sarano Wuna Muna council, led by the chosen omputo king, ruler lit. our lord. Other members included functionaries such as four district leaders ghoerano, one bhonto bhalano, one mintarano bitara and two kapitalao. Disputes and quarrels over succession were not uncommon and in such times the sultan of Buton often played a decisive role. The relationship between Buton and Muna after 1664 when Ternate formally gave up its claim to Muna is usually characterized as that between an older and a younger brother. Buton considered Muna to be one of its four autonomous provinces barata, which surrounded the sultanate. In Muna its independence of Buton is usually stressed, but it is a fact that Muna has always stood in the shadow of its big brother, whose political and cultural superiority were obvious to all concerned. The influence of Buton in the areas of religion, socio-political organization and language borrowing can probably not be overestimated. In the first decade of this century the Dutch began to administer the area directly. Before that time, contacts with Europeans seem to have been minimal, but thereafter a permanent military representation of the colonial government was present in Raha, which, for ease of access, was chosen as the new capital. After 1910 there followed a period of rapid changes, including the abolition of the Sarano Wuna and the introduction of the system of forced labour harendesi for the building of roads and the subsequent new village patterns. Schools were introduced, a small hospital was built, run by the Catholic mission, and the exploitation of the teak forests began. With the exception of the war years, the Dutch ruled Muna until 1949, after which the island took its place in the Indonesian Republic. 6 A GRAMMAR OF THE MUNA LANGUAGE

1.2. The language