Singapore Talking

Minangkabau matriarchs rule the roost

Singapore is a tapestry of languages, each with its own unique syntax and history. Some are endangered and others are thriving. In the latest instalment of a weekly series,we look at Minangkabau.

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The Minangkabau language - or “Baso Padang”, as it is commonly known - is falling into disuse in Singapore, but old-timers still hold fast to their traditional “adat”.
Members of the small Minangkabau community here include (from far left) Singapore Minangkabau Association president Marah Hoessein Salim; former lecturer and grassroots leader Maryam Hassan, 75; Maya Gallery director and co-founder Masturah Sha'ari;
Members of the small Minangkabau community here include (from left) Singapore Minangkabau Association president Marah Hoessein Salim; former lecturer and grassroots leader Maryam Hassan, 75; Maya Gallery director and co-founder Masturah Sha'ari; and architect Jeffrey Wandly, at the Malay Heritage Centre in Kampong Glam, an area that is a bastion of Minangkabau food. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
Members of the small Minangkabau community here include (from far left) Singapore Minangkabau Association president Marah Hoessein Salim; former lecturer and grassroots leader Maryam Hassan, 75; Maya Gallery director and co-founder Masturah Sha'ari;
Madam Marina Rahim, a sixth-generation descendant of a Minangkabau nobleman and daughter of former senior minister of state and diplomat Abdul Rahim Ishak, did not grow up speaking Minangkabau. ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM

Singapore's first Malay legislative councillor in the colonial government - the nationalist journalist Eunos Abdullah - was a Minangkabau. So were Singapore's first president, Mr Yusof Ishak, and National Anthem composer Zubir Said.

One reason for the relatively small Minangkabau community's success is marantau, when men leave their ancestral villages in the Padang region of West Sumatra in Indonesia to make their fortunes.

"Marantau" literally means "to travel from coast to coast", and the distinctive practice goes hand in hand with the matrilineal nature of Minangkabau society, where land is held and passed down by women.

Community is centred on the suku (clan) and people must marry outside their clan. Thus, members of the diaspora can be found across the region.

Madam Marina Rahim, a lecturer, said: "My roots went from Sumatra to Penang to Kedah to all over Malaysia. And my father happened to be born in Singapore."

Madam Marina is a sixth-generation descendant of Datuk Jenaton Raja Labu - a Minangkabau nobleman who left Sumatra for Penang in 1749 - and a daughter of former senior minister of state and diplomat Abdul Rahim Ishak, brother of the late Mr Yusof.

Her work in the hospitality industry took her to Jakarta, where she picked up Minangkabau songs such as the evergreen Ayam Den Lapeh ("I Release My Chicken").

  • Facts and figures

  • ORIGINS

    Minangkabau people call the highlands of West Sumatra, Indonesia, their ancestral home.

    The word "Minangkabau" means "victorious buffalo", thanks to an apocryphal tale of how the rulers of Java and Sumatra held a buffalo fight in lieu of a full-scale war.

    As the Minangs tell it, the Javanese bull was slain by a baby Minang buffalo. The starved calf, with horns sharpened by the Minang, pierced the bull's belly as it searched for milk.

    Minangkabau culture has close ties with the provincial capital of Padang, from the names of culinary dishes, such as nasi padang, to the name of the prevailing dialect itself - baso padang, or "Padang language".

    Many Minangs also live in Malaysia's Negeri Sembilan, where Minang immigrants settled in the 15th and 16th centuries.

    NUMBER OF SPEAKERS

    There are around 6-1/2 million Minangkabau people in Indonesia, according to 2010 figures from the country's statistics department. Most of them reside in their Sumatran homeland and almost three-quarters of Indonesian Minangkabau speak the language.

    The Singapore Minangkabau Association has about 200 members, many in their 50s. There are no detailed statistics on the number of Singaporeans of Minangkabau descent. Community elders say that the youth are less likely to speak fluent Minangkabau and are more likely bilingual in English and Malay.

