Family keeps traditional sago extracting methods alive

Romualdo helping his grandmother and mother with the Mamagalus, making pig's food.

KOTA KINABALU: Have you ever wondered how sago was processed traditionally before machines came along?

In Sabah, they were processed using a simple but laborious method called the “mamagalus” in the native Kadazan language, which means grinding.

As sago comes from rumbia trees, traditionally, farmers would harvest the pith (centre of the tree trunk) before it is ground down, dried, pounded and soaked. The resulting starchy residue is then dried again and boiled.

Leftover trunk residue is also turned into pig feed.

Sabahans also get free treats hidden inside the rumbia palm in the form of sago worms.

These worms - also known as Butod - are either eaten alive or cooked.

A grandmother in Penampang has been keeping the traditional method alive for decades and recently taught her grandchildren about the process.

“I see my grandsons spending way too much time on their phones and gadgets so I called them up one day, and asked them to follow me to our farm,” said 73-year-old Jane Mansah.

“I asked them to help me find a few rumbia trees so that we could process sago and have the residue turn into pig feed,” she said.

Eddie (right) taking a selfie with his family who were busy with Mamagalus.

Jane said after collecting what they needed from the nearby jungle, the family carried the heavy items home, laying it on the ground and starting their mamagalus.

Two people would push and pull a long plank filled with halfway-hammered nails to grind the trunks, resulting in a rough flour-like residue.

The process, she said, takes hours and needs a lot of arm work and strength.

“My grandsons love doing these things with us, they have been brought up learning about our traditional way of life and putting these into practice whenever we need them to help out,” Jane said.

Two of the boys, Romualdo, 17 and Ricardo Angat, 14, say they enjoyed doing things that many children do not have the opportunity to try out.

“Of course we love our (video) games, handphones and surfing the Internet but doing outdoor activities as a family is fun too,” said Romualdo.

“It is also a form of exercise and training,” he said, laughing.

His father Eddie said these are what they used to do almost every weekend, if not every day (depending on what the farming season was at the time of the year) after school.

“We would have our lunch, change into our 'work clothes' and then head into the jungle, farm or paddy field to do what is needed,” he said.

“We didn’t even bother with our homework first, because for us at that time, we had lots of farming to do and we had no way of earning money if we did not do it,” said the 49-year-old.

Eddie feels that these traditions must be kept alive so that future generations get to understand and experience what their elders did.

“It is also one way for us to appreciate what we have today, knowing how our lives were and how much hardship was put in to achieve the modern lives we have now,” he said.