BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
SEMANG PEOPLE: ONE OF THE AFRICAN NATIVES OF ASIA AND THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF MALAYSIA
Semangs just like the negarito Aetas of Philippines, Andamaneses of India and other black tribes in Asia today are the remnants of the Homo Sapiens of African origin (blacks), who migrated out of Africa from about 80,000 to 70,000 years ago. The Africans migrated along the coast of Arabia to West Asia to India; a branch continued across the major islands off Asia -- Indonesia, Borneo, Papua New Guinea -- and some as far as Australia, marking the first major sea crossing of humans; a branch continued along the coast of Asia to West Asia to China; from China a branch went westward into Central Asia, and then some southward into Southeast Asia, particularly India, while a branch continued westward into Europe, these together forming the Indo-European group and then the last major group went from China across the Bering Straight into North America and from there some continued into South America.
According to Carey (1976), the Semang are the oldest to have been in the Peninsular Malaysia for at least 25,000 years.The Semang are also known as the Northern Aslian or ( Lowland Semang tribes are also known as Sakai, although this term is considered to be derogatory by the Semang people) and are commonly found in northern part of Peninsular Malaysia. They are concentrated in the highlands of Kelantan, Terengganu and the northern regions of Perak, Kedah and Pahang. They are broadly classified under the sub-divisions of western and eastern groups. They comprises six different sub-groups namely: (i) the Kensiu.
people (Northeast of Kedah), (ii) Kintak (Kedah-Perak border), (iii) Jahai (Northeast Perak and West Kelantan), (iv) Lanoh (North-central Perak), (v) Mendriq (Southeast Kelantan), and (vi) Bateq (Northwest of Terengganu, Northeast Pahang and South Kelantan). The Department of Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA) on the other hand, classifies the Semang under the Negrito sub-group of Orang Asli.
Semang (Bateq) people crossing a river
The endangered indigenous Semang group of Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia comprises of only 3.2 per cent of the Orang Asli population (JHEOA (1994)). Statistics by JHEOA in 2008 shows that the total number of the population has decreased to 2.6 per cent.Some of this group of Orang asli has suffered the fate of physical, cultural and language extinction over the last century. According to Wazir Jahan Karim (2001), some of this group of Orang asli have experienced a demographic crisis and disappear while the others disperse into smaller group and eventually assimilated with Malay or other Orang Asli communities.
Native Semang boy of Malaysia
The word Semang is thought to be derived from the Khmer term meaning “debt slave”. The Semang are sometimes referred to as „Negritos‟ due to their physical characteristics. According to Carey (1976) the Negritos („little Negroes‟) are generally physically small in stature (1.5 metres or less), dark-skinned (varying form from a dark copper to black), typically wooly or freezy hair, and with broad noses, round eyes and low cheekbones. These various Orang Asli subgroups are said to be descendants of the earliest known inhabitants who occupied the Malaysian Peninsular before the establishment of the Malay kingdom. They are thought to be related to other Negritos, such as the natives of the Andaman Islands in the bay of Bengal (Zide and pandaya (1989) and the Aetas of the Philippines.
Until recently, the Semang have been traditional nomadic hunters, moving from place to place with the seasons in search of food, water, and grazing land. They are ethnologically described as nomadic hunter-gatherers. They use blowguns to hunt small game,and gather wild roots and fruits. The Semang still possess some aspects of a nomadic life, even though they are beginning to settle in more permanent dwellings.
Most Semang people live in small Malay-style bamboo and thatch houses. Nowadays
most Semang are permanently settled in resettlement villages established by the Malaysian government. They inhabit the lowlands and forested foothills of the northen regions of Peninsular Malaysia.
