In the 2019 documentary film Generation ’99: Truth, Reconciliation and Rock & Roll in Timor-Leste, several East Timorese musicians pay tribute to the 1970s rock and pop band Cinco do Oriente (Five of the East), which was active from around 1972 to 1975 (Cairns Reference Cairns2019). The band released no commercial recordings, wrote few of their own songs, and mainly performed cover versions of songs made famous by Western groups. Even though Cinco do Oriente had ceased to exist well before most of the musicians interviewed in the film had even been born, their comments make it clear that they hold the band in the highest regard. Composer and music producer Kiera Zen, for example, talks of the band as musical pioneers (‘the one that started it’) and expresses his ‘respect for what they’ve done for Timor through music’. Mely Fernandes, musician of Galaxy Band says they ‘provided a lot of inspiration’, and Etson Caminha of the same group exclaims, ‘Wow, they are a big band. They are legends’. That legendary aspect is perhaps best expressed by singer-songwriter Joviana Guterres (born 1989), who declares that ‘At the start of the Indonesian occupation, there was only one band that mattered. One band seemed to carry the hopes and dreams of our young people … That band was known as Cinco do Oriente.’
I am a university lecturer from Darwin, Australia, with research interests in the history of Indonesia and Timor-Leste. I first learnt about Cinco do Oriente from my work colleague, Egas Alves, whose relatives, Filomeno Alves and Lito Alves, were band members. Through Egas, I was also able to make contacts in Dili, including Anacleto Ribeiro, who told me more about the 1960s–1970s music scene. In Darwin, which has a large expatriate East Timorese population, I met with George Rocha, who was a member of one of Cinco do Oriente’s most important predecessor bands, Blue Star. Hermenegildo Alves, another relative of Egas, was also a member of this band. In 2019, I had a chance meeting in Canberra with Hugo Fernandes of Centro Nacional Chega! (the follow-up body to the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation), who shared with me his insights into the Dili music scene during the Indonesian occupation. I was in Canberra as the recipient of an Asian Studies Grant from the National Library of Australia, which funded a four-week stay with full access to the library’s extensive collection of obscure journals, newspapers, and other materials, many of which are referenced in this article. I already had some relevant sources from prior research; some new ones were found at the Charles Darwin University Library, and several were located online. I can deal confidently with sources written in Dutch, English, and Indonesian, but for the Tetun and Portuguese material I sought the assistance of Egas and others to make sure my translations were correct.
The island of Timor is divided into two. The western half is Indonesian territory, but had been under Dutch control until the end of 1949. The eastern half was a Portuguese colony and was generally known to English speakers as Portuguese Timor. The Portuguese era came to an end in late 1975, when conflict between the political parties FRETILIN and UDT was used as a pretext for an Indonesian invasion and occupation. This is discussed later, as is the involvement of members of Cinco do Oriente in the resistance movement. From the time of the Indonesian occupation, the territory was usually referred to as East Timor. Following a United Nations (UN)-sponsored plebiscite in 1999, East Timor came under UN administration, but since the declaration of formal independence in May 2022, the country has been officially named Timor-Leste.
Cinco do Oriente is without doubt the most famous rock and pop band to have ever existed in Timor-Leste. However, it was only one of several popular music bands to emerge in the late Portuguese era, none of which made commercial recordings. Recorded music from East Timor has a relatively short history. Field recordings of ceremonial and ritual music date back to the 1960s, some of which were later released commercially (Timor, Chants des Éma (1979); Timor (Ile de la Sonde) (c. 1971)). Nationalist, revolutionary, and resistance music made its first notable appearance in the period surrounding the declaration of independence (28 November 1975) and the Indonesian invasion (7 December 1975). Recordings of such music were made by members of the East Timorese diaspora in Portugal in the late 1970s (e.g., Fretilin/Grupo Cultural Indonēsio Angin Timur (1977); Grupo Cultural do Comité 28 Novembro/Fretilin (1978)). In the mid-1980s, a commercial recording industry began in Dili, and East Timorese popular music was then recorded throughout the remainder of the Indonesian occupation.
In 1995, a group of younger musicians was brought together to continue performing under the name Cinco do Oriente. With an evolving line-up, the band continues to perform up to the modern day. The existence of the new Cinco do Oriente has helped keep the legend of the original band alive, but given the paucity of music known to have been created by the band, the reasons for that legendary status are not necessarily obvious. Music aside, a major part of the Cinco do Oriente legend derives from the disappearance of three band members in 1979, assumed to have been killed by the Indonesian military because of their alleged involvement in revolutionary activities. It will be argued here that Cinco do Oriente has become a legend mainly because of the band’s symbolic value and as a marker for East Timorese cultural and political identity in the resistance against Indonesia. To place the story in context, this article also examines the development of other rock and pop bands in the late Portuguese era, Portuguese cultural missions to Indonesian West Timor, Indonesian cultural missions to Portuguese East Timor, the Indonesian invasion and early years of the occupation, and other matters.
1. The rise of East Timorese popular music bands
While music connected to ceremonial and ritual activity remains important in Timor-Leste, other types of music have also been appreciated. It was reported in 1965 that ‘96 per cent’ of the songs demanded during a request show broadcast by the government radio service were Portuguese. The report implied, however, that the majority of those listening to the program were Timorese, as it was stated that the figures showed that the East Timorese preferred to hear ‘a fado by Amália or a regional song performed by Trio Odemira’ rather than ‘a Beatles twist or a song by Elvys [sic] Presley’ (A Voz de Timor, 14 February 1965). Amália Rodrigues (1920–99) was one of the best-known singers of her era of fado, a Portuguese genre renowned for its ‘profoundly melancholic character’ (Gorlinski Reference Gorlinski2011). It was reported in July 1972 that Amália would be appearing in Dili for a number of concerts in the coming September (Suplemento: Boletim Noticioso do Centro de Informação e Turismo de Timor, 27 July 1972). Luís Cardoso (Reference Cardoso2002, p. 86) recalls in his memoirs that Amália often appeared on the radio, but that when she performed in Dili the ‘native Timorese’ were not permitted to attend. No contemporary reports of the actual performances have been found, so it is hard to judge Cardoso’s claims. However, although Amália was booked for three concerts, it was reported that tickets were strictly limited and had been selling out fast (Suplemento, 3 August 1972). It is thus likely that many of the Timorese who had wanted to see her perform were unable to do so.
