The Manobo Tribe

"Manobo" or "Manuvu" means "person" or "people"; it may also have been originally "Mansuba" from man (person or people) and suba (river), hence meaning "river people." A third derivation is from "Banobo," the name of a creek that presently flows to Pulangi River about 2 km below Cotabato City. A fourth is from "man" meaning "first, aboriginal" and "tuvu" meaning "grow, growth." Manobo " is the hispanized form.

The Manobo Belong to the original stock of proto-Philippine or proto-Austronesian people who came from South China thousands of years ago, earlier than the Ifugao and other terrace-building peoples of the northern Luzon. Ethnolinguist Richard Elkins(1966)coined the term "Proto-Manobo" to designate this stock of aboriginal non-Negritoid people of Mindanao. The first Manobo settlers lived in northern Mindanao: Camiguin, Cagayan, and some areas of Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental. Subgroups are: Agusan-Surigao, Ata, Bagobo, Banwaon, Blit, Bukidnon, Cotabato(which include the Arumanen, Kirintekan, and Livunganen), Dibabawon, Higaonon, Ilianon, Kulamanen, Manuvu, Matigsalug, Rajah Kabungsuan, Sarangani, Tboli, Tagabawa, Tigwa, Ubo, Umayamnon, and western Bukidnon. Manobo languages representative of these groups are Agusanon, Banwaon, Binukid of Mindanao, Cagayano of Cagayancillo Island, Cotabato Manobo, Dibabawon Manobo, Eatern Davao Manobo, Ilianon Manobo, Kidapawan, Kinamigin of Camiguin Island, Livunganen, Magahat, Sarangani Manobo, Southern Cotabato and Davao Manobo, Tasaday, Tagabawa, Tigwa Manobo,, Ubo of the Mt Apo region in Davao, western Bukidnon Manobo, and western Cotabato Manobo (Elkins 1966; Olson 1967).

The Manobo have for their neighbors the Talaandig of Bukidnon, the Matigsalug of the middle Davao River area, the Attaw or Jangan of the midland area which is now within the jurisdiction of Davao City, the Tahavawa and Bilaan in the south and southeast, and the Ilianon along the Pulangi river basin . This was the site of barter dealings with the Muslim traders who travelled upriver into the hinterlands.

Most Manobo inhabit the river valleys, hillsides, plateaus, and interiors of Agusan, Bukidnon, Cotabato, Davao, Misamis Oriental, and Surigao Del Sur. The whole Manobo population numbers 250,000 (NCCP-PACT 1988). The subgroup Manuvu inhabits a contiguous area along southern Bukidnon, northeastern Cotabato, and northwestern Davao. The Ilianon, Livunganen-Arumanen, and Kirintekan are in northern Cotabato. The Tigwa/Tigwahanon are concentrated in Lindagay and scattered all over the town of San Fernando, Bukidnon, close to the border of Davao Del Norte. Tigwa may have derived from guwa (scattered) or the Tigwa River, whose banks they inhabit. The Umayamnon are scattered around the town of Cabalangsan, Bukidnon, and the interiors of Agusan Del Sur. The western Bukidnon Manobo inhabit the southwestern quarter of Bukidnon province.

The different Manobo languages belong to the Philippine subfamily of the superfamily of the superfamily of languages called Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian in the old literature). Some linguists of the Summer Institute of Linguistics have discovered that the Mindanao languages belong to a subgroup of Philippine languages which they call the proto-Manobo. The protolanguage, however, has not yet been reconstructed or dated.

From the Articles Publish by Lydia Mary De Leon