Editor: True pioneers of Sabah tourism
Published on: Sunday, March 03, 2019
By: Larry Ralon
KOTA KINABALU: The Johnsons (1920 and 1935) and Agnes Keith (1939) are the true pioneers of Sabah’s tourism industry as they started the process of making British North Borneo (as Sabah was known then) famous globally before anyone else.
Sharing his experience as a journalist in unearthing previously unavailable information at a gathering of CALM (Commonwealth Association of Leadership Malaysia) members at the Mariott, recently, Daily Express Chief Editor James Sarda said Sabah owes an eternal debt to these two couples.
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“A debt that can never be repaid but becomes greater by the day as cash registers ring at tourism-related counters be it hotels, tourism agencies and related firms across the state,” he said.
James said the Johnsons spent altogether only two years in Sabah (six months on the Kinabatangan River aboard a raft on their first visit in 1920 and another year-and-a-half in 1935) while the Keiths spent 17 years (from 1935 until 1952).
“But the legacies they left behind are priceless and permanent. Sabah would not have become famous if not for them,” said James. James said the Safari Museum in Kansas, USA, where a museum was dedicated in their hometown to the Johnsons who were Hollywood’s first documentary filmmakers, confirmed that “Jungle Calling” their silent-era flick about the 1920 Kinabatangan visit was without doubt the world’s first wildlife documentary.
“It featured the once headhunting tribes and wildlife in the Kinabatangan and screened in cinemas throughout Europe and America. All the more reason why Sabah must never lose its forests and wildlife.
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“Hence, the first wildlife documentary ever made was about Sabah. Not even about Africa, which was also the subject of Johnsons’ movies after leaving North Borneo.
“What a powerful bragging right and branding opportunity that had been overlooked until today by both the Federal and State tourism ministries, although they cannot be blamed due to failure of awareness.
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“Add to this Agnes Keith’s seminal work ‘Land Below The Wind’ which became an international bestseller in 1939 and gave the State a world famous calling. They were our best tourism promoters even now long after they are gone.”
Elaborating on the Johnsons, James, a Chevening scholar and the only Malaysian journalist to win three top national journalism awards, said a change of plan at the last minute and sail to Borneo in 1920 was the best thing that ever happened to Sabah.
“They and their crew barely managed to escape while filming cannibals in Micronesia (resulting in the non-wildlife movie ‘Cannibals Of The South Seas’ in 1917) and decided to head to Australia.
“However, for unknown reason the Johnsons destroyed all the footage they took in Australia, believed in disgust over the treatment of aborigines there, and decided to check out Orang Utans popularised by Charles Darwin, the fabled long-nosed monkey (proboscis) and elephants in Borneo.”
The British North Borneo Chartered Company administration that heard about their work was overjoyed because they were eager for the Johnsons to provide images of the natives and wildlife in Sandakan’s interior, which was the State Capital then, for their records and depiction in postage stamps of that era.
“The Governor warned them not to venture too far into the interior as headhunting was still prevalent.
“But it is thanks to disregarding this advice that we have today the first images of the interior indigenous people then particularly the Rumanau Dusuns, Tenggara Muruts, Bajaus, Suluks and colonials.”
During their second visit they also captured the largest orang utan, which they named Abai after the place he was found in Kinabatangan. He was shipped to the New York Zoo where he bent the bars of the cage and is believed to have inspired the King Kong movie.
James said Agnes Keith, on the other hand, was an American journalist with the San Francisco Examiner who ended up in Sabah because she married Harry Keith – an Englishman who was then Conservator of Forest and Director of Agriculture – in 1934.
To kill boredom after coming to Borneo she decided to write about its people and surroundings from a wooden bungalow on a hill in Sandakan which now attracts 14,000-15,000 visitors yearly, including foreign tourists who read her works.
Agnes submitted her “Land Below The Wind” for the Atlantic Book Prize in 1939 where it won the top prize.
The nickname got stuck ever since.
It was the first of three books. The second “Three Came Home” was about real experiences during the war and became a Hollywood movie while the third “White Man Returns” was about the return of the colonials after the war.
According to James, the Keiths left North Borneo in 1952, disappointed with the colonial government’s plan to open up the timber business.
“Many of the forest reserves in Sabah today like the Silam Forest Reserve, Pinangah Forest Reserve and so on, were due to the foresight of Harry Keith in the 1930s, from identifying to surveying them.
“He felt if he did nothing as Conservator of Forest to gazette them as Class One Forest reserves, there will be nothing left standing in time to come.”
The Keith house on the hill was dilapidated and re-built thanks to former Deputy State Secretary Datuk Noni Said when she was the Sabah Museum Director through a Federal Government grant of RM1.7 million. “I was roped in as a member of the committee to look into the restoration of the house because, they thought being a journalist, I could help in the research.”
James said it was an enriching experience because he managed to tracked down Jusit Rantai, who was raised as an orphan for a few years by the Keiths and later upon joining the police was picked to raise the Malaysian flag during the independence proclamation at the town padang on Sept. 16, 1963.
“(But) it is sad that despite having contributed so much to Sabah we don’t even have streets named after the Keiths or Johnsons today,” said James in his talk titled “My Own Journey, The Case of Daily Express”.
James said the Land Below The Wind was also in the process of becoming a Literature book for upper secondary students through the support of then Deputy Education Minister Datuk Mary Yap.
“However, when when the book was ready, her portfolio was changed,” he said.
After Borneo, the Johnsons went to East Africa and spent the next 15 years in Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania and Congo where they brought to the world’s screens the first black-and white images of the Pygmies, gorillas and rhinocerous.
“All the while, they never forgot Borneo and felt they needed to go back one more time. So they came in their small amphibious aeroplane later renamed as The Spirit of Africa and Borneo. The second visit yielded a feature movie simply titled Borneo (1937),” he said.
James said the couple’s aircraft also had an interesting story, because Martin used to be a good friend of Russian Igor Sikorsky, the founder of Sikorsky Corporation that is today known for its combat helicopters.
“Sikorsky was eager to develop an aircraft that could land on water and go further into difficult terrain.
So he developed a prototype and provided Martin with a pilot and a mechanic, while also insisting that both Martin and Osa take flying lessons for standby.
“The aircraft was packed and re-assembled at every port. And because of them people in the jungles of Kinabatangan saw and touched an aircraft in 1935. Long before those in urban Kuala Lumpur. In fact, the aircraft came to their doorstep and landed on the Kinabatangan,” he said.
Martin died in an air crash in California 1937 while editing the Borneo movie while Osa died of a heart attack in New York in 1953.
James said miles of footage of the 1920 first wildlife documentary are still available in the US Library of Congress and copies could be obtained upon request.
“The politicians I talked to agreed to make an official request for them, but until today nobody has done it,” he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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