A History of the Fort at Long Akah: Contact, Collaboration and Power

Abstract

This paper traces history through the fort at Long Akah during the various eras of the Brooke administration, the colonial government and the Sarawak State government. This study takes its cue from the notion of the fort as a vehicle for a distinctive history of an area and uses indigenous oral histories and recollections as “alternative history.” Forts were built during and after pacification and this process was dependent on the collaboration of local leaders whose influence was ritually prescribed by the adat. The forts functioned as a place where taxes were paid, where court cases were heard, and where trading took place. While the fort at Long Akah represented locally a locus of power for the Brooke administration, it will be seen that this power was located in a crucial local collaboration in governance, which depended on the role of local leaders.