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1. Certain clusters of Central Nzemi villages have not and never seem to have had boundaries between them. Until 1910 the present Laisong, Haijaichak and Kepelo formed the two large villages of Haijaichak and Laisong on the west slope of the Jiri River valley, and were both colonies which had split off at different dates from the parent Hangrum. They were barely a mile apart and both cultivated the extensive and gentle slopes running to the Jiri. Intermarriage, inheritance and the sale of land had so mingled their holdings that they refused to accept a Govenment boundary dividing the large common tracts into village-held segments. Laisong moved in 1910 to a site in the Jenam Valley, but within a few years recommenced cultivation in the Jiri tract. In 1934 Haijaichak split on a political issue and the dissidents formed a village called Kepeo, a bare half-mile from the Haijaichak site. Though both villages were on bad terms and both were in less close contact then formerly with Laisong, in 1944 all three fiercely resisted further Government attempts to lay down boundaries. The Jiri tract remains a mosiac of holdings belonging to members of all three villages. |
