On the origin of the name “Zamboanga”, there are
no hard historical facts to go by, but two popular legends, both emanating
from Sama traditions, provide credible insights into its origin. One relates
to bamboo pole and the other to a flower garden.
One version claims that the name “Zamboanga” came
from the word “samuang” which in the Sama vernacular means “to drive a
bamboo pole into the mud silt, between the vinta, or canoe and its
outriggers in place of the anchor.” If this it to be believed, it could well
be one of history’s classical comedies of error. For, as the story goes, a
Spanish soldier who happened to stray into a river bank chanced upon a Sama
boatman mooring his vinta with a bamboo pole. The soldier asked the boatman
what the name of the place was, to which the latter, thinking that his
inquirer wanted to know what he was doing, replied “samuang”. The soldier,
believing in turn that he was understood, took “samuang” to be the name of
the place.
The other version is that in the ninth century,
an ancient maritime group headed by Salingai Bongau went in quest of the
fabled flower garden called Jambanga and sailed eastward from Srivijaya
Empire in the direction of Zamboanga, which was then renowned as the Garden
of Asia.
In the course of the journey, one group away,
headed southeast and landed in the place now known as Sandakan. The group
called the place Jambangan. Soon, another maverick group broke away and
landed in what is now Siasi Island, and they too, called the place Jambangan.
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