Trio Odemira (1955–2021), in the meantime, was a vocal group known for its renditions of Portuguese folk songs and popular folk tunes, such as ‘Guantanamera’ (a song of Cuban origin and an international hit for The Sandpipers in 1966). It was reported in early 1965 that Trio Odemira would perform in Portuguese Timor, but it is unclear if this actually happened (A Voz de Timor, 7 February 1965). Regardless of that, Portuguese influence in East Timorese music has a long heritage. Stringed instruments similar to ukuleles, violins, and guitars, associated in Timor-Leste today with music played at domestic celebrations, such as weddings and koremetan ceremonies (held at the end of the one-year mourning period for the deceased), were probably brought to the island at an early date by the Portuguese, who had a presence there from the 16th century (Yampolsky Reference Yampolsky1998, Reference Yampolsky1999). Such music, often played acoustically, might be considered ‘traditional’, but it is a more recent tradition and quite separate from ritual and ceremonial music.
Not all the Portuguese people living in Timor in 1965 were necessarily as keen on Portuguese music as the East Timorese were reported to be and may have had greater affiliation to other types of Western popular music. In the newspaper article about East Timorese musical preferences cited above, it was also stated that ‘[Portuguese] snobs who only listen to Cliff Richard [popular singer from the United Kingdom] or Pat Boon[e] [from the United States]’ may think that the Timorese have no taste in music (A Voz de Timor, 14 February 1965). It is difficult to know from this remove just how true these statements were. The state of communications in the 1960s would likely have made it difficult for Timorese people living in the more remote corners of the Portuguese territory to have participated in the radio music request program (discussed above) or, in many cases, to have even heard it (Amarante Reference Amarante2013). It was the East Timorese ‘elite’ living in and near Dili who would have been most exposed to contemporary Portuguese culture. These people were mestiços (mixed race) or assimilados (Timorese who had achieved a ‘Portuguese standard’ of civilisation). They comprised a small fraction of the population, but they were the only East Timorese given access to education in government schools and the only ones likely to find urban employment for wages (Jolliffe Reference Jolliffe1978, pp. 42–3). Some members of this group may indeed have preferred Amália to Elvis, but they would have also heard the non-Portuguese popular music played on the radio. And their involvement in many social activities alongside the Portuguese residing in their country meant that they would have had even greater exposure to outside influences than most other Timorese.
By the early 1960s, Dili boasted a range of sports and recreation clubs. Many of these clubs were support vehicles for local football teams named after famous clubs in Portugal. These included Académica (named after Académica de Coimbra), Sporting Clube de Timor (Sporting Clube de Portugal), Sport Dili e Benfica (Sport Lisboa e Benfica), and União (União da Madeira). Both Portuguese and Timorese people were involved in these associations. Apart from football, the clubs played a role in spreading other elements of Western popular culture. For example, in 1960 the Sporting Clube de Timor in Dili showed the films Mambo Girl (featuring mambo, cha-cha-cha, and rock and roll music) and Rock around the Clock and Rock, Rock, Rock (both featuring rock and roll music) (Boletim Diário de a Voz de Timor, 16 January 1960, 30 May 1960, 5 December 1960). However, as if to highlight the isolated and backwater character of Portuguese Timor, all three films were already three to four years old at the time of their Dili premiere. These clubs also provided other social activities, such as in March 1962 when Sport Dili e Benfica advertised a ‘carnival party’ with dancing till dawn (Boletim Diário, 1 March 1962). The music provided might have been from gramophone records, but a live band seems more likely.
One of the earliest known popular music bands in 1960s Dili was Arco Iris (Rainbow), which performed at ‘dancing soirees’ hosted by the Hotel Mimosa in 1965. While locals were encouraged to attend, the primary purpose of the dances was to entertain tourists, who were visiting Dili ‘in increasing numbers’ (A Voz de Timor, 19 September 1965). Most tourists entering Portuguese Timor came from Darwin in northern Australia. Although many Darwin people used the regular Darwin-Baucau flights to have a short holiday, the route became popular with young people travelling overland through Asia on the so-called ‘hippie trail’. It is unknown what sort of music Arco Iris played, but it probably had a broad repertoire to satisfy a variety of tastes. The ethnic background of the band members is also unknown. Some non-Timorese personnel of the Portuguese military were involved in some capacity with many popular music bands of the era, as were some ethnic Chinese. However, most band members were mestiços or assimilados. As well as being involved in the music scene, several of these people went on to have political careers, as will be noted in the following pages.
