All About Kota Kinabalu

Kota Kinabalu, formerly known as Jesselton, is the city capital of Sabah as well as the capital of the West Coast Division of Sabah. Strategically situated in the Northwest Coast of Borneo Island, facing the South China Sea and Tunku Abdul Rahman Park on one side, and set against the backdrop of Mount Kinabalu; this beautiful ‘Nature Resort City’ stretches for miles along the coast and towards the inland.

Affectionately known as KK or Api Api by the locals, Kota Kinabalu is a popular tourism getaway and a major gateway into Sabah and Borneo Island. Apart from featuring a number of tourism attractions in and around the city, Kota Kinabalu is also one of the most thriving industrial and commercial centers in East Malaysia.

History of Kota Kinabalu City (Source: wikipedia)

Since 15^th century, the area of Jesselton was under the influence of the Bruneian Empire. In the late 1800s, the British North Borneo Company (BNBC) began to establish colonies throughout North Borneo. In 1882, BNBC founded a small settlement in the area known as Gaya Bay, which was already inhabited by Bajau people. The first settlement was on Gaya Island. In 1897, this first settlement was burned and destroyed by the indigenous Bajau-Suluk freedom fighter Mat Salleh.

After the destruction, BNBC decided to relocate the settlement to the more easily defended mainland at Gentisan Bay (now Sepanggar Bay) in 1898. However that location was found to be unsuitable and in July 1899, Mr. Henry Walker, a Land Commissioner, identified a 30 acres (12 ha) site opposite Gaya Island as a replacement for Gentisan. This fishing village named Api-Api was chosen due to its proximity to the North Borneo Railway and its natural port that provided good anchorage, which was up to 24 feet deep. By the end of 1899, construction had started on shoplots, a pier and government buildings. This new administrative centre was renamed Jesselton after Sir Charles Jessel, who was then Vice-Chairman of BNBC.

Eventually, Jesselton became a major trading post of North Borneo, dealing in rubber, rattan, honey and wax.  The North Borneo Railway was used to transport goods to the Jesselton harbor. The Malay and Bajau uprisings during those times were not uncommon, and BNBC worked to quell the long-standing threat of piracy in the region.

Jesselton suffered a large destruction when it was razed by the British to retreated from the Japanese and suffered more destruction when the Allies bombed it in 1945. After the Japanese takeover of Borneo, it was again renamed Api. Several rebellions against the Japanese military administration took place in Api. One major rebellion occurred in 10 October 1943 by a group called Kinabalu Guerrillas, consisting of local inhabitants. Japanese forces quelled the rebellion after its leader, Albert Kowk, was arrested and executed in 1944. At the later stages of the war, what remained of the town was destroyed again by Allied bombings day and night for over six months as part of the Borneo Campaign in 1945, leaving only three building standing. The war in North Borneo ended with the official surrender of the Japanese 37^th Army by Lieutenant General Baba Masao in Labuan on 10 September 1945.

After the war on the edge of bankruptcy, the British North Borneo Company returned to administer Jesselton but was unable to finance the huge costs of reconstruction. They gave control of North Borneo to the British Crown on 18 July 1946. The new colonial government elected to rebuild Jesselton as the capital of North Borneo instead of Sandakan, which had also been destroyed by the war. The Crown Colony administration designed a plan, later known as the “Colonial Office Reconstruction and Development Plan for North Borneo: 1948-1955”, to rebuild North Borneo. This plan provided £6,051,939 for the rebuilding of infrastructure in North Borneo.

When Crown Colony of North Borneo together with Sarawak, Singapore and the Federation of Malaya formed the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, it became known as Sabah, and Jesselton remained its capital. On 22 December 1967, State Legislative Assembly under Chief Minister Tun Mustapha bin Datu Harun passed a bill renaming Jesselton to Kota Kinabalu. The city was upgraded to city status on 2 February 2000.

Etymology (Source: wikipedia)

Kota Kinabalu is named after Mount Kinabalu, which is situated about 50 kilometres east-northeast of the city. Kinabalu is derived from the name Aki Nabalu meaning the “revered place of the dead”. Aki means “ancestors” or “grandfather”, and Nabalu is a name for the mountain in the Dusun language. There is also a source claiming that the term originated from Ki Nabalu, where Ki meaning “have” or “exist”, and Nabalu meaning “spirit of the dead”.

Kota is a Malay word for a “fort”, “town” or a city. It is also used formally in a few other Malaysian towns and cities, for example, Kota Bharu, Kota Tinggi and Kota Kemuning. It can also be used informally to refer to any towns or cities. Hence, a direct translation of the name Kota Kinabalu into English would be “City of Kinabalu” or “Kinabalu City”.

Wendy Law Suart wrote in her book on North Borneo, The Lingering Eye, “there is in the Sabah State Museum a Dutch map of Borneo and the Celebes dated 1657 in which the settlement where Jesselton was to stand is clearly labeled Api-Api. It may have some connection with the seaside tree with breathing roots that bears the same name.

Original Names (Source: wikipedia)

Besides Jesselton, there have been a number of other theories regarding the origins of the original name for Kota Kinabalu. The most popular, as mentioned above is Api-Api or simply Api, which is a Malay word meaning ‘Fire’. There are claims, however, that Kota Kinabalu was actually named after a nearby river called Sungai Api-Api. In Chinese, the city is still known as Api.

Besides Api-Api, another suggested historical name is Deasoka, which roughly means “below the coconut tree” in the Bajau language. The Bajau locals purportedly used this name to refer to a village in the southern part of the city which is filled with coconut trees. Another name was Singgah Mata which literally means “transit eye”, but can be loosely translated as “pleasing to the eye”. It is a name purportedly given by fishermen from the Gaya Island referring to ther strip of land which today is downtown Kota Kinabalu. Today, all these names have been immortalized as names of streets or buildings around the city. Some examples are Lintasan Deasoka, Api-Api Centre and Jalan Singgah Mata.