Gallak-Gallak Game (South Sulawesi)

1. Origin

There is a game of Buginese and Makassarian which is recognized as gallak-gallak in South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. The origin of the game is undetected, because no written record reporting this competition. The Buginese and the Makassarian are inheriting the game from generation to generation.

The gallak-gallak is Makassarian language which is derived from the word `gallak` that means “a name of the title” due to the symbol of the social status in the community. Social stratification of Buginese and Makassarian can be identified into three classes; noblemen (karaeng), commoners (tusamara), slaves (ata). The noblemen are the descendants of the Buginese and Makassarian kings who take the first caste in their community. The commoners who are genealogically not the descendants of the kings (tusamara). The slaves are military internees (ata) by their defeat in war. Recently, there are only two social stratifications; karaeng and tusamara, and ata has been disappeared since the devastation of the kingdoms in South Sulawesi.

The gallak-gallak, therefore, can be illustrated as a game for getting an `artificial` title, and the players who has succeed in completing the game were considered as the winner. In the practice, one team has to guess the competitor`s team in hiding the stone. If their guess is false, so the player who hides the stone will take one step forward on the decided lines until he arrives at the circle in to reach the title of galararung (king or nobleman).

Long time ago, the line used to get galararung was only 3 lines which are in accordance with the social stratifications of the Buginese-Makassarian. After Indonesian independence, many children begun to go to the folk school, therefore the lines of the games were ran in line with the levels of the folk school (6 lines).

2. Players

Gallak-gallak is team`s competition. The game must be participated by two teams. The players of the game are ranging from 8 to 14 persons (based on the levels of the lines). If the amount number of the lines to get galararung level are only three lines, so that one team will be participated by 4 persons with a person as leader or captain (pagallak) and the rest of them (3 persons) as the members (tunigallak). If there are 6 lines, the players of the team are 7 persons (1 person as a leader or captain and 6 persons as tunigallak). The gallak-gallak game can be played by boys or daughters ranging from 6 to 13-year-old.

3. Place of the Game

The place of the gallak-gallak game is based on the players.  If the players are 14 persons, the width of the field is 22 x 10 meters. The field is divided into two parts. In the middle of the field will be made a circle as the `crowning places` of the winner. In every parts of the game are placed 6 lines with 2 meters in distance among them (as the level of the players before gaining the galararung title). If the players are only 8 persons, the width of arena is 16 x 10 meters in square which is requiring only three lines in every part of the field. The game is usually performed in the afternoon either in the field or in the yard.

4. Equipments of the Game

The equipment of the game is small stone for every teams. In the competition, the stone will be turned around by the captain of the team who has responsible in delivering it to one of the team`s members, before the competitor`s team is allowed to guess the stone.

5. Rules of the Game

The essence of the gallak-gallak game is to guess the hidden stone which is held by one of the competitor`s team. If one of the teams is not able to guess, the player who is hiding the stone is allowed to step forward on the first line of 3 or 6 lines. This way is repeated by the players to the end of the last line, and then will be considered as the winner.

On the contrary, if the guess of the competitor`s team is right, the disposition must be done. The guessing team then has responsible in hiding the stone, and the competitor team will guess the stone.

These rules will be described certainly as bellow:

• The captain of the team is not allowed to use more than one stone during his rolling.
• When the captain of team designates one of the competitor`s players, so that the player has to up his hands in order to show the stone in his hold.
• The captain of the team is not allowed to roll the other stones during guessing the competitor`s team.
• In guessing, the team has to chose only one player of the competitor`s team.
• The player who holds the stone has right to move forward one line when the competitor`s team has wrong in guessing it.
• The player is only allowed to move forward one line to other lines but he is not allowed to move forward two or three lines in the time.

6. Process of the Game

After deciding the location, the players will be divided into two teams. Afterward, every teams will choose the captain of the team. The captain of the team is usually chosen from the eldest and the charismatic player in order to be able in organizing the members of the team.

Both of the captains (pagallak) are drawing the playing by whistling, and the winner of drawing together with his team will start the game for the first time. After that, every players (tunigallak) will form line with one to two meters from the starting line and their hands are placed behind their backs.  In that time, pagallak is standing up behind the tunigallak. For the team which has first turn, its captain will begin to revolve the small stone to all his members from one to another. During the stone cycling, the captain (pagallak) will put the stone in a hand of the players by continuing the game to make confuse the competitor`s team in guessing the stone.

After placing the stone to one of the players, the captain of the team will give the opportunity to the competitor`s team to guess the stone. Afterward, the competitor`s team will make agreement in deciding the guessing, and the captain of the team will appoint one player who is assumed as the carrier of the stone.  

The chosen player then will up his hands to prove where the stone is located. If he doesn`t hold the stone, he will be allowed to move one line forward, and the captain of the team will continue his game by giving the stone to another players and the competitor`s team has to guess it for the second time. These steps will be repeated during the competition until all the players through the lines, and finally will be ended in the circle to be appointed as the king. If the guessing of the team is wrong, the dislocating positions will be done, the rolling stone`s team will become the guessing stone`s team and on the contrary. The team which gets more members and reaches the `king position` will be considered as the winner of the competition.

7. Cultural Values

The cultural values in the gallak-gallak game are sportivity and cooperation. The cooperative values can be seen from the attitudes of the team when they are pretending in hiding the stone until the competitor`s team faces difficulties in guessing it. The sportive values can be described from the player`s attitudes who are not cheating during the competition. The sportive attitude has to be shown in the game, because the players have struggled in hiding the small stone. (TN/trj/39/11-07).

References:

Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan. 1980. Permainan Anak-Anak Daerah Sulawesi Selatan. Ujung Pandang: Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.

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