1.1. Blue Star
Another band that started around the time Arco Iris was playing at the Hotel Mimosa called themselves Luses Orientais (Eastern Lights) and consisted of Joe Remédios on acoustic guitar, Hermenegildo Alves on mandolin, and Abilio Araujo (a future leader of the FRETILIN political party) on accordion. Luses Orientais played Portuguese, Brazilian, and Timorese songs in a non-electric folk style. When Araujo left the group, his bandmates decided to take their musical ambitions in a different direction. The result was the rock and pop band Blue Star (Rocha Reference Rocha2019). The first report of Blue Star found during research for this study states that the band was formed in late 1966 and that three of the five members were currently serving their compulsory military service (A Provincia de Timor, 7 October 1969). The members of Blue Star were listed as:
Assis – vocals
Hermenegildo Alves – bass
Artur Nascimento – drums
Joe Remédios – lead guitar
Zé Manel – rhythm guitar
During his time in Blue Star, Joe Remédios used the surname of his stepfather, but since arriving in Australia in 1975, he has been known as George Rocha. Rocha relates that Blue Star’s rhythm guitarist Zé Manel (real name José Manuel) was an ethnic Chinese also known as Aquiean. It was through Aquiean’s contacts in the Chinese business community that the band was able to obtain Fender guitars, amplifiers, drums, and keyboards from Singapore. Few bands had such good equipment and Blue Star could command a high fee for a night’s performance. Rocha recalls they were receiving 3,000 escudos a night, which was equivalent to a month’s salary for a civil servant. Blue Star would refuse jobs that did not pay enough and these would go to bands with lesser equipment. One such band Rocha remembers was called Verde Rubis (Green Rubies). Other musicians who played with Blue Star were António (Ataoi) Carvalho (lead guitar) and Câncio de Oliveira (keyboards). Meanwhile, Assis was only in the band occasionally, with Câncio’s sister Adélia Pires as the usual singer. Rocha says he does not remember who came up with the name Blue Star or what it was supposed to mean, but he thought it was nice having an English name (Rocha Reference Rocha2019, Reference Rocha2020).
The 1969 report concerning Blue Star appeared in a weekly journal produced specifically for members of the Portuguese military in Timor. A regular music page featured popular recording artists, mainly American and British; Blue Star was the only Timorese band to get a notice during the two-years’ run of the journal available to the author (1968–9), but even Portuguese singers and musicians were mentioned rarely. The journal shows that the military also had a twice-weekly radio show, ‘Military Pastimes’ (Passatempo Militar), and it is a reasonable assumption that popular American and British songs were often played on the show. In 1969, there were two other programs broadcast on the government radio station that sound like they may have played this type of music as well: ‘Youth’ (Jovem) and ‘East 69’ (Oriente 69) (A Provincia de Timor, 7 October 1969). Rocha, however, recalls there was little ‘good’ music on local radio. Blue Star learnt many of the Western popular songs it performed from hearing them on Radio Australia or from the records of Portuguese soldiers, especially ones who had been in the Azores, where there was a large United States military base. Indonesian music could also be heard on the radio. The band had a varied repertoire, playing Timorese music, and Latin, Portuguese, Indonesian, and Western pop songs. According to Rocha, the Timorese liked Indonesian music a lot, but the Portuguese did not care for it much. At Hotel Mimosa and other venues catering to foreign tourists, the band played Western pop music. Other venues were clubs, halls, and private residences for weddings and other events. Visits to rural areas for private parties were common, but also for government functions, sometimes travelling and playing for extended periods. Blue Star broke up in mid-to-late 1971. Some band members then sold their instruments to the up-and-coming Os Académicos (The Academics), which was Blue Star’s main rival in its latter years (Rocha Reference Rocha2019, Reference Rocha2020).
1.2. Os Académicos
Os Académicos (who were possibly connected to the Académica sports club) received their first known media mention in January 1971 when it was reported that the band provided music for a brief period of dancing at a Chinese cultural and speech night in Dili attended by the governor. A photograph from the event suggests the band was playing music for a waltz or a fox trot (A Voz de Timor, 10 January 1971). A month later, the band appeared at a party for graduates of the Dili high school, Liceu (Lyceum) Dr Francisco Machado, playing music for dancing and backing various singers. The event was attended by the governor, the bishop of Dili, the military commander, and several other dignitaries (A Voz de Timor, 21 February 1971). Around the same time, Os Académicos participated in the ‘Carnival in Timor’ (O Carnaval em Timor) by playing at a dance at Sporting Clube de Timor. Other bands present on that occasion were Blue Star, Pedras Negras (Black Stones), and Conjunto Chinês (Chinese Band) (A Voz de Timor, 7 March 1971).
In May 1971, Os Académicos won first prize in a best band contest held at Sport Díli e Benfica. Blue Star came a close second, followed by Os Diamantes Vermelhos (The Red Diamonds). Blue Star Jr. also appeared (A Voz de Timor, 23 May 1971). The latter was comprised of younger relatives and friends of the members of Blue Star. Meanwhile, an advertisement for a variety show to be held at the Dili school gymnasium in October 1973, shows Os Académicos appearing with four other bands: Trap Pop Band Music Inc., Fire Bird, Cinco do Oriente, and Kama Sutra (A Voz de Timor, 28 September 1973). In December 1973, Os Académicos won another best band contest at the ‘Great Night on the Radio’ (Il Grande Noite De Rádio), an event organised by the local government radio station. On that occasion, second prize was won by Kama Sutra, whose performance journalist José Ramos-Horta (a future diplomat, foreign minister, prime minister, and president) described as ‘horribly mediocre’. Kama Sutra’s second prize win was explained as being due to the lack of other competitors (A Voz de Timor, 28 December 1973). Why there was this shortage of competition is unclear, as only a few months earlier several bands participated in the variety show.
The organist and manager of Os Académicos, Eduardo ‘Dim’ Massa, declared in a June 1973 interview that the group wrote its own songs in Portuguese, as well as performing other people’s songs from Portugal and Brazil, and also some songs in English. After outlining a plan for the band to play a number of engagements across the border in Indonesian West Timor, Massa went on to say that he expected that in the near future Os Académicos would be playing in Bali, Surabaya, and Jakarta (A Voz de Timor, 29 June 1973). It is currently unknown if the band managed to achieve any of these ambitions, but there were many bands from all over Asia and beyond performing at Indonesian nightspots at the time, so Massa’s plans were not entirely unrealistic. Newspaper articles from 1971 to 1973 list a range of musicians and singers as members of Os Académicos, with Massa the only obvious constant (A Voz de Timor, 7 March 1971, 23 May 1971, 29 June 1973). However, the use of nicknames and abbreviated names means the same people could have been known under various appellations. In the second half of 1974, the band itself changed its name to be known thereafter as Bia Luli (A Voz de Timor, 13 September 1974).