Their language is Semang, a Mon-Khmer language. Most of the vocabulary used in languages spoken by the Semang are originated to a common proto-Aslian and ultimately proto-Mon-Khmer and proto-Autroasiatic vocabulary. Many Semang words resemble words found in Mon-khmer languages of Vietnamese, Khmer and Mon as well as Austroasiatic of Munda languages of India. The native inherited words of Semang consists of words which belong to basic semantic categories. Beside that, there are evidence to suggest substantial borrowing of words among other Aslian languages (Kensu, Kintaq, Lanoh, Mendriq, bateq and Semoq Beri).
In addition, there are also inter-borrowing from other non-Aslian language like Malay ((Blagden (1906), Schebesta (1928), Benjamin (1977), Bauer (1991)). Anothet source of loan is Thai especially among the Kensiu of northen Peninsular (Bauer, 1991).
Semang people
Burenhault (2001) states that one of the most notable linguistics features of the Semang is their high degree of idiolectal change and variation. This is particularly due to their mobile lifestyle and intermarriage among other Aslian groups. As Benjamin (1997, p 18) noted the Semang has unusually high degree of idiolectal change and „consciously changed their way of speaking during their lives, depending on whom they married and they they wandered to‟. Bishop and Paterson (1993) claim that they came upon one Semang settlement of southern Thailand whereby six languages or dialects were used among 13 adults present during their study.
Semang (Jahai) tribe woman of Malaysia
The traditional religious beliefs of the Semang are complex. They include many different gods. Most of the Semang tribes are animistic. They believe that non-human objects have spirits. Many important events in their lives such as birth, illness, death and agricultural rituals have much animistic symbolism. Their priests practice magic, foresee the future, and cure illness. They would use Capnomancy (divination by smoke) to determine whether a camp is safe for the night. Their priests are said to be “shaman” in that they are someone who acts as a medium between the visible world and an invisible spirit world. The Semang bury their dead simply, and place food and drink in the grave.
A waistcloth for the men, made of tree bark hammered out with a wooden mallet from the bark of the terap, a species of wild bread-fruit tree, and a short petticoat of the same for the women, is the only dress worn; many go naked.
Tattooing, or rather scarring, is practised. They draw the finely serrated edge of a sugarcane leaf across the skin and rub in charcoal powder.
One of the unique aspect of Semang musical instruments is the Semang nose flute called Pensol. This is a very well crafted nose flute from the Semang people of Central Malaysia. The pensol is a very thin and quiet instrument. It is unique from other Malaysian nose flutes, in that the last hole is very close to the end of the instrument thereby making the first interval a minor second. Pensol are very rare instruments, and this one was given as a gift to Randy Raine-Reusch in 1989 at a festival of traditional music in Malaysia. On festive occasions, there is song and dance, both sexes decorating themselves with leaves.
The Semang sub group of Orang Asli are regarded as facing the danger of extinction due to its smallest number of population compared to other sub-groups of Orang Asli. Some sub-groups of the population are undergoing drastic transmormation of their life due to modernization process putting their language and culture in imminent endangerment. A case in point is the Kensiu community of Baling, in the northeastern part of the state of kedah.
The Semang Kensiu of Lubuk Legong, Baling
The Semang Kensiu are found in the north east of the state of Kedah. Their total population in 2008 was 224. Their main settlement area is located in the Baling district of Kedah. They live at the permanent Orang Asli settlement area of Lubuk Legong in the sub-district of Siong, 12 km from the town of Baling. Known as Kampung Baru Siong, it is a small village which contains approximately 46 houses (built by JHEOA), a school and a community hall.
This is the only Orang Asli settlement in the state of Kedah. The settlement area is equipped with electric supplies and surrounded by Malay villages. The term Kensiu is used for convenient sake to refer to the Malaysian Orang Asli (the Kedah‟s Kensiu) whilst Kensiw refers to the Northern Aslian people of Thailand.
The Kensiu are related to the Kensiw in Yala Province, Southern Thailand and crossborder movement is frequent.
