ELL: Akha Reply Regarding Language and Sterilizations

[Matthew McDaniel]

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Date: Sun, 04 Apr 1999 17:20:49 +0700
From: Matthew McDaniel <akha at loxinfo.co.th>
Organization: The Akha Heritage Foundation
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Subject: ELL: Akha Reply Regarding Language and Sterilizations
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Akha Reply to Language Issues and sterilizations.



You may delete if of no interest to you.



It is rather lengthly and difficult to read in some places but is the
original handwritten response.



*****

This is the Akha response to the issues of how their language has been
manipulated and how they were increasingly marginalized by the
.ioneering.of sterilizations among the Akha which has continued on
through to this day.

*****

This response is written by a number of Akha who fear for their safety
should they make their names public.

****

April 4, 1999
Maesai, Chiangrai, Thailand

A reply to comments of Paul W. Lewis that the Akha have not been
exploited by the protestant missions, that blood was not taken, and that
sterilizations did not happen in large numbers, were not done
carelessly, and did not cause a lot of women to die:

Elder states:

"Paul Lewis says that our statement that blood was taken from women
being sterilized is "obscene".
Obscene as compared to all the women who died?
Just what is he talking about?

Of seven ladies that had sterilization in our village, two passed away
shortly after the sterilization. Although the Akha do not currently have
the funds to research the exact number who died away it is indeed quite
high.  Why? They went to receive sterilization because they were poor.
After being sterilized since they could not become rich automatically
they had to go and work as usual.  So they had to suffer pain from their
operation. Since their povery demanding them not to stop their job, they
had to face with new disease of feeling pain all the time.  Later, they
had to pass away with new disease.  That. why, the help given by others
turned out to be a trap for most of the Akha ladies who were being
sterilized. Those who survived, still many are suffering from various
kind of diseases and social abnormalities.  Some became opium adicts,
still some became very thin and suffering from bleeding.

Who did all these things?  To me it seems to be like a systematic way of
killing our hill tribe, to anihilate us.  Why I dare say like that?  As
they are experts in these fields, they know ahead for sure that those
who underwent operation some or somehow would not be able to do hard
labor in the rest of her life.  Knowing it properly, they pursuaded hill
tribes women to undertake such operation by offering bonus to individual
person to lower down the population of hill tribes people for sure.

They killed the best of our people.  Since our people knew about it very
little, they accepted it like a fish which sees the bait but not the
hook.

Now I feel very bad for my suffering people. To whom shall I blame?   To
my poor people or to those so called experts who jumped in with lots of
money as if they were our generous benefactors?

Whatever it be, froom my personal experiences and eye witnessing, this
project did not do any good for our people.  Why such a great and well
known man like Dr. Paul Lewis, intentionally and willingly tried to
carry out such expensive project particularly just for our hill tribes
people?  Since they are well educated and being able to forsee what will
be the result of their project, why they did such to our tribe?  It is
still remaining as a mystery for our people especially for those young
people who love their people very much.

Regarding the Baptist missionaries, they seemed that they did not show
any interest for our culture. Why?  They did not encourage to name the
new born children in the traditional name.  They just eager to build big
churches in every village.  Even if there is just one christian family
in a village where there are over 100 households, they try very hard to
build a big church for that family.  Such thing happen in Akha
villages.  There may be only one christian family, but the villagers did
not allow him to build a church but he did not listen so he built a
small church, later the villagers pulled it down. Why? Becasue they are
afraid that there will be division among the villagers, later the
villagers will become two groups that they will start to speak bad to
one another.  So at last there will be division in the village.  As
examples we may find up to two or three churches in just one small
village, how one will belong to Baptist mission, another to church of
Christ and another one still to pentacostals, etc.   and you will not
find anyone from among these various churches for our culture.  Why?.
Another Akha:

. was not Baptist but lived among many Baptist villages. I could get
the best news that there were going on with the Baptist Church when Paul
Lewis was staying in Burma as well as in Thailand.  He was so friendly
with many Baptist Pastors that what he is goint to tell us indeed coming
out from the mouths of the pastors.