An apparently unconnected band, named Be Lulik Group, made the first commercial music recordings in Dili in 1984 (Be Lulik Group 1984; Farram Reference Farram and Farram2020, p. 268). Bia Luli and Be Lulik are combinations of Tetun and other East Timorese languages; luli and lulik mean holy, sacred, or magic, whereas bia and be mean water. In the animist religion of East Timor, many locations, such as springs, mountains, and forests, were/are considered lulik. When most other bands seem to have been using Portuguese or English names, the adoption by a group of mestiço and assimilado musicians of a name with such strong indigenous cultural meaning appears to this author to be an essentially political act, especially in light of the emerging anticolonial nationalist movement, with its emphasis on support for Timorese culture (Leach Reference Leach2017, pp. 56–9). However, no contemporary explanation for the name change has been found to date, nor has any evidence been discovered to show that this pioneering action has been recognised in the modern day.
1.3. Cinco do Oriente
Cinco do Oriente, in the meantime, began around 1972. Several members of the band had been in the group known as Blue Star Jr., mentioned earlier. When Blue Star Jr. broke up, Filomeno ‘Meno’ Alves went into Os Académicos as lead guitarist, whereas bandmates Babito Castro and Manecas (Cornelio) Exposto joined a group called Os Lords (The Lords) (A Voz de Timor, 13 September 1974). George Rocha (Joe Remédios) of Blue Star also joined that group (Rocha Reference Rocha2019). Later, Babito, Manecas, and Meno got together with Meno’s cousin Hermenegildo ‘Agio’ Pereira (a future minister in several governments) on bass, and their nephew Alito ‘Lito’ Alves on drums to form Cinco do Oriente. Babito left the group briefly and was replaced on keyboards by Toto Lebre. Agio left for studies in Portugal in 1973, so Manecas moved to bass and Babito re-entered as rhythm guitarist (A Voz de Timor, 13 September 1974; Alves Reference Alves2024). According to George Rocha (Reference Rocha2019), Francisco Kalbuadi Lay (a latter-day businessman and vice prime minister) had also played keyboards in an early version of the band. Several vocalists are known to have sung with Cinco do Oriente. One who performed with the band in its later period was named Calicas. He was a mestiço from Mozambique who had come to Portuguese Timor for work, a relatively common practice at the time. He left for Portugal shortly before the Indonesian invasion (Alves Reference Alves2024).
Two of the other male singers are of special interest: Chico Malohi (aka Francisco de Jesus Brito), who is discussed later, and Bader Alkatiri, mainly because he is the brother of Mari Alkatiri, who went on to become the long-term secretary-general of the FRETILIN political party and twice served as Timor-Leste’s prime minister. However, Egas Alves states that while Bader Alkatiri did occasionally sing with Cinco do Oriente, especially for Indonesian-language songs, he mainly sang and played guitar with Cinco do Oriente Jnr., a group primarily composed of younger members of the Alves family, similar to the situation that existed previously with Blue Star Jnr. That band later changed its name to Perolas do Oriente (Pearls of the East) (Alves Reference Alves2024). Cinco do Oriente, meanwhile, followed the familiar route of appearing at private parties and at functions at Dili’s sports and recreation clubs. It also performed at government-sponsored concerts, as well as appearing on radio shows and at band contests. The group also became well-known for performances throughout Portuguese Timor, including Oecusse (A Voz de Timor, 13 September 1974).
Cinco do Oriente probably had quite a mixed repertoire. Luís Cardoso (Reference Cardoso2002, p. 86) recalls the advent in Dili of groups playing rock music with electrified instruments: ‘There were Cinco do Oriente and Ué-Lulik who imitated Credence [sic] Clearwater Revival, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, and sang a few Timorese songs set to a new beat’. Ué-Lulik sounds very much like the name Os Académicos adopted in 1974, Bia Luli, and must refer to that band. The names mean the same thing. Cardoso does not make it clear which band played what music, and the description may have been meant to apply to both. The Rolling Stones and The Beatles remain popular worldwide, but Creedence Clearwater Revival (1967–72) are perhaps less well-known. Nevertheless, they must have been well-liked in Portuguese Timor, as George Rocha (Reference Rocha2019) says that Blue Star also played many songs by that band.
As noted earlier, a new group using the Cinco do Oriente name was formed around 1995. In 2013, Babito Castro and Toto Lebre joined with members of the new band to record a compact disc titled Album Reuni (Reunion Album 2013). Only two of the twelve songs on the album seem to have formed part of the original band’s repertoire: ‘Mai Fali Eh’ (Come Back Again) and ‘Tebe O Nana’ (Nana’s Dance; tebe is a traditional circle dance). Both songs are listed as originating in West Timor. According to Egas Alves (Reference Alves2024), ‘Mai Fali Eh’ has been known in East Timor since before the Second World War, whereas ‘Tebe O Nana’ is a traditional Oecusse song adapted by Meno Alves. The music on Album Reuni is mainly a mix of Western-influenced hard rock and pop with little obvious traditional Timorese influence, apart from being sung in Tetun. The original Cinco do Oriente is known to have made some non-commercial recordings, but when research for this study began in 2019, only one song recorded by the band could be found on the internet, a YouTube video of ‘Jambalaya (On the Bayou)’ written by Hank Williams in 1952 (in 2024, the video was still available, but the music had been rendered unlistenable). The song was most likely known to the band from the 1973 version by John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival (recorded under the name The Blue Ridge Riders).