The Kensiu community in this study went through a series of environmental changes throughout their lives. They adopted a normadic lifestyle before they were moved to the settlement area of Lubok Legong. Asmah Hj Omar (1964) noted that their houses were previously built by using bamboo and roof made of sago palm, typical of Orang Asli traditional houses. Their economic activities revolved around gathering forest products. In 1967 the Department of Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA) built pattern settlement consisting of two rows of houses.
"Kensiu Negritos" Sungai Pau, Sik, Kedah, Malaysia.
In 1972, they were increased to 25 houses and 14 year later about 44 houses were built accommodating 44 families. Most of the houses are built using wood with zinc roof resembling typical Malay houses. At present there is evidence of more modern houses being built by the community in the settlement area of Lubuk Legong using concrete materials. Attempts made by the government to mordenise the Kensiu have caused drastic changes not only to their traditional lifestyle and values but also their language. These changes in their environment have resulted in a change of their lexical items and their everyday language choice.
BATEQ TRIBE (Sub-group of Semang people)
Introduction / History
Bateq (semang) woman picking lice from her daughters hair
The Bateq (also spelled Batiq or Batek) are one of the nineteen Orang Asli people groups of Peninsular Malaysia. They are part of the Semang (officially called Negrito) subgroup. When asked who they are, Bateq is what they will usually answer. The Bateq ("people of our group") are a people with little accounting of their history. They are nomadic foraging people who have a very low literacy rate and almost no formal tradition of story telling.
Their settlements are located in the Kuala Krai district of Kelantan, the Besut district of Terengganu, and the Jerantut and Kuala Lipis districts of Pahang.
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Semang (Bateq) tribe woman of Malaysia and her child
What are their lives like?Traditionally, the Bateq lived in the rain forest in small, nomadic groups. They survive on a combination of hunting and gathering wild foods and trading forest products such as rattan and resinous wood for food, tobacco, and manufactured goods. Surrounded by a household of plastic ware and steel containers, the Bateq of today are no longer the loincloth-clad people of years gone by. The men's loincloths of pounded bark have given way to shirts and shorts or sarongs, and sometimes long trousers. Blouses and sarongs have replaced the women's short kilt and strands of fungus which where made from a waist-string of the same material.
Much of the Bateq's traditionally occupied jungle homeland in Kelantan has been destroyed either by unchecked development of logging activities or logging by the Federal and State governments. The alternative location provided for the Batek is a thousand-acre patch of land surrounding Post Lebir, a government-sponsored settlement on the Middle Lebir River.
The vast majority of the Bateq have fled into the nearby National Park (Taman Negara), which straddles the Kelantan-Pahang border. Some settled along the northern border of the National Park and others withdrew into the interior of the Park to continue their traditional way of life by foraging and trading. Still others have joined the Bateq living near the Park in Pahang where they make their living by trade and wage labor.
Bateq woman and her child
Many Bateq remain quite nomadic. Moving between three villages every six months, crops (like tapioca, yams, and groundnuts) are cultivated, harvested and replanted. Tending to crops is the job of women; the men hunt mouse deer, monkeys, gibbons, birds, and harvest bamboo.
What are their beliefs?
Most of the Bateq who have settled down in permanent villages have converted to Islam. Generally, Bateq are animists who shun their own people who have converted to Islam. Nevertheless, the worldview of the Bateq is still gripped by animistic beliefs. Some still follow their traditional religion, a complex set of beliefs and practices that connect them to their environment and fellow Bateq through relations with a group of deities that are associated with forces of nature (such as thunder god).
Orang Asli Bateq tribe children
What are their needs?
Much of the Bateq's jungle homeland has been destroyed by unchecked development and logging activities. Pray that God will provide adequate resources to meet their physical needs. Pray for believers who live near Bateq villages to relate and respond to the needs of the Bateq.
Source: http://www.joshuaproject.net/people-profile.php?peo3=10725&rog3=MY
Bateq (Semang) tribe children
Bateq tribe (semangs) of Malaysia
photo source: mudme
The end of the world for the Orang Asli(Semangs)
January 10, 2012
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