Brave as a Tausug

Every time people hear that I am a Tausug, they immediately quipped, "ah the brave tribe!" They say it is difficult to challenge a Tausug. He will fight with all his might. It does not matter if he is alone. It is for being a lone fighter that Tausug were known for. Does "juramentado" rings a bell? A term coined by the Spaniards for a Tausug gone berserk. He does not give up even if he is already torn down a military tank.

He is Juramentado to the Castillan conquerors because they simply do not understand him and his honor. Juramentado manifests a pysche war between the Imperial Castillan spirit and the freedom-loving resisting spirit of the Tausug. To the locals in the Sulu Archipelago, it is "parrang sabil" or literally "war of perseverance". It is resorted to when the colonial occupation becomes unbearable, intolerable and mentally excruciating that you run out of patience, out of perseverance.... What the Spaniards can not defeat in the battlefield, they ridiculed in the theatrical play "Moro-moro" - a typical Spanish mental compensation.

Now where does this extreme bravery sprung from? They say it is in the very essence of a being a Tausug. It's in the veins like blood. The true wealth of a Tausug in his "martabbat" (honor). He does not go berserk for mundane things. He does so when his honor is trampled upon.

What are his honors - A Tausug honor is his family and his religion. No one should mess around with them. Not even joke about them. In their stead, the MNLF used the trinity of "hula'" (land), "bangsa" (people) and "agama" (religion).

But more than anything else, being brave does not implies he has no fear. He does have fear. But when he have enough of being fearful, his confidence is settled by his prayers and determination. When he has said his prayer and determined his altruism, a Tausug is brave to the core, brave to undertake the ultimate sacrifice.