- Oecussi-Ambeno
Infobox East Timor District
name = Oecussi-Ambeno
tetum = Oe-Kusi Ambenu
capital =Pante Macassar
area = 815
arearank = 8th
population = 57,469
population_as_of = 2004
populationrank = 6th
density = 70.5
densityrank = 4th
households = 13,659
households_as_of = 2004
householdsrank = 6th
isocode = TL-OE
subdistricts = Nitibe, Oesilo, Passabe, Pante Macassar (capital)
mapOecussi-Ambeno (
Tetum :Oe-Kusi Ambenu, also variously Ocussi, Oekussi, Oekusi, Okusi, Oé-Cusse) is a district ofEast Timor . It is a coastalexclave in the western part of the island ofTimor , separated from the rest of East Timor byWest Timor , which is part of the province ofNusa Tenggara Timur ,Indonesia , and which surrounds Oecussi-Ambeno in all directions except the north, where it borders theSavu Sea . The capital of the district isPante Macassar , also called "Ocussi Town", or formerly, inPortuguese Timor , as "Vila Taveiro".The district has an area of 815 square kilometers.
A ferry boat connects the territory to
Dili , arriving twice a week on a journey which takes 12 hours.An airport exists,
Oecussi Airport .History
Oecussi andAmbeno are the names of the two original kingdoms, of which Ambeno existed before the colonial period.Oecussi-Ambeno was the first part of the island of
Timor on which the Portuguese established themselves, and is thus usually considered the cradle of East Timor. In1556 , a group of Dominican brothers started missionary work on the north coast of Timor. In 1641 they arrived to the village ofLifau , five km to the west of modernPante Macassar , where they baptized the royal family of theAmbeno kingdom. A permanent Portuguese settlement arose in the 1650s due to migration fromLarantuka onFlores . TheEurasian population in Lifau became known asTopasses . After 1664 they were governed by officers belonging to theHornay andDa Costa families, and were able dominate most of Timor. [Hans Hägerdal, 'Rebellions or factionalism? Timorese forms of resistance in an early colonial context, 1650-1769', "Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde" 163:1 2007, pp. 10-14.] In 1702, Lifau became the authorized capital of the colony when it received the first governor fromLisbon . The following period saw frequent clashes between the governor and the independent-minded Topasses, who had their strongholds inTulicão west of Lifau, andAnimata in the inland. Under their leaderGaspar da Costa they attacked the Dutch colonial post atKupang in 1749 but were smashingly defeated, and subsequently moved their residence toPante Macassar (Oecussi ) in 1759 due to Dutch military pressure. The capital of the governor was transferred from Lifau toDili in 1769, because of the frequent attacks from the Topass leaderFrancisco Hornay III . Most ofWest Timor was left to Dutch forces, who were conquering what is todayIndonesia . The Eurasian leadership of Oecussi by and by turned into a bona fide Timorese kingship, and members of the Hornay and Da Costa families reigned asLiurai (kings) until modern times. They regularly intermarried with the Ambeno royalty. In the 1780s a reconciliation took place between the governor in Dili and the Topasses, who henceforth usually supported the Portuguese government. [C.R. Boxer, "The Topasses of Timor". Amsterdam: Indisch Instituut te Amsterdam 1947.]It was only in 1859, with the Treaty of Lisbon, that
Portugal and theNetherlands divided the island between them.West Timor became Dutch, with its colonial seat atKupang , andEast Timor became Portuguese, with its seat in Dili. This left Oecussi-Ambeno as an enclave surrounded by Dutch territory. In 1912 the Liurai of Ambeno,João da Cruz , staged a revolt against the Portuguese. It was quickly put down, after which the Ambeno kingdom lapsed. The Liurai of Oecussi became dominant in the entire Oecussi-Ambeno exclave. [R. Pelissier, "Timor en guerre: Le crocodile et les portugais (1847-1913)". Orgeval 1996, pp. 274-277, 299-301.] The definitive border was drawn by theHague in 1916. Apart from Japanese occupation duringWorld War II , the border remained the same until the end of the colonial period. The region was given the status of municipality, named Oecússi, by the Portuguese government in August 1973, the last Timorese area to receive it.It was in Pante Macassar that an
Indonesia nfifth column raised the Indonesian flag and took control of the exclave on29th November ,1975 , a week before theIndonesian invasion of East Timor proper. However, even under Indonesian rule, Oecussi-Ambeno was administered as part of the province of East Timor, as it had been as part ofPortuguese Timor . Like much of the country, it suffered violent attacks near the 1999 referendum for independence. Over 90 percent of the infrastructure was destroyed. It became part of the independent state of East Timor on20 May 2002 .In the 1970s and 1980s,
New Zealander anarchistBruce Grenville began a hoax, claiming to have founded the sultanate of Occussi-Ambeno. He invented a history for the state of tribes united against the Portuguese. He then printed stamps, letterheads, and so forth, which generated income by mail order. He even established diplomatic relations with a few small states, includingMonaco ,Liechtenstein , and theRepublic of Minerva . [http://www.takver.com/history/nz/grenville.htm]Administrative divisions
Oecussi-Ambeno is divided into 4 subdistricts:
*Nitibe
*Oesilo
*Pante Macassar (capital)
*Passabe The subdistricts are divided into 19 sucos (communities) in total.
Demographics
The district has a population of 58,521 people, divided into 13,016 households (Census
2004 ).The
Atoni , one of many indigenous ethnic groups, number about 20,000 in the district. A much larger number live in the surrounding part ofWest Timor .Languages
In addition to the official
languages of East Timor ,Tetum and Portuguese, Indonesian is widely used as a lingua franca in the area.The Atoni speak
Baikeno , anAustronesian language . This language is surviving well, with many monolingual speakers. There are few loans from Portuguese and almost none from Tetum in the language.Religion
Most of the inhabitants are
Roman Catholic s.References
External links
* [http://www.oecusse.com/ Oecusse.com]
* [http://www.uccla.pt/oecussi.htm Union of Capital Cities of the Portuguese Language (in Portuguese)]
* [http://oecussi.no.sapo.pt/ Association of Soldiers of Oecussi (in Portuguese)]
* [http://okusi1.tripod.com/ The imaginary Sultanate of Occussi-Ambeno]
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