(Introduction : Despite the fact that we are already in the new millennium, by and large, the real understanding of the Kadazandusun people regarding the acceptance and use of the terms Dusun and/or Kadazan ( and now Kadazandusun ) as an ethnical identity for the community is still in a confused state. At times the comments availed from these people residing in various regions of Sabah can be horridly conflicting. Therefore , the purpose of re-publishing this article ( which was actually published as a letter to the editor in the Borneo Mail tabloid on 29 March 1989 by the author ) is to share to our readers, particularly the younger Kadazandusun generations, a plausible viewpoint pertaining to the historical background of our ethnicity. Certainly, there are differing opinions regarding this issue, and it is worth knowing them as far as possible. I have taken the liberty here to reproduce this article as an exerpt of the aforementioned tabloid for our benefits. Hofully, in due course, we will then begin to understand ourselves as a community better. The “Kadazan “or “Dusun “issue has become a favorite topic for public debate with personal comments made by many individuals. I have no intention to participate in this type of debate but would at least like to share the information I have collected regarding the matter. The word “dusun ” almost everyone agrees, is a foreign word as far as the Kadazans or Dusuns are concerned. It was used by British to refer to members of ethnic groups comprising Liwan, Bundu, Tindal, Rungus, Lotud, Tatana, Kwijau, Tangara and so on. The word is a Malay origin and according to the Kamus Dewan compiled by Dr. Tengku Iskandar ( published by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka in 1970 ), it means either “. Kampung yang terpencil (small village ); orang dusun, orang kampong (desa)(village); 2. Kebun buah-buahan (orchard)” Anyhow the British used the word “Dusun to denote the various groups mentioned above. One wonders how the British came to used the word to apply to these people. One story about how this came about is that, it was possible that the first foreigners to come to Sabah shores came to ask the coastal people, who were mainly Malay (Bajaus ), about who the interior people were, and the likely answer was that there were “orang Dusun “meaning “villagers ” So it seemed that the name came to be used to refer to the inland people. This story has credence in that Owen Rutter in his book “The Pagans of North Borneo “published by Hutchinson, London 1929 wrote ” the word dusun”never used by the tribes themselves, but appears to have been applied to them by Mohammedan ivaders.” Owen Rutter and other early writers on the pre-literate societies or anthropolical and sociological history of Sabah did not mention any terms or words that would encompass the various groups mentioned earlier namely Liwan, Bundu, Tindal, Rungus, Lotud, Tatana, Tangara and so on.However, Owen Rutter in the same book mentioned above wrote that ” The Dusun usually describes himself generically as a tulun tindal(landsman) or on the West Coast, particularly Papar, as a Kadazan.” So the word “Kadazan” was already recorded by Owen Rutter in early 1920s. To say that the word “Kadazan” was coined only during the 1950s or 1960s is incorrect. Another point worth mentioning here is the story of how the first Kadazan dictionary written or more correctly compiled by the late Rev. Fr. A. Antonissen, partly also through the efforts of John Padasian, who was studying at Melbourne University at that time, came about. It was believed to be a collection of Kadazan word started by the earliest priests coming to serve in Papar or Penampang. They would be able to learn the language faster. If this is true, and there is no reason to say otherwise, then the word collection would have started with the earliest priests which would date start of the Kadazan dictionary in 1880s. Therefore the use of word “Kadazan” would predate this and most probably came with the existence of the Tangara people. The Kadazan or Dusun people are unique to Sabah and this group of people are not found anywhere else in the world; so it is logical that they would probably be the first inhabitants of Sabah together with the Muruts. With regard to the dating of human settlement in Sabah. Tom and Barbara Harrison writing for the Sabah Society Journal, in thier monograph “The Prehistory of Sabah” published in 1971, maintain that people were here in Sabah 40,000 - 30,000 BC. So if the original inhabitans of Sabah are the various groups mentioned above then the word ” Kadazan” may have existed that long. To maintain that the word ” Kadazan” came from the word “kadai” and “kedayan” is not supported by anthropological or social developments.”kadai” or shops may have existed in the 1950s, in both Penampang and Papar but the people who lived these shops were Chinese. To assume that Chinese to change their names to “kadaian” and eventually “kadazan” is not sustainable as there has not been another case where a Chinese community away from their homeland would voluntarily corrupt their own race name and change to another entirely alien one. The Kadazan/Dusuns as a group had and have not lived in the “kedai” and to use it to give themselves a tribal name is very unlikely. As to the word “Kedayan”,it refers to another ethnic group found in Sabah but far from Penampang or Papar, and not belonging to the Kadazan/Dusun group. Why would one pick a name from another different ethnic group when one can pick numerous names from one’s own group? Lastly, on the meaning of the word “kadazan”, the Bobolians(Bobohizans) or priestesses, the keepers of Kadazan/Dusun traditions, beliefs and customs, and traditional medicine-men say that it simply means “person” or human being, rather similar to the Chinese “Tong-yin” when referring to themselves.
Note: Formely a Senior Officer with the Education Department, Kota Kinabalu,Sabah Malaysia. Currently, he is a Management Committee Member of the Kadazandusun Language Foundation, Penampang.
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