Traditons and the role of Kepala Adat

During our stay in Flores, we realised the importance of adat, traditions, in the society. Each village has a number of traditional leaders, called mosalaki in the Lio area, who have different tasks and fields of responsibility. For instance in Desa Nggela, a village with 1052 inhabitants, there are 17 mosalaki who live in the traditional village.

The leader of the mosalaki and the Head of Traditions in the village is also called Kepala Adat. The title is inherited on the male side of the family. The Kepala Adat always has the last word. If a Kepala Adat does not have a son, the next head of the village will be elected by an old tradition called Sao Ao. Each of the candidates gets a bamboo stick to put on the fire. The bamboo sticks cracks and the one with the straightest line wins.

During our stay in Flores, we got the opportunity to interview two Kepala Adat and get their views and opinions on development and relations between religion and traditions. Throughout history the relationship between the Catholic Church and the old traditions has been characterised by respect and harmony. Both of the traditional leaders look upon themselves as Christians and deeply respect the Church. A traditional ceremony will not under any circumstances be arranged at the same time as the Mass in the church.

Religion and tradition are in their view not competitors, but rather two separate important elements in people’s lives. However, what the Church feels about animism is a bit unclear. What we do know is that the relationship is not as close as it used to be. One of the reasons could be that the Church tried to Christianise people by maintaining a good relationship to the Kepala Adat and traditions in general. However, when people had become Christians, their attitude towards traditions changed in a more negative direction. We experienced a struggling for power between the leaders of the Church and the traditional leaders, but at the same time, they deeply respect one another.

When it comes to political life, we were told that the Kepala Adat does not have any influence. Talking about the relationship between the government and the Kepala Adat, it was characterised by cooperation and understanding. Together they had developed programmes in order to maintain the old traditions. In spite of these programmes, the other Kepala Desa had a different story to tell. Considering the fact that the government has a higher position than the traditions, the government has the power to make decisions and make demands that the traditional leaders are forced to obey. According to him, the government does not care about or respect the traditions, although they try to appear seriously.

Women have a bit more power compared to previous years, but there is still a long way to go. When we asked why women cannot be a traditional leader, the answer was pretty clear: ‘ Women can never be a Mosalaki, because then it is not tradition any more.’

Talking about development, both of the Kepala Adat said that their contribution was to motivate and give free land to the people, so they had somewhere to produce food.