In his book The Clash of Civilizations, Samuel P. Huntington posited the thesis that cultural and religious identity (Christian West and Islam) are the sources of conflicts. Conflicts which, according to him, are irreconcilable. In the Moluccas, the Pela, an alliance between Christian and Muslim villages, among others, shows the opposite.
The Pela
The strength of the Pela lies in their pre-monotheistic Nunusaku or Ambon religion. Both groups (Muslims and Christians) are aware of their common origin on the invisible mountain Nunusaku. The first Moluccans, their ancestors, lived there. The story goes as follows: when a girl was murdered one day, the gods sent the people away in two groups. Moluccans call this banishment Heka Nunusaku (Heka: to separate). One group was a union of nine (Uli Siwa) and the other a union of five (Uli Lima). From the beginning, there was animosity between the two groups, which often degenerated into bloody fights over scarce goods such as rich fishing waters and fertile land between two villages. After the fighting stopped, the two villages met to make peace and hold a Pela ceremony. In the ceremony, both Rajahs, village chiefs, made a cut in the palm of their hand and let a few drops of blood flow into a bowl of strong drink (sageru = rice wine). After the two Rajahs drank from the bowl, everyone present took a sip from the bowl, and from then on they were brothers and sisters, Pela. At the ceremony, the ancestors were invited to witness the covenant and ensure that the rules and the promises, which had been sworn to, were observed. Violations would be punished. With the conclusion of the Pela, the war was over. The word Pela literally means to stop immediately and later it acquired the meaning of covenant. The Pela is also called Leka Nunusaku (Leka: to bring together, to unite), a vehicle to repair what had gone wrong on the invisible mountain Nunusaku on the island of Ceram.
The Pela rules must be strictly adhered to. The rules are as follows: 1) Pelas help each other for better or for worse. For instance, when building a big project like a church or a mosque, but also when there are natural disasters. 2) Always keep promises. 3) If a Pela asks for something, for example food or a place to sleep, don’t refuse. 4) In the hard Pela, members are not allowed to marry each other (exogamous), because they have “the same blood” in their veins. It is considered incest.
Moluccan Adat and Christian-Muslim Relations
For centuries, Muslim and Christian Pelas have lived peacefully alongside and with each other. The basis for their common world and human view was anchored in their Nunusaku or Ambon religion. After the advent of monotheistic religions, one Pela village chose Islam and the other chose Christianity. They saw these as just two variables of Nunusaku religion. What prevailed over religious differences was their common origin and interpersonal relationships. The emphasis on the common resulted in a loose form of horizontal syncretism between Christians and Muslims. What role and significance Pela played in the kerusuhan, in the civil war, is illustrated by the case of two nearby Pela villages: the Christian village Buano Utara and the Muslim village Buano Selatan. The former is the larger of the two. In the 1999–2002 fratricidal war, sparked in part by the Central Indonesian Government and the Indonesian military, the old Adat institutions (traditional law) proved unable to withstand regional, national and international influences. After Buano Utara attacked its Pela village, an epidemic later broke out in Buano Utara. Many members of both villages saw in it an intervention of the ancestors. The young people have a different explanation. The epidemic must be set against the worldwide developments in the field of diseases. In so doing, they push aside their ethnic identity and their loyalty to the Adat institutions. The Buano elders believe that the core of the problem is the fact that young people study outside the region. When they return, they find that the traditional institutions are no longer appropriate to the modern age. Despite the different views, the vast majority of Buano and the other Pela villages in the Moluccas believe that the revaluation and strengthening of the Adat institutions, such as the Pela, can promote cooperation between communities and between different faith groups and reduce tensions and conflicts.
Questions
- What do you see as the strength and weakness of the Pela?
- Can the Pela serve as a model for inclusive peacebuilding in conflict areas elsewhere in the world (apart from the Moluccans)? In what way?
- Do you think the Pela model works effectively in conflicts between Abrahamite faiths? How?
- Might awareness of a common origin of human beings play an important role in conflict resolution? Why / why not, and how?
- Imagine a specific element of your own worldview / theology that can play a significant role in potentially preventing conflict.
- How might the biblical-theological concept of covenant (berith / diatheke) broaden and deepen Pela and vice versa? Do you see any relevance of this concept for situations nowadays?
About
This summary belongs to a more extensive article of the late Simon Ririhena, which can be found here: The Pela as Model for Inclusive Peacebuilding.
Last year, we published the book Religious Exclusivism and Social Inclusion? A Religious Response, which is available Open Access (for free). People asked for an additional discussion guide to bring the outcomes of this research to a wider audience. We agreed to that, and are happy to present a discussion guide which offers you summaries of all contributions, accompanied by questions for discussion. We hope this stimulates people, in all different contexts, to discuss these matters thoroughly and make them actual and relevant for their own situations. Every week we publish another summary of a chapter of the book, and questions for discussion. If you want to use the whole conversation guide at once, it can be downloaded here: Conversation guide.