The Roman Catholic Missionaries had come up the shores of the island of Borneo, choosing the north-west side of the island, where Jesselton was, as their landing place. That was well over a hundred years ago. They brought with them mordenity and influence to the thinking of the local people. They especially brought with them a new belief, a belief in a heavenly God, God the Father Almighty and the morden aclaimed 'Good News' of salvation by Jesus Christ, God's only Son. Together with the influence-dessiminated believes came the introduction of cannonised saints' names, suggested taken by the local believers as additions to their existing names. Newly borns were especially recommended to take up names of saints from foreign lands.
On 1st February, 1942, about 66 years ago this year, 2008, a bundle-of-joy-daughter, the first-born, was born of a mother. That baby girl was given Christian-Catholic names. Time passed by and the baby girl grew up to be a bounching young girl. When that bounching young girl was almost 2 years old, a baby boy, a brother to her, was born of her mother, his mother too, on 29th January, 1944. Minan Oginis, as many adults called her, or, Odu Oginis, as she was popularly called by many younger people, was undoubtedly the highly regarded midwife in attendance. She must have stayed in the same house long before the delivery time for that was the custom practised at that time. Nearly all the young people in the villages around were delivered by the famous village grand midwife, Odu Oginis. If a young person's name was mentioned, Odu Oginis would say, "Ah, but she's my daughter!" or, "He's my son!". She meant she was the midwife who saw to it that the baby was carefully laid down in the mother's arms.
When the babyboy was born, the infant birth-cry must have been louder than usual. The little conversation that issued could have been, "Oonu kaa, kusai?" "Ooh". "'Patut no, opuod poogi o tiad." ("What was it, a boy?" "Yes." "No wonder, the cry was so loud".) It was noted that that infant boy had an exceptionally big mouth. This must have been well displayed when it opened its mouth to cry. Odu Oginis must have stayed longer with the nursing mother because of the sensitive big mouth crying baby. Unknown to all onlookers at that time, the sensitive crying baby was at an early stage of developing a mysterious skin disease, locally code-named a Japanese skin disease.
My mother told me much later that it was a miracle that I continued to live my 1st year. My skin disease was so severe that my mother had to use banana leaves to wrap me in, in the stead of a proper napkin. She said that the banana leaves were cooler to soothe my bare flesh. It did not stick to the flesh, rather the bared-skin body would slip and slide drop of the banana leaves if one was not too careful.
My grandmother and aunties must have criss-crossed the hills around Guntiban to look for tongkuasam (herbal medicine) and other trees for their vonod (medicinal sap juice). They must have reached as far as Suok Kianau to look for any herbal plants expressedly or impliedly mentioned to them by others, either in passing or in truthful intentions. I was surely indeed quite a bother to the members of the immediate family and the family circle. After hearing all those hardships I had incurred to my parents and relatives around when I was still small, I wondered whether it had ever crossed my parents' mind not to really mind at all should I had died during those troublesome years.
But God was forever great. He saw to it that I survived. The skin disease left me completely when I was, probably, doing my 2nd year. Very much early, around the time of my birth, there must have been discussions among the people in the house, between my father and mother together with my aunties and uncles, as to what name should be given to me. My father, in much later years, confirmed to me his involvement in naming me Julius. A distant cousin who was born almost at the same time as me in Kampung Penampang, further down the Moyog River, was named by his parents, Julius. So my father also called me, Julius. It was theorized that everyone in the household then called me, Ju, a short form for, Julius. Nice name. In much, much later years, when I went to school, my must-be learned teacher called me, Joe, the short form for Joseph, not, Ju, for Julius. But my name then was not Joseph. When I had the opportunity to craftily adjust my given names, I took, Joseph, as my Confirmation name so as to put right what had been, sort of, collaboratively put wrong.
In my real kampung-environment growing-up years, with the very limited kampung growing-up contemporaries as friends, there was a jingle which had the mention of the name Joe. My so-called growing-up friends sang the jingle to tease me.
Joe, Joe Kanatok
Nokojiil sominggu
Minanakau do Natok!
What is there in a name?
My given names, according to my Roman Catholic Church Baptismal Certificate stated Joannes Julius. Where was the name Joannes from? No one could enlighten me as to who suggested the name for me! Could Emol's other name be Joannes? He was my uncle, my mother's youngest brother. Emol died in his teens due to nohusian. (mysterious reasons). The name, Joannes, was incidentally taken by the late Emol's nephew, Vivian. I did not mind I had that name, except that I did not use it. It was therefore not framed in my NRIC, the official tag-card for all Malaysian citizens. The names I sported on my NRIC was Joseph Julius Kinajil, Kinajil being my grandfather's name. I also used a supplimentary NRIC which stated my alias names as Joseph Tangit. My alias is also stated in my high quality MyCard if its chip-piece was machine-read.
My everyday name is Joe Tangit, otherwise, Joseph Tangit. Formally, my full name is Joe Tangit Kinajil or Joseph Tangit Kinajil. On all formal ducuments my name is Joseph Julius Kinajil @ Joseph Tangit. Sometimes, my name is reversed mistakenly as Joseph Tangit @ Joseph Julius Kinajil. Such a case was for my application for a personal Post Office Box No. 70, in Penampang. My gazetted name for my BSK Award from the State Government was simply Joseph Tangit which is my commonly used name as a Government Officer when I was still in service. My names as appended on all four University Certificates from England are the mixtures of Joseph Julius Tangit Kinajil. The Colombo Plan Scholarship Training Certificate from Australia is appended simply with the name Joseph Tangit.
There was a time when I was seriously asked to abandon the use of the surname, Tangit, and to assume the surname, Kinajil, in its stead. I was given the impression that I may have to take a Deed Poll to effect changes. I had my guesses as to the reasons why I was asked to do so. I really kept quite about the order coming from an elder. If my guesses of the reasons were true, then I did not like them. Not at all! I was therefore thick-headed and continued to use, Tangit, as my surname, the surname I have given for my children and consequently then assumed by my grandsons, my sons' offsprings. I am prepared to start a new family tree steming from Tangit as the source. If there are any of my 2 sons and 2 daughters who would prefer the use of Kinajil as their everyday surname, to concur with the rest of the upper and lower lines, then I would not put down my feet to bar them. They are free to manipulate the use of names familiar to them as long as they realise as to the theory, "what is there in a name!"
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