Kupang

Article and photography by Peter Hemenway

Kupang means “coral city” and is a mixture in population of people from Flores, Sumba, Sabu, Roti, Alor and Timor.  The “coral city” name came from the abundance of coral that Kupang and other parts of Timor are partly made up of but because of the amount of rocks and cement that has been used as a way of life in Kupang in construction, what was a carpet of sand that lined the city is now in many places just a concrete wall.

West Timor was one of the founding members of the original Indonesian country. It was 1949 that Indonesia became independent and the Dutch left West Timor. East Timor declared independence from Portugal in 1975 but the Indoneia government at the time was very sensitive to the ideas of Communism which they were worried West Timor would follow, so the military invaded the country. In 1999 East Timor voted Independent and that was when the violence began with initially 1400 people killed. There this violence continued until 2006 and during these years people fled the country. In September 11th 1999 there was a recorded 180,000 East Timor refuges in West Timor and another 16,000 by the next day. Some of these refugees are still in Kupang though they don’t have the refuge status anymore. They have managed to start small businesses and survive and selling salt is one of the examples of the types of business.

Candy made from palm sugar is made and sold in Kupang.

A bible reading contest -It was often the Christian community that assisted the people in Kupang as the military government from Jakarta did very little for refuges.