Song, Sarawak

I'm going to talk about the history of my hometown as for today's blog. My hometown called Song which is within Kapit's district. The place itself is just a small town with population of 20 046 (year 2010 census), the where I lived my childhood with friends and community. Song is situated by the river banks of Katibas River, a tributary of Rajang River. The majority people that mostly live in Song is Iban (Sea Dayak), followed by Orang Ulu, Chinese, Malay, Melanau and Bidayuh.

The history of Song goes back to the early part of 19th century. Due to the Industrial Revolution in Europe, a demand for raw material, and this propelled the growth of Song from a settlement into a small village. Chinese migrants from Fujian province settled here, building a row of shophouses in the village. In those early days, Song was a settlement where Malay traders came upriver to trade forest products such as rattan with the Melanaus. The forest products were then taken downriver to the port in Sibu for export. In return, the tribes purchased daily goods such as salt, sugar, and salted fish, as well as crockery, china, gongs and textile.

Song was under Japanese occupation from Christmas Eve of 1941 until September 1945. Allied bombings destroyed much of the buildings in the village including the district office. This compelled the district officer Abang Tunku Haji Wan Mat to relocate the administration of Song to the estuary of the Katibas River. The Song Fort was built there in 1947 and the Song Administrative Office was relocated to it the following year.

Until nowadays, Song can only accessible by express boat along Rajang River. There are express boats service hourly connecting Song, Sibu, Kanowit, Kapit and Belaga. The express boat services are provided at Song Terminal Wharf stop-by. However, a plan to build roads connecting Song to Kapit and Song to Kanowit was promised by the Federal Government and was announced by the Prime Minister of Malaysia during his visit to the town on 15 April 2011. Nowadays, the roads are still in progress even though after 50th years of Independent Day of Malaysia. I hope the good development at my hometown in distant future so that Song will be known and the community around will be as competent as the other states in Malaysia.

#Song #Sarawak