Davao was once a home to one of Mindanao’s finest warrior tribes, the Bagobos.
The Bagobo warriors, known among themselves as the Bahani or Magani, were the pillar of strength of the community.Many among those who wore these red kerchiefs (klobow or tanggkulo) prided themselves as the defenders of their territories against those who would invade them. A Bahani, gradually attaining Datuship of the community, would become the lawgiver, arbitrator and executioner of the Bagobo’s law on retributive justice. Largely territorial, these Bagobo warriors were once feared by other tribes from neighboring regions.
According to existing private and government records, the Bagobos inhabited Davao before the arrival of the Spanish colonizers and religious imperialists. Their territory extended from the Davao to Davao del Sur and North Cotabato.
According to one eminent American anthropologists Faye-Cooper Cole, who have made excursions in Davao during the early 1900″s would eventually discover this group of proud people. In his work The Peoples of Malaysia, published 1945, Cole remarks that ” the Bagobos are without doubt, the most handsomely dressed wild tribe in the Philippines. The men confine their long hair in head-kerchiefs, the edges of which are decorated with beads and tassels. A close-fitting undershirt is often worn, and above this is an elaborately beaded or embroidered band. Two belts are worn, one to hold up the trousers, the other to support the fighting or work knives that each man carries.”
Cole goes further to elucidate that, ” Both men women pierce the earlobes ot the ears and stretch them until they will admit large wooden or ivory ear plugs made like enormous collar buttons. The also file or chip the upper incisors and blacken the lower teeth, but tatooing, scarifying, or other forms of body decorating or mutilation are not practiced. ”
Referring to the warrior qualities of the Bagobos, Cole states that, ” their warriors (Bagobo) have made themselves feared in all the neighboring country and even the haughty moro have found it wise to seek their friendship.” The name Magani, he further asserts, is applied to a man who has killed two or more persons. He is then entitled to wear a peculiar, chocolate-colored head covering with white patterns in it. After his score has reached six he is permitted to wear a blood-red suit a carry a bag of the same color. His dress does not change as the number of his victims increases, but his influence grows with each life out to his credit.
Even Davao during the mid-1800’s was not as easily conquered without a fierce fight being put up by Datu Bago with other Muslim, Bagobo, Mandaya and tribal maganis against the Spanish conquering forces led by Don Jose Oyanguren.
Postscript:
Many other accounts of tribal history relating to this warrior race have remained largely unwritten. This may be attributed to the fact that; a. Bagobos value oral tradition. Similar with other ancient peoples, the Bagobos largely take their historical traditions through stories, folklore or myth, b. Many Bagobos, even those who have obtained a modest education, have not yet adopted the habit of writing or recording with technological devices the aspects of their culture and history, c. It was the foreign victors in Davao’s colonial past who wrote much about their biased and adulterated perspectives of the Bagobo people, that has probably overwhelmed a lot of historical truths about these tribal peoples. True to fact, the the first Spanish religious missionaries who reduced Davao into “settlements“, called the Bagobos, “savages, natives and heathens”.
All tribal peoples, in Mindanao, in the Philippines and to all the colonized peoples and cultures from all over the world, must inevitably tell their stories. Tribal peoples from all over the world must CORRECT these false truths. False truths that have already been written in books.
Tribal peoples in Davao such as the Bagobos are strong, proud and wise in the ancient ways. We consider ourselves a dignified race. That is the reason why, you can never see any of us build cathedrals, steal or habitually buy other people’s lands, abuse nature or provoke discussions about religious beliefs. Many visitors to Davao especially foreign imperialists, as recorded in the annals of Davao’s history did not respect Bagobo ways. They called them heathens, savages, liver-eaters and needing to be civilized.
Then they built edifices, churches and other monuments.
Conquer, dominate, evangelize and educate.
And today, they ask for a tuition fee increase.
What ingratitude! They came in for free. They don’t pay taxes. Then they charge atrocious tuition fee rates. Walang-hiyang mga moneymakers na ito! They openly teach us to be man for others, yet they don’t exactly practice what they preach. Tang-na niyan !
That seems to be the character of many “friar-like” institutions in Mindanao, especially in Davao. They never even openly thank the original people who received them and their teachings. They could just as easily thank the Bagobos, Mandayas, Tagakaolos, Tausug or Maguinandawaon and other Davao tribes during the annual Araw ng Dabaw Celebrations for having allowed them to live permanently in the City. Davao was hospitable to them. Davao assisted them in their work. Yet they are still, in many respects, arrogant like their forebears.
I can only hope that one day, starting today, Davao’s history will be at the start of being rewritten, starting from the truth.
Dabawenyong Lumad 