With its Louisiana Cajun patois lyrics, ‘Jambalaya’ was a curious song for Cinco do Oriente to have recorded, as Meno admitted in a 1974 interview that the band had often attempted to add new songs to its repertoire, but had to give up when the words on the records proved indecipherable (A Voz de Timor, 13 September 1974). Perhaps the group received some assistance, as not only was new Western music coming into Portuguese Timor in the early 1970s via Australian radio, but it has also been claimed that recently released records of Western rock and pop music could be bought in Dili as well. Luís Cardoso (Reference Cardoso2002, pp. 72, 87) says it was his brother Toni who then deciphered English lyrics from vinyl records for Cinco do Oriente to sing. In his 1974 interview, Meno Alves stated that the band’s biggest wish was to play in Lisbon and that the group would even do it for free if transport was paid for. According to a more recent story, Cinco do Oriente was offered the opportunity of playing and recording in Australia after one of their performances was witnessed by an unnamed tourist (Chaylor Reference Chaylor2021). While it could not be foreseen by many at the time, the political situation was about to change dramatically and this put an end to any dreams of Cinco do Oriente performing overseas. However, before looking at the Indonesian invasion and occupation, it is worthwhile to study some developments that occurred in the years leading up to those events.
2. Portuguese cultural missions to Indonesian West Timor
In the early post-Second World War years, Dutch and Portuguese officials in Timor sometimes visited their counterparts across the border to participate in social or cultural activities. Such cross-border visits date back to at least 1947 (Schuller Reference Schuller1947), but the first one known to have had a musical component occurred in 1955, when Indonesian officials attending a Maliana horse-racing festival brought with them their own ‘orchestra’ to entertain the many visitors (Whittaker Reference Whittaker1955). One of the earliest known cultural missions from Portuguese Timor took place in August 1972, but it appears to have been totally sports-oriented (Suplemento, 12 August 1972). However, in June 1973, it was reported that Os Académicos were preparing to take part in a cultural exchange with West Timor that would see them perform in Atambua, Kefamenanu, and Kupang the following month. They would be travelling with ten East Timorese folk dancers. In return, the Kupang band Lexa Nada (Lexa Tone) would appear in Dili later that year (A Voz de Timor, 29 June 1973).
Cinco do Oriente took part in a similar mission, travelling to Atambua and Kefamenanu, where it performed, amongst other things, the Portuguese-language song ‘Vamos Unidos’ (Let’s Come Together), one of the winners of the ‘Great Timor Song Contest’ (Grande Prémio da Canção de Timor) organised by the government radio station in Dili. According to Meno Alves, the West Timorese audiences liked the song and tried to sing along, even though few people are likely to have known much Portuguese (A Voz de Timor, 13 September 1974). The lyrics for ‘Vamos Unidos’ are unknown, but the title is intriguing, suggestive as it is of the later integration of East Timor into Indonesia. Meanwhile, there were almost certainly other cultural missions from Dili to Kupang and other parts of West Timor, but it is telling that the two bands that are known to have been selected to represent Portuguese Timor in the neighbouring Indonesian province were the best and most popular of their era. The Portuguese, it seems, were determined to make a good impression.
3. Indonesian cultural missions to Portuguese East Timor
The three known Indonesian cultural missions occurred in September 1967, July 1972, and March 1974. A less formal delegation visited in late 1974. Details about the musical component of the 1967 mission are sketchy (Informaçóes: Boletim Informativo do Centro de Informação e Turismo de Timor, 30 September 1967), but the highlight of the 1972 three-day visit appears to have been the performances of various singers and the Kupang bands Lexa Nada and Mutiara (Pearl), both well-known and long-lived groups (Pos Kupang, 7 February 1997, 8 February 1997). One of the singers was Nurlaila Alkatiri, who got praise for her rendition of ‘Esperando Você’ (Waiting for You), a song made famous by Brazilian Roberto Carlos in 1966 and said to be ‘much loved by the Timorese’. The Alkatiri family is known to have branches in both Dili and Kupang, and Nurlaila was presumably a relative of the future Timor-Leste prime minister Mari Alkatiri. Meanwhile, there is no doubt that everybody’s favourite was 16-year-old Ervinna. Like her fellow vocalists, Ervinna sang in English and Indonesian, but her performances of popular songs in Portuguese won her much admiration (Suplemento, 20 July 1972, 27 July 1972, 3 August 1972). Surabaya-based Ervinna released her first record that year and was clearly already recognised as a singer of above-average talent; she went on to have a highly successful career, making scores of recordings in the 1970s-1980s (Discogs 2024).
On 28 February 1974, Governor El Tari of East Nusa Tenggara province arrived in Dili from Kupang, leading another Indonesian cultural mission. Once again, the highlight for most people seems to have been the performances of the visiting band, an all-female ensemble of four musicians and two singers called The Pretty Sisters. The group’s first appearance was at an invitation-only event held at Sporting Clube de Timor. This was followed by three public concerts held in the Dili school gymnasium. A local journalist who attended the last full-house performance gushed in his enthusiasm for the group, praising the costumes, singing, musicianship, and choice of songs, including ‘a typical Portuguese song’ (A Voz de Timor, 1 March 1974, 8 March 1974).
The mission was probably considered a successful public relations exercise by both sides. According to Cardoso (Reference Cardoso2002, p. 74), pro-Indonesian pamphlets made their first appearance during this Tari-led cultural mission. About six weeks after Tari’s visit to Dili, the Movimento das Forças Armadas (MFA; Armed Forces Movement) in Lisbon staged a successful coup against the long-standing authoritarian government and announced its plans to offer independence to Portugal’s colonies. Political parties were formed in Portuguese Timor soon afterwards. The June 1974 declaration by the Portuguese that they considered there to be three options for their Timor colony – continued association with Portugal, independence, or integration with Indonesia – must have sharpened Indonesian interest in the territory (Dunn Reference Dunn1983, p. 59).
By November 1974, the three main East Timorese political parties were well-established. União Democrática Timorense (UDT; Timorese Democratic Union) and Frente Revolucionária de Timor-Leste Independente (FRETILIN; Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor) both initially advocated for some form of East Timorese independence, although UDT later opted for integration into Indonesia. The less popular Associação Popular Democrática Timorense (APODETI; Timorese Popular Democratic Association) campaigned for integration into Indonesia from the beginning (Jolliffe Reference Jolliffe1978, pp. 62-4). The government newspaper, A Voz de Timor, was full of news about the MFA’s doings in Lisbon and the expected acceleration of the decolonisation process. The statements and activities of the new political parties took up most of the rest of the paper.
