RPH report: Raiders of the Sulu Sea (chosen topic)

Information gathered (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KOxpK32NUs&t=79s)

- It is a documentary produced by Oakfilms
- About the slavering activities and the economy that are being done by prominent
muslims tribes in Southern Mindanao
- Introducing the muslims tribes in Mindanao
- Portrayed the different economic activities and the slaverading activities of the
groups of “Samal '', Samal Balangingi, Ilanun and the Tausug tribe
- Focused on capturing people and slavarding which they sell people for being a
slave
- Context: The Castilla came to control the activities such as trading in Minadao to
spread and colonise power in Mindanao
- Showed the story of defending the Fort Pillar by the Castilla from the Muslim
tribes
- Introduced the different technologies by the muslim such as sea ferrying
- Muslims are introduced as experts of maritime skill and the maritime industry
- Muslims knew how to make boats, and use different skills when it came to
explorer and visit different islands
- Showed different weapons such as calis, pilan, monocrist, shapes and sizes also
varied from different muslim tribes
- They use these weapons to hunt down for slaves such as for fishing
- By hunting slaves they also kill and create destruction in order for the people to
know how strong they are
- The Muslim tribes or the "Raiders" are one of the most vicious tribes in the
Philippines. They would raid a village, capture all the civilians, then ruthlessly put
holes in their hands and tie them all together through the holes. Nothing could be
more painful than that.
- Trademark of slaves

On the 8th of December 1720, what led Rajah Dalasi a 3,000 strong coalition of warriors
against what soldiers at Fort Pilar, Zamboanga City.
● 600

Slaves would be displayed like produce. Depending on age and ability, the going rate
for a slave was what?
● 10-100pesos

What portrayed as "merciless" in the raiders of the Sulu sea, inhabited the Ilana bay
area in Southwestern Mindanao whose language is intelligible with the Maranaw?
● Ilanuns
What vessels were 24 to 27 meters long with 6 meter wide houses each had cannons
mounted at the bow?
● Juangas

What single sailed ship was 25 meters long and 6 meters across and housed a powder
magazine and cannon at the bow?
● Garay

The sword measuring up to 1.2 meters in length was not only carried by Slave Raiders
into battle, but also by nobles and high-ranking officials of the Sultanates.
● Kalis

What Indigenous people defending their way of life against an Oppressor?

● Raiders

What are Iranun/ Ilanuns portrayed as?

● Raiders of the Sulu Sea
● is a historical-documentary (2008) about the slave-raiding activities perpetrated
by the Sama-Balanguingui and the Ilanun/Iranun under direction of the Sultanate
of Sulu

What was the importance of the Raiders of the Sulu Sea to the grand narrative of the
Philippines?
● It showed the rich and the maritime supremacy of the Sulu maritime.

Was there a relation between the Raiders of Sulu Sea and the Moros conflict?
● Yes. The Moros at the end were continuously displaced by the colonial
government of both Spanish and Americans which led to the continuous struggle
of the Muslims for the rights to land ownership and self governance.

What is Raider of the Sulu sea all about?

● Historical Documentary film focusing on Zamboanga City depicting how the
Spaniards defended the city with the Fort Pilar as Spain’s last stronghold and
bastion of defense and economic expansion in the Southern area in the
Philippines.

Are the raiders of sulu pirates?

● Savages and fearless slave raiders
What is the relevance of the raiders of the sulu sea
● Of the three regions under study here, the Sulu Sea was the most strongly
associated with piracy in the eyes of nineteenth-century observers. The raiders
from Sulu were also, for good reason, the most feared by the coastal populations
of Southeast Asia, who comprised by far most of the victims of the depredations.

Why is their history important?

● Throughout the three and half centuries of conflicts between the Spanish and the
populations of the southern Philippines, maritime raiding played a key role, not
only for the accumulation of wealth and slaves, but also as a means of warfare
and anticolonial resistance.