Philippine E-Journals

Tausug’s Identity in Parang Sabil: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Sajed S Ingilan

Discipline: Social Science

 

Abstract:

In the discourse of Filipino Muslim history, the Tausugs from Mindanao, Philippines had shown their strong resistance to the Spanish and American colonizers. This Tausug’s way of waging jihad (holy war) known as parang sabil , a misunderstood practice, is seen in their literature. The parang sabil, a ceremonial folk narrative song sung to the accompaniment of the gabbang (native xylophone), suling (native flute), and the biyula (native violin), deals with the story of a Tausug hero who seeks guiltless death in the hands of foreign invaders in defense of Islam. Hence, this paper made use of Fairclough’s theory of Critical Discourse Analysis to analyze the identity of the Tausug as represented in the folk narrative song, Kissa Kan Panglima Hassan (The Story of Panglima Hassan). After a close examination of the textual features, discourse and socio-cultural practices in the text, findings revealed that the Tausugs performed parang sabil under the ideology of martabbat (honor), dar’al Islam (space), and tawheed (oneness). This paper does not only shed light on the Tausug ideology of jihad and the struggle of the Muslims in Mindanao but, more importantly, it contributes to the development of positive discourses relating to the image of Tausug culture in the Philippines.