On 1 November 1974, A Voz de Timor ran a small article about a different matter; titled ‘Koes Plus’, it explained that as a result of an invitation from the group Bia Luli and the sponsorship of Mr Sugianto, editor of Jakarta music magazine Pop, the Indonesian band Koes Plus was coming to Dili to perform a number of shows. Although it was stated that further details would be provided later, no mention of the band’s visit was made in the following editions of A Voz de Timor. Nevertheless, the mini-tour has acquired a near-legendary status. The story goes that Koes Plus were asked by Indonesian vice-president Adam Malik and Ali Moertopo of the Indonesian intelligence agency, Badan Intelijen Negara, to travel to Portuguese Timor to provide cover for intelligence officers who would assess the political situation (Sakrie et al. Reference Sakrie2007, p. 53). Koes Plus and fellow Jakarta-based performer Ernie Djohan flew to Dili via Kupang on 6 November 1974 and left again one week later. According to Yok Koeswoyo of Koes Plus, only one concert was staged in Dili. When they returned to the Hotel Turismo after the show, a group of East Timorese pounded on the side of their vehicle and shouted, ‘Koes Plus bom grupo de musica’ (Koes Plus is a good music group) and ‘Viva Presidente Soeharto!’ (Long live President Soeharto!) (Suhana Reference Suhana2004, pp. 4–6). The latter statement sounds apocryphal, but the first claim rings true, as Koes Plus and other well-known Indonesian bands of the period had many fans in Dili (Ribeiro Reference Ribeiro2019).
An account of the visit by Ernie Djohan presents a totally different picture of the atmosphere experienced. According to Djohan, ‘The situation there wasn’t safe. The bus that the group of artists from Jakarta was travelling in was shot at and stoned by those who opposed the presence of the [representatives of the] Indonesian government. Luckily no-one was hurt’ (Poskotanews 2017). Djohan’s story of being shot at sounds unlikely, but it seems there was a minor riot in Dili during the concert, as many Timorese who wished to attend could not get tickets and they pelted the venue with rocks (Ribeiro Reference Ribeiro2019). Meanwhile, it remains unclear what role the members of Bia Luli or Sugianto of Jakarta played in the affair. Whatever the true story of Koes Plus’s stay in Dili in November 1974, the next group of Indonesians to make a memorable journey to East Timor were not musicians and they were not invited, but they came in large numbers, and they intended to stay.
4. The last days of the Portuguese era and the early years of the Indonesian occupation
The period between the Lisbon coup in April 1974 and the Indonesian invasion in December 1975 was a time in East Timor of tension, confusion, and excitement, culminating in civil war and a declaration of independence by the victorious FRETILIN. This is not the place to expand on those events, which have been well-covered elsewhere (e.g., Dunn (Reference Dunn1983), Jolliffe (Reference Jolliffe1978)). In relation to this study, however, it can be noted that it was in this period that the political dimensions of East Timorese music came clearly to the fore. For example, the Timor-Leste national anthem ‘Pátria’ (Homeland), composed by Afonso de Araújo with lyrics by journalist and poet Francisco Borja da Costa, was probably heard in public for the first time on 29 November 1975 on the occasion of the proclamation of the constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, whose independence had been declared just the day before. Timor-Leste’s first president, Francisco Xavier do Amaral, was sworn in at the same event. On the tape of this event made by journalist Jill Jolliffe (Reference Jolliffe1975), the anthem is performed on piano without vocal accompaniment and at a livelier pace than usual today. On Jolliffe’s tape, it sounds as if the anthem being played was itself a recording, but when or where the recording was made is currently unknown.
Borja da Costa was killed shortly after the Indonesian invasion, as were many East Timorese who had nothing to do with the independence declaration. Thousands of people took to the mountains, including most FRETILIN members and supporters. Despite the privations, music did not cease. Zito Antonio Alves, a nephew of Hermenegildo Alves and Meno Alves and member of 1980s band Loro Sa’e (Sunrise), later recalled that during his time in the mountains (1977–8) he wrote a number of songs that were broadcast on FRETILIN’s mobile radio station, Radio Maubere. The songs included titles reflecting the conflict, such as ‘Soldadu Javanês’ (Javanese Soldiers) and ‘Mai Mai Ó Nia Rain’ (For Your Country) (Timor Agora 2016). Toto Lebre (Reference Lebre2013) claims that the members of Cinco do Oriente also took to the mountains in 1975, where the band swapped their musical instruments for guns to help repel the invaders. This claim is supported by Alves family member, Egas Alves (Reference Alves2024). According to another source, members of Cinco do Oriente continued with music, appearing on Radio Maubere to play the FRETILIN anthem ‘Foho Ramelau’ (Mount Ramelau) and other revolutionary songs. They later joined up with Hermenegildo Alves, playing revolutionary music to entertain the people and the troops (Chaylor Reference Chaylor2021). Egas Alves (Reference Alves2024) reports that a song about the Indonesian invasion, ‘7 de Dezembro de 1975’ (7 December 1975), was created at that time with lyrics by Saha and music composed by Meno Alves. The song is still well-known in Timor-Leste today.
Hermenegildo Alves, meanwhile, was both a soldier and a musician. Alongside playing in Luses Orientais and Blue Star, he was a sergeant in the Portuguese army. Following FRETILIN’s 1975 declaration of independence, he became vice minister of defence and chief of staff of the official armed resistance, Forças Armadas da Libertação Nacional de Timor-Leste (FALINTIL; Armed Forces for the National Liberation of East Timor) (Post-CAVR Technical Secretariat 2013, pp. 185, 424–5, 1416, 2095). Constant Indonesian harassment caused massive suffering and starvation in the mountains. Finally, the majority of East Timorese were forced to surrender, but FALINTIL remained active. Sometime in 1979, Hermenegildo Alves was enticed by the Indonesians to also surrender (Alves Reference Alves2024), but he disappeared soon after (Post-CAVR Technical Secretariat 2013, pp. 854–5).