Regarding the sterilizations, he said that women not only from Tachilek
district at the border, but also from Mong Phyak, Mong Yog, Mong Hkat,
Mong Yan, Mong Pin as well as Keng Tung were sterilized.  Almost all of
them came from Baptist villages. Why?  Because those who came to bring
these women down also mostly came from pastor. society.  Time they
trusted to their Chief Pastor very much that it seemed they did not
think very much that it would be right or wrong.  Only later when they
came to realize that  sterilization was not good at all for hill tribe
women for many suffered and died of this.  Since women came from many
many villages for more than ten years at least, the number would be very
great and those who passed away most probably would be more than three
thousand already.  Still other remain who are still suffering.  Basing
on what many came across from all these we dare say that much perhaps
even more than that.

I do not understand why Dr. Paul Lewis spent lots of money to carry out
this project?  Apart from giving money to each patient he also gave all
the traveling expenses to them and 3,000 baht to the agent, which at
that time was a lot of money, for bringing the women in.  That is why in
those days his project became a good income for those agents who managed
to bring down the patients to the surgery.  Most of these agents came
from pastor. societies. To be able to get that 3,000 baht as a a bonus,
many tried to fulfill this project enthusiastically, so that became a
sort of economy for them.  Because of such situation it seemed that many
women recieved only good stories of what would follow suit after
sterilization.  No body told them the bad side  effects that would come
out from that project.  But fact is fact. Most of those ladies who
underwent sterilization met with various types of disasters.  To whome
shall we blame for al these things?  It is plain truth in our villages.
Whoever denies it will be just cheating the world.  I am stil wondering
why such a great man initiated such a bad thing to our hill tribe?  I am
very eager to know the answer.

Some claimed that certain amount of blood was drawn away from their
bodies varying to one another.  The patients themselves also never knew
why the drawing of blood was done upon them.  This was more than what
would be made to come out for a blood test.  How true it is would be
left over with the persons who were paid to do the sterilizations and
have access to all the records.

For the time being, so many patients could not work anymore, many became
very thin and suffering from various form of disease. Many others still
becoming socially abnormal that they felt shy for being like that.  But
how to solve it? There is no answer.

At the beginning when christianity was arrising among the Akha people,
they burnt down our gates, and ancestor offering boxes.   Slowly we were
named with christian names that traditional names and naming system were
disappearing away slowly.  By now when a new child is born, he or she
will be named in christian way either by the mistress of the pastor or
by the pastor himself, eliminating our ancient naming system by which we
count our generations back.  Now the children can not do that, because
the naming system was interfered with and destroyed by these christian
mission people.

By looking at this to be Akha means needs to know our geneolocial line.
If they are pushing away such good custom of Akha, no doubt they don.
care if they push away the culture of Akha people also.  Thus at first
they threw away our culture, later divisions came among the people
although they are same christians. In that way, there sprouting up one
church after another in the same village.   Now not only division among
the villages but also division among the families are arising. How to
solve it?  What a miserable situation is goin on among our people in
Burma from western missions coming in from Thailand.

Regarding the education given by missionaries, that was very good
indeed.  Many young people came to know how to uplifty the living
standards of our people.  At the beginning it seemed to be very good.
As the years gone by, boarding departments also show interest only for
girls.  Why?  Especially in Thailand.  Due to having prostitution so
highly, under the name of safeguarding young women, boarding schools for
girls sprouting up.  But then the girls no longer feel to marry Akha
men.  So where will the Akha children come from and what will happen to
our people and villages? They do not come back to the villages. In this
way the Akha women are being taken away from the Akha world.  That is
why the present education being given by the missionaries should be
closed down quickly and changing into new educational system.  Education
should be given in village level thus giving chances to both boys and
girls in the village life.  Then we will be able to preserve ourselves,
instead of having the young women .ought out.from us, then we can also
save our language.