    WHERE TO LEARN IT

    The Singapore Minangkabau Association is working with community elders to develop language classes, which it hopes will begin by the end of the year.

    It aims to teach the Minang language by building on students' grasp of Standard Malay.

  • Annabeth Leow

"It's like (the folk song) Rasa Sayang for Malays. Everyone can relate to it and every Minang can sing it," said Madam Marina.

The late Mr Abdul Rahim also left her with a taste for Minang cuisine, which makes use of highland flavours like pakis, or ferns.

"Rendang is very Melayu (Malay), but there is rendang minang as well - and sate minang," she rhapsodised. "Instead of dipping it (the satay) in peanut sauce, thick gravy is poured over it."

And she made a passionate plea for authentic nasi padang as opposed to the other fare she sees on sale. "Food stalls in Singapore call it nasi padang, but it involves nuggets and sausages in tomato sauce," she said indignantly.

The Kampong Glam area is a bastion of Minangkabau food, and community elders often flock there to jaw with one another. Eateries include Warong Nasi Pariaman in North Bridge Road - a traditional family business founded in 1948 - and Rumah Makan Minang in Kandahar Street.

Because her family left Sumatra so long ago, Madam Marina did not grow up speaking Minangkabau. Her parents used English at home.

"I'd rather learn Japanese!" she exclaimed. "Why would I learn Minang? Who would I talk to? The community is so small."

Indeed, as Mr Irianto Safari, 54, puts it: Singapore Minangkabaus are "a minority within a minority".

A third-generation Singapore Minangkabau, the engineer was, for 15 years, president of the Singapore Minangkabau Association (SMA), which he co-founded in 1994.

Many younger Minangs learn Standard Malay in school. The two languages are similar - for example, words that end with "a" in Malay usually end with "o" in Minang.

There are exceptions. "Coconut" is "kelapa" in Malay, Mr Irianto pointed out, but it is not "kelapo" in Minangkabau - it is "karambia".

Subtleties of the language, such as accents, may vary across the diaspora. Art gallery director Masturah Sha'ari, 48, traces her roots to the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan, which Minang immigrants have called home for centuries.

"My mother and my late father, when they spoke to each other, it was in that Negeri language," she said, referring to the Minangkabau dialect that evolved in Malaysia.

"But when it comes to our generation, unfortunately, we can understand but we may not speak it that well."

Her husband, architect Jeffrey Wandly, 52, chimed in: "For our wedding, I was called to the round table. Her aunties came down from Negeri Sembilan - all the hardcore aunties - and I was asked to sit down and have a chat.

"Fortunately, I could understand and try to get inside the conversation. It was like a getting-to-know-you session. So they were talking in Bahasa Minang, and it was like pantun (Malay verse) - I was like, 'Now's my time'."

The family "interrogation" also came as no surprise, given the emphasis that Minangkabau culture places on adat, or custom, according to SMA co-founder and president Marah Hoessein Salim, 60.

The consulting firm senior manager cited the saying "Adat basandi syarak, syarak basandi Kitabullah" - which means "Tradition based on syariah (law), syariah based on the Quran" - to sum up the Minangkabau ethos - for example, in marrying the matrilineal practice of property transfer with Islamic inheritance laws.

Other aspects of adat include the use of titles to show respect. Mr Marah Hoessein goes by many names - to his friends, for example, he is nicknamed Uda Bob. "Uda" means "older brother", while "uni" is the feminine counterpart. An older woman may be called "etek", or "auntie", - as opposed to the Bahasa Indonesia word "tante".

But when Mr Marah Hoessein goes back to his ancestral village in West Sumatra, his clan title, or gelaran, is Sutan Rangkayo Basa - a man of high character. Such titles are bestowed by the bundo kanduang, or chieftainess.

VIDEO: Local Minang community is part of the world's largest matrilineal society http://str.sg/minang

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on May 11, 2017, with the headline Minangkabau matriarchs rule the roost . Subscribe