Tragically, such disappearances were not uncommon. In April 1979, Meno Alves and Manecas Exposto were taken from gaol in Dili and were never seen again. Lito Alves disappeared shortly after (Jolliffe Reference Jolliffen.d.). According to the 2013 report of the Comissão de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliação de Timor-Leste (CAVR; Timor-Leste Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation), Meno and Manecas had only recently been rearrested at the time of their disappearance (Post-CAVR Technical Secretariat 2013, pp. 856-7). The memory in the Alves family is that Meno and Manecas were held in detention and interrogated by the Indonesians after they came in from the bush in late 1978-early 1979. Following their release, they sought protection by joining a band run by an APODETI-affiliated musician whom they knew, named Januario. Although both the Alves and Exposto families had connections with FRETILIN and FALINTIL, Meno and Manecas were innocent of false charges aimed at them by an informer who claimed they were active members of the armed resistance. Shortly after that denunciation, Meno and Manecas were taken away; Lito disappeared about a week later (Alves Reference Alves2024; see also Tapol Reference Tapol1980).
Meno Alves had apparently been approached to join another band active at the time, but he declined. Meno and his former Cinco do Oriente bandmates may have been better protected against accusations of illegal activities if they had been members of that band, as it was managed by the husband of Meno’s cousin, UDT leader-turned Indonesian collaborator, Francisco Lopes da Cruz, who at that time was deputy governor of the province. Lopes had formed the band after the territory’s integration into Indonesia in mid-1976 to play at functions and other events. The practice of East Timorese bands being ‘owned’ by politicians, military officers, government officials, and others, to use for their own purposes, continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s (Farram Reference Farram and Farram2020, p. 267). Although Lopes was a UDT leader, he is also known to have helped members of the FRETILIN-supporting Alves family during the UDT-FRETILIN conflict before the Indonesian invasion (Alves Reference Alves2024). The other members of Cinco do Oriente survived. Babito Castro was able to flee to Australia, and Toto Lebre was protected by family connections, or in his words, he ‘got lucky’ (Cairns Reference Cairns2019; Lebre Reference Lebre2013).
While the Alves family blames the disappearances of Meno, Lito, and Manecas on false accusations, it seems that one reason for the enduring legend of Cinco do Oriente is a belief that those accusations were true. Members of the band were associated with FRETILIN and had family members involved in FALINTIL at the most senior level. They are understood to have been part of the armed resistance when in the mountains between late 1975 and late 1978, but they put that aside when they came back to Dili. The legend, however, ignores this distinction, suggesting instead continuous direct opposition from the earliest days of the Indonesian occupation. For example, Nuno R. Chaylor (Reference Chaylor2021) claims that for Cinco do Oriente ‘guns and music are two sides of the same coin’ and that members of the band ‘used music and weapons … to defend the Maubere revolution against the invasion and the Indonesian military occupation’.
As noted earlier, there are also sources that claim some members of Cinco do Oriente were involved in making ‘revolutionary music’ around the time of the FRETILIN declaration of independence and during the early years of the Indonesian occupation. However, it is far from clear that this was done using the band name and there is no indication that revolutionary music was part of the band’s repertoire earlier on. When the band members came down from the mountains in late 1978 to early 1979, they did not reform as Cinco do Oriente. Yet some sources imply the band continued on and some members then ‘lost their lives for singing songs against the war’, or were ‘disappeared’ ‘when revolutionary sentiment began to infiltrate their lyrics’. Dramatic assertions that members of the band later plummeted to their deaths after being thrown from an Indonesian military helicopter are also part of the legend, but no evidence has surfaced to back up this claim (Bakkalapulo Reference Bakkalapulo2005; Jarratt Reference Jarratt2021).
Three members of Cinco do Oriente are known to have also been FRETILIN members, but the legend has turned a pop group into a political machine. The most extreme example of this appears in the 2009 PhD thesis of Angie Bexley, in which she states that a number of prominent East Timorese associated with the independence struggle, many of whom later held high political office, were also involved in Cinco do Oriente. According to Bexley (Reference Bexley2009, p. 38), Mari Alkatiri (prime minister) claims he was the original guitarist of the band and that Francisco Borja da Costa (lyricist of the national anthem) was also a member. Furthermore, Bexley suggests that Cinco do Oriente, Os Académicos, and the otherwise unknown Eclipse were the same band with different names, which is clearly untrue. Possibly, this claim is based on a misunderstanding due to some imprecise explanations given by Bexley’s respondents.
Meanwhile, Bexley names José Ramos-Horta (president and prime minister), Nicolau Lobato (the first prime minister of East Timor following the independence declaration in 1975), and Abilio Araujo (FRETILIN leader) as other participants. However, it is unclear whether she means these three were also band members or if they played some other role, as she declares the main purpose of the band was to provide a cover for young East Timorese nationalists to meet without attracting too much attention from the Portuguese security services. Conceivably, the people mentioned by Bexley attended concerts or other band activities in order to conduct secret political business, but statements made by band members, such as George Rocha (Reference Rocha2019, Reference Rocha2020) and Toto Lebre (Cairns Reference Cairns2019), suggest that they were mainly interested in making music, drinking beer, and meeting girls. And while some people later closely associated with the independence movement were members of some of Dili’s earliest rock and pop bands, including the politician Abilio Araujo (Luses Orientais) and the soldier Hermenegildo Alves (Luses Orientais; Blue Star), that does not mean the bands themselves were politically oriented.
