Introduction / History

Scattered throughout the Sulu Archipelago of the Philippines live the Sama Badjao, a people nobody
wants. Badjao means "man of the seas." By tradition, the people are sea nomads, traveling by boat from
one island to the next in search of a fishing harvest.

The origin of the Sama Badjao is not clear. The Sama originally inhabited the islands and coastal areas
between the island of Mindanao and the Sulu Islands. Evidence suggests that they began to leave their
homeland during the first millennium AD. Most moved south and westward, establishing themselves
along the main Sulu Archipelago, the Cagayan Sulu Islands, and the eastern Borneo coast. Many believe
they came from either Sumatra or the South Sea Islands. Some think their migration in the first
millennium A.D. resulted from expanding Chinese trade. Originally, the Sama Badjao may have been a
land-based tribe pushed into the seas by population pressures and by more dominant tribes.
Historically, they held no land or other property ashore, except for small burial islands. Through years of
oppression, the Sama Badjao have found solace on the seas.

The Sama are a highly fragmented people with no overall political unity. Specific Sama groups can be
distinguished by dialect. However, most identify themselves with a particular island or island cluster.

The Central Sama of the Philippines live on several islands in the Sulu Archipelago, near the island of
Borneo. Their language, Siasi Sama, is similar to Tausug and other Sama languages. In general, the term
Sama refers to a diverse group of Sama-Bajau speaking peoples who are scattered from the central
Philippines to the eastern shore of Borneo, and throughout the Indonesian islands.

What Are Their Lives Like?

The lives of the Central Sama revolve around fishing, seafaring, and trade, with some farming along the
coastal strips. Throughout much of Sulu and eastern Sabah, copra (the meat of the coconut from which
coconut oil is derived) is the major cash crop. Copra holdings are small, and few families own enough
palms to support themselves entirely from copra sales.

Trade has also long occupied a central place in Central Sama society. Since long ago, seafarers were
valued as suppliers of trepang (sea cucumbers), dried fish, pearls, pearl shells, and other marine
commodities. Among the Central Sama, both men and women share in agricultural labor and engage in
trade. Fishing, building boats, and working with iron are primarily male occupations. Women generally
weave mats and market pottery.

The people now live in one of three types of dwellings: stilt houses on the coast, ordinary land houses
clustered along protected shorelines or houseboats. Houses, which are raised one to three meters
above the ground or highest water mark, usually consist of a single rectangular room with an attached
kitchen. Houses built over the water are connected by small bridges or planks. Houseboats are often
double dugout canoes. Typically each boat shelters five or six people - a family and maybe one or two
other relatives. Two to six families anchor their boats in a cluster while fishing, sharing food and pooling
labor and resources.

Households are grouped in larger units called tumpuk, which means "clusters." The Central Sama live
near their families and maintain close ties with their relatives. One household head is selected by the
cluster members to act as the tumpuk spokesman. A parish consists of local groups whose members are
affiliated with a single mosque. Sometimes, clusters and parishes are one and the same.

What Are Their Beliefs?

Many identify themselves as Muslims. Those who are well versed in religious matters, including the
imams (religious leaders) and other mosque officials are called paki or pakil. The paki preside over all
major rites, act as religious counselors, and conduct minor rites of thanksgiving.

Friday prayers are performed in the parish mosque and are the climax of a weekly cycle of daily prayers.
An annual religious calendar includes Ramadan (the ninth month in which all Muslims fast) and the
prophet Mohammed's birthday.

Almost all the Badgao hold animistic beliefs. They believe that non-living objects have spirits. Spirits of
the dead are thought to remain in the vicinity of their graves. These spirits require offerings for
appeasement. Some graves have reportedly become the sources of miracle working power.

During the month of Shaaban, it is said that Allah permits the souls of the dead (roh) to return to this
world. To honor their return, the people offer special prayers to the dead and clean the grave areas.
What Are Their Needs?

Since the early 1970s, the fight for independence has resulted in massive relocation of the islanders to
other parts of the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Muslim extremists are still very active and there
have been numerous murders, kidnappings, and battles with the Philippine military forces. These
fiercely independent people need to find their identity and future in Jesus in order to know peace.

An area of great need for the Badjao is education. Currently less than 10% of the school age children
attend school despite the fact that the public schools are free to attend.

