Tribesmen bank on future with deposit accounts

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.