5. The legend and the legacy
The name Cinco do Oriente was reactivated in 1995 by Toto Lebre when he encouraged the formation of a new band with the old name. However, the band may have still been remembered through the activities of others, such as Chico Malohi, who had joined Cinco do Oriente as an additional vocalist in 1972. Malohi later recalled how the Lisbon coup and the Indonesian invasion changed East Timorese music, as the focus shifted from folk tunes and love songs to songs about revolution and resistance. According to Malohi, the events in Lisbon inspired him to write ‘Fitun Bot’ (Big Star), a song now well-known in Timor-Leste. Ostensibly about people waking at sunrise and getting on with their work, Malohi explains that his intention was to describe people striving for independence. A FRETILIN member, Malohi, was arrested and imprisoned a few weeks after the Indonesian invasion. He was later released, saved, he believes, by serenading his main captor, intelligence officer Colonel Sinaga, with the famous Indonesian kroncong song ‘Bengawan Solo’ (Solo River) (Jolliffe Reference Jolliffen.d.).
‘Fitun Bot’ later appeared on the mid-1980s debut album by Arquiris Band (the name means the same as the earlier Arco Iris). The song is not listed on the album’s cover (Arquiris Band c. 1985), perhaps to avoid advertising that the band had recorded a song by a former political prisoner. Some East Timorese who lived through the Indonesian occupation argue that there were many songs with hidden messages of hope for liberation. They also point to the many sad songs and songs about failed relationships that were recorded at that time, claiming that they are really a reflection of the songwriters’ feelings about Indonesia and the occupation (Alves Reference Alves2024; Fernandes Reference Fernandes2019; Ribeiro Reference Ribeiro2019). Elsewhere, the author has analysed multiple songs recorded by East Timorese artists during the Indonesian period that might fall into this category (Farram Reference Farram and Farram2020).
There have always been such songs, of course, but the belief that ‘simple love songs’ were used to ‘veil’ songs about the resistance has remained strong, as expressed by both Joviana Guterres and Kiera Zen (both mentioned earlier) in a 2019 interview. Meanwhile, singer-songwriter Ego Lemos (born 1972), who played guitar in the revived Cinco do Oriente, argues that Indonesian-occupied East Timor had three famous fronts: the resistance front, the diplomatic front, and the clandestine front. Lesser known, he says, is the cultural front, where music and art played an important role (Schlicher and Tschanz Reference Schlicher and Tschanz2019, pp. 2–5). Cinco do Oriente is seen as being part of this cultural front, but, as indicated earlier, it is not obvious how the original band qualifies for this distinction. The answer would seem to be connected to identity. Simon Frith (Reference Frith, Hall and du Gay1996, p. 110) argues that music is ‘a key to identity because it offers, so intensely, a sense of both self and others, of the subjective in the collective’. In this case, however, personal identity is not at the forefront; it is more a matter of East Timorese culture and music as a source of collective identity as opposed to those of Indonesia (and possibly also Portugal). When conceived this way, Cinco do Oriente can be portrayed as a paragon of East Timorese music and identity. Lawrence Grossberg (Reference Grossberg, Hall and du Gay1996, pp. 87–8), meanwhile, notes how identity has been used for political organisation, in which ‘a self-defined constituency’ acts in the political interest of that self-defined group. Grossberg argues that this model has many limitations when put into practice, but it is useful here for understanding how Cinco do Oriente has assumed such a central place in East Timorese music and resistance history. In this sense, the band serves as a symbol for East Timorese cultural and political identity in the resistance against Indonesia.
Brian Longhurst (Reference Longhurst2003, pp. 115–20) has outlined how pop and rock music have long been seen as ‘in some way oppositional to established values in the broadest sense’. Grossberg (Reference Grossberg1997, pp. 89–93), however, argues that rock music has rarely provided any real challenges to the political and ideological status quo and that even when musicians provide a sense of political activism, audiences are largely unmoved. On the other hand, Craig Lockard (Reference Lockard1998, pp. 27–9) has noted how popular music in various parts of the world has been perceived by authoritarian governments as a potentially unsettling element and a challenge to their rule, and some artists see their music as an overt political weapon. Yet there are other artists embraced as popular symbols of opposition, even though their music contains no obvious political content. In a discussion on how audiences can create their own meanings of music, Roy Shuker (Reference Shuker1994, p. 17) cites the case of the 1973 song ‘Part of the Union’ by English band Strawbs, which was intended as an attack on trade unionism, but was soon adopted by union activists as a song of solidarity. Ray Pratt (Reference Pratt1990, pp. 7–8) also discusses this phenomenon, noting that popular songs are often used in identity creation, but the intended meaning of the songwriters is frequently subverted or interpreted differently by listeners. In the case of Cinco do Oriente, individual songs seem to be largely irrelevant, as no particular songs are mentioned by those who cite the band as an inspiration.
Modern-day East Timorese musicians justly praise Cinco do Oriente as a pioneer of their country’s music industry. But they were not the only rock and pop band of their era, and they were not the first. Other bands also deserve some recognition, such as Blue Star, Os Académicos (Bia Luli), and Os Lords. The evidence suggests that there was nothing overtly political about Cinco do Oriente or its music, and it is the band’s admirers who have projected these oppositional values onto the group. The band had a high profile as one of the most celebrated music groups of its era. Following the Lisbon coup in 1974, some band members took a political stance by joining FRETILIN. All members of the band took to the mountains following the Indonesian invasion. After surrendering to the Indonesians, Meno Alves, Lito Alves, and Manecas Exposto later disappeared, believed killed by the Indonesian military. Their deaths made them martyrs to the resistance struggle. That they had once been members of a famous rock and pop band may have contributed to their being targeted by the Indonesian military, but it could not have been the activities of the band as such that led to their disappearances, as it had ceased to exist years earlier. Nevertheless, the creation of a new band using the old name in the 1990s was a political act, as it involved a direct identification with people believed to have been killed by the Indonesians because of their association with the resistance movement. In this way, the legend of Cinco do Oriente was strengthened. The legend of the band has also become its legacy, as belief in a band of revolutionaries named Cinco do Oriente gives weight to other arguments about the subversive role of music during the resistance and the value of music as part of East Timorese identity.
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