Amabi

Amabi was a traditional principality in West Timor in the currently East Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia. From at least the seventeenth century to 1917, Amabi played a role in the rivalries between the Portuguese and Dutch colonials on Timor Island.

History

According to traditional accounts, the dynastic line of Amabi was related to the leading West Timorese kingdom of Sonbai, and to the Tetun kingdom of Wehali in south-central Timor. Through the effort of Dominican missionary in the early seventeenth century, it was tied to Portuguese interests on Timor. In 1655, however, the king of Amabi, together with that of Sonbai, switched sides and made an alliance with the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which had established itself in Kupang two years previously. The Dutch and their new allies soon proved particularly unsuccessful against the Portuguese clients on Timor. In the fall of 1657 the king of Amabi was killed by the latter at the battle of Gunung Mollo in the interior of West Timor. In September 1658 a large part of the Amabi population fled to Kupang in order to escape their enemies, and were permitted by the Dutch to settle close to the European fort. [A. de Roever (2002), De jacht op sandelhout, pp. 259-68.] Part of the population stayed in the interior. This congregation, Amabi Oefeto, was subjected to the Amarasi principality, which in turn was a vassal of Portugal.

The Amabi community of refugee turned out to be loyal subordinated allies of the VOC. Together with the principalities of Kupang, Lesser Sonbai, Amfo'an and Taebenu, they constituted the backbone of Dutch strategy on Timor. During much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries they waged small-scale warfare against the Portuguese client principalities, in particular Amarasi. This role was less crucial after 1749, when the Portuguese grip on West Timor was lost. When the Dutch implemented full control over the inland territories of West Timor in the early twentieth century, the protective role of the small Amabi principality became obscure. Through an administrative reorganization, Amabi was merged with four other principalities in 1917, into the zelfbesturend landschap (self-ruling territory) of Kupang. Up to 1962, the ex-ruler of Amabi held the function of fettor (sub-ruler) of his old lands. In that year, the Indonesian republican government definitely abolished the system of hereditary princes. In 1949, the population of Amabi stood at 10,767 persons. [H.G. Schulte Nordholt (1971), The Political System of the Atoni of Timor, p. 155.]

References

Further reading

* L. J. van Dijk, 'De zelfbesturende landschappen in de Residentie Timor en Onderhoorigheden', Indische Gids 47 1925, pp. 528-40, and 56 1934, pp. 708-12.
* P.Middelkoop, 'Trektochten van Timorese groepen', Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land en Volkenkunde 85 1952, pp. 173-273.
* A. de Roever, De jacht op sandelhout: De VOC en de tweedeling van Timor in de zeventiende eeuw, Zutphen: Walburg Pers 2002.
* H. G. Schulte Nordholt, The Political System of the Atoni of Timor. The Hague: M. Nijhoff 1971.