Monday, January 20, 2014

THE SOLUOI CLAN OVER THE CENTURIES

The story of my great great grandmother
As narrated by my cousin,  Datuk SKK

A long time ago in the late 19th century a very young damsel of about 15, living in a farmstead far away somewhere in the thick of the Crocker range of the Tambunan region, joined her parents in a convoy to a faraway place to the west of where they were, where, she was told, a centre, famously called Kolombuong, existed, where all manners of people gathered together every 10-day interval to exchange all manners and assortments of goods and services.



A typical of such expeditions would take several days and nights to make, traversing mountains and valleys on foot along hazardous jungle path often much infested with leaches and all manners of bugs, while all along every member of the convoy would be  carrying their burdens of jungle produce on their backs for the prospective exchange at their destination. The convoy would usually take several overnight stopovers in some friendly settlements along the way where several new members would join in and lengthen further the convoy.


It was in one of such expeditions that Soluoi, the 15-year old damsel, accompanied her parents in the convoy leaving her siblings to take care of home. When they reached, at last, the lowland region of Kolombuong, they put up in a make-shift hut in the periphery of the region in a forested area called Sobog to await for the onset of the next Tamu day. In the interim, they cleared and farmed the area. It would be several days after the Tamu day that they would begin their return to their home-sweet-home so very far away in the mountains of the Crocker Range.



On the day of the return journey, though, Soluoi volunteered to look after the newly farmed area in Sobog. Her parents let her be, knowing they would meet her in their next Tamu expedition. She never did return home for soon her new farmstead became her new homestead. She became familiar with the earlier crops of travellers from her region who had settled earlier on in the neighbourhood of Kg. Sobog.





In time an elderly man noticed her and proposed her for his son, Sombuling. For the prospect of a farmhand, she accepted him readily though, presumably, shyly; and so began the genesis of the Soluoi Clan.

The Soluoi clan has now grown into hundreds of direct members and a few hundreds or even thousands more of tokins scattered all over places, keeping in mind that we are still on our journey into the future and beyond…


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