Akar Nusa
Sunday in a plantation home near Kudat. A few families gather, sing and pray, then share a simple meal. They have worked their land six days a week, and Sunday is for worship.
The story
In December 1882 a group of about 100 Hakka Chinese Christian labourers arrived at Kudat, a town in the north of what was then North Borneo. This is the beginning of the Basel Christian Church of Malaysia, which grew from the Basel Mission, a Christian mission of Swiss origin. The church's own history gives that date and number. Other writers give January 1883.
The Hakka are one of the Chinese dialect groups. In Malaysia they are known as hill farmers and miners. In Sabah they came as Christian farming families.
The church history says many groups followed in the next few years. Families worked their land six days a week and met in each other's homes on Sundays. Many settled on the west coast near the railway being built, and new Chinese-majority towns grew along the line. Wherever a few families gathered, they founded a church and a school.
Today Hakka families are part of Sabah's mix. A town such as Kota Belud, for example, has Bajau, Dusun and a Chinese minority that is mainly Hakka. Sabah's Hakka story is partly one of faith and partly one of land and work.
The Hakka in Sabah are part of a much bigger movement. Most Malaysian Chinese descend from southern Chinese migrants who came between the early 19th and the mid-20th century. Across Malaysia the Hakka became known as hill farmers and miners. In Sarawak, for comparison, Hakka families led the pepper trade around Kuching and Serian. Sabah's Hakka story is different in one way: much of it began with a church and a plan to settle farming families together.
Where you can still see it today
- Kudat, where the first group arrived.
- Basel Christian Church of Malaysia congregations across Sabah. The church grew from these first families.
- Hakka food and family names in towns along the west coast. Ask at a family-run shop how long the family has been in Sabah.
- Mission schools that began in the first Hakka settlements.
What DNA can tell, and what it cannot
Chinese surnames are passed down the male line, much as the Y chromosome is. A study of Chinese surnames finds they have passed down stably through the centuries, and that surname patterns follow the Y chromosome pattern. Our father-line report may therefore help a Malaysian we have tested to think about a father's line of ancestors.
This is a broad link, not a proof. We found no father-line study of Sabah Hakka families alone, and a surname can match by chance. A father line says nothing about your community, your religion or any legal status.
