Tag: Sarawak stamp

Sarawak is a region of north Borneo that was awarded to a British adventurer by the Sultan of Brunei. That lead to the region passing to the British government and then on to modern Malaysia. One can imagine the fun of people far from home interacting with the local tribes, picking favorites, and trying to avoid nightmares. When you imagine such a thing the modern people of Sarawak would like to remind you of the moral distinction between headhunters and cannibals. The maneaters in Sarawak are the alligators. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

For this near the end of colonial times stamp issue, the colony decided to feature the culture of two of the smaller tribes in the area. In this case we have the ceremonial carving of the smaller Kenyah tribe that exist both in Sarawak as well as over the border in Indonesia.  It is understandable why the colony featured the Kenyah tribe. They are a peaceful, untatooed people who were early converts to Protestant Christianity and active in agriculture. Modern Malaysia has not stopped featuring the Kenyah people. Miss World Malaysia 2020, Francisca James, is from the Kenyah tribe in Sarawak.

Todays stamp is issue A24, a 10 cent stamp issued by the Crown Colony of Sarawak in 1955. It was a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The area of Sarawak was awarded to British adventurer Sir James Brooke as a reward for assisting the then Sultan of Brunei. The rule of a different race was awkward but mostly peaceful and the economic future of the area was secured by the discovery of oil. The Brooke’s were dislodged by a Japanese occupation during World War II and the British government took over directly post war as better able to handle post war reconstruction.

The interaction of ruling or just resident whites made for some trouble in their depiction of some inland tribes as head hunters. It was true that some among the Iban tribe were headhunters. Naturally this is pretty exciting stuff back in the home country. In her last years back in Britain, Silvia, the last Brooke era Queen wrote a popular autobiography “Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters”. Like most primitive tribes, practices like head hunting became less common over time.

You might have expected such controversies to pass into history as the area became under Malaysian rule. Instead it has intensified as there is a new popular video game called Borneo, Jungle Nightmare. In it your character can fight pirates and Brooke style white rajahs. You also face jungle attacks by iban tribe head hunters that can go beyond head hunting into the consumption of human flesh. The towns are displayed as more modern. The critics would have preferred the game to be less place and people specific. The makers of the game state that it is just a game and is made more intriguing by including real places and realistic characters. They also point to documented cases of cannibalism in the area during post colonial insurrections.

Well my drink is empty. It will be up to the many gamers of the modern Sarawak to decide if they want to start the game and live out a local nightmare. I expect they will line up to do so. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

Profit seeking companies have a pretty poor track record running colonies. See here https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/07/imperial-british-east-africa-company-1890-another-company-fails-to-administer-a-colony/   or here https://the-philatelist.com/2019/02/28/mozambique-company-1937-taking-credit-where-none-was-due/    . This one is a little different as the descendants of a white adventurer were ruling Malayans after being given the land by the Sultan of Brunei. Until it was time to write a big check and the White Rajah instead puts in a call to the colonial office. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp is from after the bailout but before the area passed to independent Malaysia. These type stamps often show the local industry and this issue does show local basket weavers. No oil industry stamp though, instead exotic animals and plants. Britain had been accused of colonizing Sarawak post war to get their hands on the oil resources. So no stamp of the industry to make the locals point.

Todays stamp is issue A23, a two cent stamp issued by the British Crown Colony of Sarawak in 1955. It was part of a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents.

Charles Viner Brooke was the last in the line of 3 Brookes that had been  white rulers of Sarawak. During their time the area was not a British colony. The people of Sarawak were Malayan. Brooke had taken over in 1917. Over time the area became more prosperous as oil was discovered. Brooke had followed the common British practice in colonial areas in turning over much of the interactions with locals to a council of tribesman. Brooke agreed to their request of banning Christian missionaries and in turn the tribesman had banned the local practice of cannibalism. In 1941, a new constitution was passed for Sarawak that would gradually shift more power to locals while leaving the Brookes in ceremonially as the Rajah. In return for signing off on this, the Sarawak treasury paid Brooke $200,000 that funded his exile in Sydney. The Japanese then invaded and the new constitution was not implemented. The Japanese held on to Sarawak till the end of the war and left most of the oil fields in wreckage.

Brooke returned to Sarawak in 1945 and was received in a friendly manner. He then informed the locals that he did not have the money needed to get the oil fields back into production and he contacted the British regarding a loan to Sarawak. The only way a British loan was possible was if Britain was named the colonial administrator. As part of the deal, Brooke would personally receive 1 million pounds, over 30 million dollars today. Many local tribesmen viewed this as a sellout as it would mean again that their constitution would not be implemented. They pointed out that Britain had done nothing to defend Sarawak from the Japanese. Neither or course had the tribesmen and how else could Britain guarantee repayment of the loan. It is worth pointing out that it was the British that had discovered the oil in Sarawak and neighboring Brunei and done the work of bringing it to market. It would not be them however to get rich from it. Britain readily passed Sarawak and it’s oil on to independent Malaysia.

The Brooke family was also not happy with the decision to turn the area over to the British ending the white Rajah. Anthony Brooke, the nephew and heir, actively opposed the turnover and was banned by the British from the now colony. Even Charles’s wife Sylvia opposed the turnover. She had ambitions that her daughter Lenora would be able to put Islamic law and rules of succession aside and become the next white Rajah. After Charles died, Sylvia wrote a book about her time as Queen Consort title “Sylvia of Sarawak, Queen of the Headhunters”.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Sylvia. She looks to be an expensive woman to keep happy, it is no wonder Charles felt the need to sell out Sarawak. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.