We do not know why the so called missionaries are trying to throw away
our culture so eagerly?  Isn. there any good thing in our culture?  If
there is not even a single good point, why then are they making business
by selling Akha head dresses and other things also?  Making lots and
lots of money by writing about our people, culture, custom and history?
After all, to be able to write such things from where do they get all
these informations?  Indeed, all these informations are given by my
people and they are still poor as usual.  What about those authors?
They become rich and well known to the world for writing and knowing
about us.

For example, Dr. Paul Lewis when he came to Burma in 1947 he hardy
aquired any degree.  Through his zeal and eagerness to learn he gained
his MA and Ph.D. while he was in Burma and Thailand.  In fact he gained
great knowledge from us.  So many Akha elders who were well informed
regarding Akha Zauh had to sacrifice lots of their time so that a person
like Paul Lewis, who did not understand even a single Akha could become
an Akha expert up to writing books in Akha.  Wo are his teachers?  We
the Akha.  He became very famous by writing about Akha Zauh in english
under four volumes and they are in Cornell University.  What are the
contents of these four volumes?  The real culture of Akha was never
suitable for Akha readers.  Paul Lewis. mission had Bibles, not books
on our culture.  The so called four volumes written about Akha Zauh was
never written in Akha.  Now we even doubt that Paul Lewis might have
written about Akha in an oppressive way.  If he is forbidding our Zauh,
why then he is writing all of this?  The book called .eople of the
Golden Triangle.which has sold thousands of books in many languages
must have made him some name and some money.  Does he deny he made great
name off us, but lives safely while we still die?

So our poor people did not make any trouble for him, instead helping him
to be more learned man and more wealthy man.  People like to call him a
.reat man of God.  But why did he dropped down such a bad seed called
sterilization which has been carrying on by other people?  My people
were so good to him that he gave us back the worst thing!? Can we tell
or name him that he is still a christian?  Now he is retiring with lots
of wealth while we are remaining still very poor?

Regarding the religion, at the beginning it seemed to be very good.
Converting one village after another. Later it turned out to be division
among the people.  Why?  Some became Catholics, some protestants, some
still holding their ancestor offering while others became buddhists.
All these even though they are Akhas and sons of the same Sooh Meeh Oh,
they could not face to one another. Why?  First they took away our
culture which has been handed down upon over 1500 years already by
naming it that it was bad to carry.  Now we want to raise a question,
how good the christianity is then.  If that is good enough, why there
are so many groups, teaching about Jesus and yet fighting to one
another?  First they divided our people, now they are dividing our
villges and lately they are dividing our families by building many
churches just in one village.  On Burma side and Thailand, it looks like
a testing ground for their different groups of religion.  Our people are
indeeed confusing a lot.  Better not to have one of them than having all
of them.  They are just trying to take the best from us and leaving us
in despair.  We seems to be llike a prey for them.

Regarding the Akha scripts, before Paul Lewis was born, Catholic Akha
script was already there, printed by Msgr. Bonetta from Toungoo Press.
And the present Catholic script is the third improvement and already
taken into shape before 1950 and done by Fr. Protuluppi.  The earliest
Akha prayer book was printed somewhere around 1917 already.  By starting
a new one, Baptist mission started with their own script to make a
difference between Catholic and Baptist. They would not agree to work
together.  Due to this which one we shall choose?  Just to take an
escape from all of this we worked with the people at the Akha Heritage
Foundation to make a script which solved the problems inherent in both
the others, and that took no religious side.  With this we can record
all our Akha Zauh accurately and it can be typed, read and learned
quickly.  For sure we would be most criticized by the missionaries
first, but we don. care, we just care that all our Zauh should be
recorded for the children before we pass away.