Badjao or Bajau means man of the seas, this tribal group is known as the Sea Gypsies because they move
with the wind and the tide on their small houseboats called vintas, they can be found in many coastal
settlements and inhabit the waters and shores of the Sulu archipelago.

A legend tells that these boat dwellers came from the shores of Johore in Indonesia, Princess Ayesha of
Johore was betrothed to a Sulu Sultan but she really wanted to marry the Sultan from Brunei. One day, a
large fleet of war boats escorted the Princess to Sulu, the fleet was intercepted by the man she really
loved, the Sultan from Brunei, who kidnapped her and set sail back to Brunei. The escorting fleet could
not return without the Princess and kept on sailing the seas, only mooring at uninhabited islands; some
of them turned to piracy and roamed the seas to search for fortune and glory. Others only searched for
food and became fishermen, the Sulu Sea had an abundance of fish that helped to sustain their
livelihood, most of the daily catch was bartered with other tribes that lived along the shores and
beaches. The Badjao still live in houseboats, clustered near the coastline of Southern Mindanao. But
they also built stilt houses near fertile fishing grounds; these houses are a temporary refuge during times
that these boathouses needed repairs. These wanderers of the Southern seas are born on the water, live
on their boats and say they will only set foot on land only to die.

Although that their ancestors were once feared by many in the Mindanao region, the Badjao are
primitive and friendly, they are believed to be world's most peace-loving people and consider
themselves as a non-aggressive tribal community. Conflict with other tribes is often dealt with by fleeing
to other places like the sea. Other tribes looked down on these fisher folk and did refer to them as palao
or lumaan (God forsaken), the Badjao were influenced by Islam, but the continuous pressure put on by
other Muslim tribes forced them to move to the sea, which gave them greater chances of escape in the
case of an attack by hostile tribes. Eventually the sea molded the attitude and appearance of the Badjao,
this rough environment and way of living shaped their typical physical features, the bronze coloured hair
and dark brown skin clearly distinct them from other tribes.

The native religion from these water people is a form of ancestor worship, spirits, deceased ancestors
and other relatives are asked for favours during frequent cemetery visits. They offer cigarettes and food
and sweet smelling tonic is used for sprinkling the corners of the graves. These spirits are still part of the
family; the seafarers of the Philippine South want these sprits to be as happy as the living and will
therefore comfort them as much as they can. Some of the traditional pre-Islamic beliefs are offerings
made to the God of the Sea, the Omboh Dilaut, whenever a large catch of fish is brought in and by
setting a "spirit boat" adrift in the open sea, , mediums are also called upon to remove illness causing
spirits from this boat-dwellers community in times of epidemics

By tradition, the hardworking and proud Badjao people are sea nomads, travelling by boat from one
island to the other in search of fishing harvest. This pagan tribe have sailed the seas for more than a
thousand years, but because of over fishing by other groups using everything from high-tech fishing
trawlers and even dynamite fishing, threatened by soaring costs for fuel and repairs, their life in the
open waters is drying up. These Bedouin of the sea no longer live on boats, they live in thatch-roofed
houses on bamboo stilts on a small strip of land that nobody else wanted, somewhere along the
coastline of Sarangani. With small, family owned bancas they continue to roam the waters, fighting the
current to follow schools of fish, hunting for the bounty of the ocean, trying to make a living and find
refuge in the vastness of the deep blue sea.

Despite the romantic portrayals of the tribe, the Badjao never really had an easy live, when they were
still living at sea, they were at least free from the everyday rejection and hardship brought upon by
other tribes that live on land. These guardians of the sea have experienced themselves that times are
tough on the water, but worse on land. At present the Badjao are the most marginalized ethnic group
and one of the poorest tribes in the Philippines, a Muslim tribe that is shunned by almost everyone, still
gypsies, but also named tramps and thieves. Their vibrant nomadic lifestyle, the way of life bequeathed
to them by their ancestors has vanished in most parts of Mindanao.

For centuries the Badjao have been a resilient tribal group, they firmly pushed away modernity with
both hands, but tossed by modern winds they will have to find ways to maintain their unique lifestyle
and culture, otherwise they will remain Godforsaken.

http://thingsasian.com/story/last-tribes-mindanao-badjao-sea-gypsies
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