3 - Bumiquest: Malacca's Portuguese Eurasians and the Search for Identity

Summary

INTRODUCTION: A VILLAGE BY THE SEA

At first sight there is little “Portuguese” about the Portuguese Settlement, a seaside village outside Malacca town. Most people have brownish complexion, some women wear sarongs, and their homes are more akin to those in an urban Malay kampung than an exotic “Portuguese” village. But a closer look reveals a crucifix and an image of the Virgin Mother Mary at house entrances. Children play barefoot on narrow streets, speaking a strange mixture of English and Malay, interspersed with screams of “Alleluia!” (Fieldwork 15 September 2008). The people here speak a Portuguese Creole called Kristang, practise a common Catholic religion, and live a culture which, through long interaction within Malacca's diverse cultural milieu has became a Malay–Portuguese–Eurasian hybrid, with Chinese, Indian, Dutch and English influences. This hybridization is also evident in their ethnic origins, family names, language, religion, cuisine, dress, and performing arts and varied descriptions of them as Malaysian Portuguese, Portuguese Eurasians, Luso–Malays, Serani (Nesrani or Christians in Malay) or simply Kristang or Christian in their own language (Sarkissian 2002).

Set by the sea on 11.5 hectares two kilometres south of the city, the settlement was built in 1934 by the Catholic Church, elite Eurasians and the British to improve housing and living conditions for poor fishermen of Portuguese descent who lived as squatters in overcrowded seaside villages. Today it remains a vibrant community. “We have 120 houses and 1,200 residents, but only forty depend on fishing for a livelihood,” says Peter Gomez, the headman or regedor (Interview, 15 September 2008). The majority of young wage earners today work in services and manufacturing; the rest comprise housewives, students and pensioners. Housing is still a problem among some poorer families, especially those involved in fishing, and in the poorer streets of the settlement it is common for one house to be occupied by several families. In addition about 300 Portuguese Eurasians occupy private and public low–cost flats around the settlement, and 1,000 others reside in nearby Ujong Pasir and suburbs such as Bukit Baru (Interview, Michael Barnerji, 26 July 2011).

The community is widely dispersed, with a diaspora of over 10,000 members living in other Malaysian towns, Singapore, and Perth. Despite their dispersion, many return yearly to the settlement and to churches and chapels linked to it for family reunions and religious festivals.