Hello WW2Talk and welcome to my first post. I'm trying to uncover more information about Britain's employment of Iban headhunters during the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960). There were several incidents where British soldiers photographed themselves posing with the decapitated heads of communist guerrillas, heads which were decapitated by Iban headhunters hired by the British military to fight the communists. In 1952 many of these photographs were published by the British Communist newspaper the Daily Worker, leading to a massive political scandal which saw Winston Churchill order General Gerald Templer to put an end to the practice of headhunting. I'm currently trying to gather as much information about the practice of headhunting and the resulting political fallout as I possibly can. I have gathered as much information as I possibly could on my own so now I'm looking to consult experts and put out feelers in online forums to check if I may have missed anything. If anybody has any information on hand such as regimental records, diaries, photographs, or published accounts in biographies and regimental histories, I would be extremely grateful. (Photograph: Published by the Daily Worker, 10 May 1952. This image is the most well recognised of the headhunting images.)
just to give members a view of the Iban Among the war (ngayau) regulations followed by the Iban are: 1) If a warleader leads a party on an expedition, he must not allow his warriors to fight a guiltless tribe that has no quarrel with them. 2) If the enemy surrenders, he may not take their lives, lest his army be unsuccessful in future warfare and risk fighting empty-handed war raids (balang kayau). 3) The first time that a warrior takes a head or captures a prisoner, he must present the head or captive to the warleader in acknowledgement of the latter’s leadership. 4) If a warrior takes two heads or captives, or more, one of each must be given to the warleader; the remainder belongs to the killer or captor. 5) The warleader must be honest with his followers in order that in future wars he may not be defeated (alah bunoh). [Ibid] IBAN | Facts and Details
There is some expertise here on the 'Emergency', I would suggest you check YouTube for any footage there. There are several academics who have written on the period, Karl Hack at the Open University is the one I know of. Whether any have written on this topic is moot. There are a couple of threads here, easily found this: Malaya Part II: The Communist Insurrection 1948-1953 and you really are in luck ( as you know): The Severed Head Of A Bandit [Graphic Image]
I've already seen that thread on the severed head but I've also visited the Daily Worker archives to view the original articles and photographs. I'm also already in contact with Karl Hack and I've read his comments on Ibans and headhunting in his latest book published January 2022. I'll keep a closer eye on the Malaya Part II thread though
