Marcus Garvey Idea

THE UNKNOWN

"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." -Marcus Garvey

Many people are tree without roots. Marcus Garvey's idea is that a person should at least have the basic knowledge where he came from and how his society began. I believe that there are a lot of people pretending to know their history, origin and culture. It is very visible because when you ask something to them, they have doubts. Basically, in our own culture, many people don't know about what really happened in the past especially the Pre-Hispanic Period.

The people of the Philippine archipelago also called the Filipinos had a culture already before the coming of Spanish colonizers. They really don't know about it because what they have in mind was that Spaniards created and build our very own culture. Our culture before is unknown and it is only because of literatures that we are able to save it. Through the use of books, clips or documentations, different files, we are given the chance to take a look back and have a glimpse of the culture that we once have. Before the arrival of the Spaniards, Filipinos have their own system of governance. They found out that native Filipinos have their own civilization and lives in organized independent villages called barangays. It is headed by a datu or rajah. The Malay word "balangay" which is the origin of the world "barangay" means a sailboat. We are using it today and barangay is being referred as the smallest administrative region. The social structure back then was composed of the Maharlika, Timawa and Alipin: alipin namamahay and alipin sagigilid.. Like of different issues nowadays, there was also some kind of discrimination at that time. There are certain laws that have survived namely the Maragtas Code and Code of Kalantiaw. In the island, gold and pearl were in abundance and yet they really don't care. In case of war or emergency, the other barangays who settled near will help. The datu passed his position to his eldest son or based on the ability and talent of a member in the community. In turn, they have to pay tribute to the datu by helping him till the land and help him fight when the community is at war. There is also the council of elders who will give advice to the datu especially when a law will be passed. The natives also had their own clothing and ornaments before the time of Spanish colonization. The men wore short-sleeved and collarless jacket as their top which is called kangan. It was dyed (tining) either in blue or black, except that of the chief which was red. It symbolizes the status in the society. For the lower part of the body, they wore bahag. They used putong that served as head gear. On the other hand, the women wore a wide-sleeved jacket called baro and their skirt was called patadyong.