Tribesmen bank on future with deposit accounts

By Neles Tebay

MOANEMANI, Irian Jaya (JP): For many people, the koteka -- the penis sheath worn by Irianese tribesmen -- symbolizes "backwardness" and "poverty".

Those who wear koteka are thought to be unsuitable or incapable of taking part in state-sponsored development programs.

But wait a minute. This assumption is not entirely correct. People should not be surprised at the sight of Irianese men in koteka depositing or withdrawing money from the bank. This is a common sight in Moanemani, 200 kilometers northeast of Nabire.

Yulianus Bobi, 54, a member of the Mee tribe who lives in Ponwouda village, Kamu district, is one such man. He has an account at Bank Pembangunan Daerah (BPD) in Moanemani, the capital of Kamu.

He travels to the bank, some 25 kilometers from his home, carrying his money in his aglya (traditional bag).

"I always save some of my money in the bank," said Yulianus, one of 2,217 Mee tribespeople in Kamu who have opened an account at the bank under the Simpeda scheme.

A bank employee, Markus Agapa, told The Jakarta Post an additional 755 Mee tribespeople had accounts at the bank under the Simanja scheme. In addition, since 1997, 44 people from the tribe have put their money in time deposits.

The number of people putting money in the bank has been on the rise, according to Agapa.

BPD opened its branch in Moanemani in 1993, bringing basic knowledge to the locals about the banking system and the importance of savings.

"The number of depositors has been rising. Many farmers wearing koteka come to put their money in this bank", Agapa said.

Bobi said he learned about the bank in December 1993. "Until then, I had no idea about what a bank was and what it could mean to my life."

Bobi heard about the bank from Rev. Andreas Trismadi, a Moanemani parish priest.

"Trismadi told us that if we kept money in our bags, its sum would remain the same, but if we put it in the bank we would get interest," he said.

His desire to open an account was also fanned by his neighbors, who often extolled the virtues of the bank. "They would show off their Simpeda deposit book," he said.

Bobi opened his account in 1994. He is now so aware of the importance of building a savings that he puts the majority of his income in the bank. And at the end of the month, he goes to the bank to check on his balance, as advised by the priest and his neighbors.

"I can't tell you how excited I was the first time I knew I got interest," he said smiling.

Trismadi, a native Javanese who took up his position in Moanemani five years ago, said the Mee tribespeople earned quite a lot of money. But he said the problem was they did not know how to spend their money effectively, using a large part of their money on traditional and social events.

"They lack the attention to improve their welfare. Many children do not continue their studies after high school," he said.

In view of this, the Moanemani parish church decided to educate the Mee about how to save their money. The church kicked off its campaign in 1994 by focusing on family welfare.

"The first thing we did was to teach people how to save their money. Then we introduced them to the concept of banking, interest rates and so forth," Trismadi said.

"At almost every meeting with the people, we explained the need to save money in the bank. The campaign was effective and many people began to save their money at BPD in Moanemani."

Now the church have begun teaching the tribespeople how to spend their money responsibly.

The Mee make the majority of their money from peanuts and arabica coffee, the two main cash crops in the area.

Thanks to the savings campaign, more and more people have enough money to send their children to school. In turn, they are educating their children on the importance of saving money in the bank.

Johana Agapa, a mother of five in Ikebo village, proudly said that each of her children had their own deposit book.

"They opened their Simpeda accounts when they were in elementary school," she said while showing her children's bank books.

"I share my income with the children. Then they go to the bank and deposit their money and use the interest to pay their school fees," said Yohana, who dreams of sending her children to university.

American anthropologist Leopold Pospisil wrote in his book The Kapaulu Papuans of West New Guinea that the Mee tribe had a sophisticated and complex economic system.

"Contrary to many generalizations about the nature of exchange in primitive societies, barter plays a minor role among the Kapaulu (Pospisil's name for the Mee). Despite their simple technology, sales are the regular means of exchange on the inter- as well as intertribal level."

Pospisil conducted research on the culture of the Mee tribe in 1954 and 1955, as well as during the summers of 1959 and 1962.

Pospisil found one of the major pillars on which the Mee economy stood was the use of money, which in this case was the mege (Cowrie shell). The mege functioned as the common medium of exchange and the common measure of value.

Pospisil said that with this traditional money "one can buy not only food, domesticated animals, grown crops, land, and artifacts, but one can also use it as payment for labor in the gardens, for various services (such as breeding pigs, magical curing), for the lease of land, and for damages and fines that originated from criminal as well as contractual delicts".

Bosco Agapa, an Obano parish priest, told The Post the Mee's cultural background made it easy for them to save money in the bank. Since they used mege in their culture, "the people of the Mee tribe can easily understand the value of the rupiah without much explanation".

Few Mee tribesmen wear koteka anymore, with most opting for modern garb. It truly seem that the Mee are catching up with the rest of Indonesia.