The missionaries quickly seized upon the killing of twins at birth in
Akha culture as a means to villify the whole culture and turn many Akha
against anything and everything Akha.  Divide us. Conquer us?
On every culture, which we can ever find in the world, since they are
formed long time ago, some of them will not be up to the mark of modern
society, some may seem to be with error.  In Old Testament time they are
human sacrificing even.  Cannibalism is still going on in some part of
Africa.

In that way, our culture also some seems to be very cruel.  For such
case, instead of understanding upon our culture, missionaries would like
to mock at us, with that they blamed that our culture was indeed very
bad in that we killed new born twins.  In those days, they presumed that
only animals would give birth to more than one.  If two or three babies
are born from the same womb at the same moment, the presumed that they
would bring bad luck to the society.  So they killed them. In those days
people were waging war in our land all the time and migrating from one
place to another all the time also.  If the mother had to care two or
three at the same time, it would be very hard for the family.  They
might have their own reasons for all of this.

Today I would like to ask to those concerned about it properly since
killing is wrong indeed, why then abortion is going on and on all the
time especially in US where all the missionaries come from?  Is that not
against the violation of human right?  Even in your churches?  Why such
thing is going on and on all the time?  To us we castrate only animals,
to make them become fat quickly especually for rearing pigs.  In abroad
they are sterilizing ladies, this also what a strange thing for us
here.  Due to those authors who tried to exagerate our culture so much
in a mockery way that readers presumed we Akha people might really be
primitive people.  Because of that, when they converted an Akha village
into Christianity they burnt down our gates, ancestor shrines, swing
etc.  Apart from that , they also stopped us from doing traditional
burial, naming to enw born children in traditional way of names, no more
recitations, no dancing allowed.  In fact all these things made the Akha
people to presereve their culture and language over one thousand five
hundred years already.  If these can keep the Akha people for such a
long tie as a group of people, we don. think that all these would be
very bad.    That. why we want to ask you, whether it is not it is
worth to keep them instead of condemning them and throwing them all
away?

For example, gate of the village means fence of the village like the
fence of our compound.  Is that wrong to have a fence of the village?
To the Akhas, swing ceremony represents to God. creation of human, they
say that the Akha has descended from God through the swing. Is it wrong
to commemorate that?  Is it wrong to name an Akha new born child after
the name of their respective lineage?  That. why missionaries should
reconsider it over again and should change their way of teachings.

If all these cultures are bad as they named, can we say that
sterilization is justified?
Now sterilization is still going on from the seeds that Paul Lewis
dropped down.  All these can be seen in the stream of life here.

>>From our close observation we came to know that when the missionaries
arrived these missionaries selected some ones so that later these people
would be able to take their place. In this way they formed a lot of Akha
elite thus taking them away, from the ordinary people.  They made them
into a group to be extra ordinary Akhas, thus giving them best
education, best facilities of the world.  That is why there smal group
could buy the latest cars one after the other.  They became very
powerful that they could pin point anybody whom they want and start
ordering what they like.  Why they did like that?  Only those concerned
would know the purpose of doing that?  Now these young leaders replacing
old missionaries.  They think that they belong to upper class and they
don. want to admit that they also came from the same people.

>>From where all these divisive ideas came from?  From the foreign
missionaries?  If that is true, why did they do that?  We have no proper
leader, no country, no land to be able to claim as ours, no wealth, no
education, number also very limited.  To such a poor people, why did
they do that?  It seems that they are having to faces.  Under the title
of help they suppress us.  To the world they gained their reputation as
benefactors of disappearing tribes.  They built their reputations on us
for many years. While many Akhas served to assist this reputation for
many years, assistance came back only to a few.

The way they behaved upon us seemed as if we did not know about God
before they arrived here.  Why do missionaries think they are the only
ones who can perceive God?  If there is no good teachings among the
Akhas, we are sure that we can not have survived until this day. "

End of Akha statement

****
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