Seko is a district of

North Luwu Regency North Luwu Regency is a regency of South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia. It was created on 20 April 1999 by separation of the province's northern districts formerly within the Luwu Regency; however on 25 February 2003 it was reduced when the east ...

South Sulawesi South Sulawesi () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province in the South Peninsula, Sulawesi, southern peninsula of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The Selayar Islands archipelago to the south of Sulawesi is also part of the province. The capital and largest ci ...

, Indonesia. A mountainous district with a population of 13,000 people, it is a relatively isolated region from the rest of the regency and province.

Geography

Seko is located roughly at the geographical center of Sulawesi, approximately 600 km away from the provincial capital of

Makassar Makassar ( ), formerly Ujung Pandang ( ), is the capital of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, ...

and 140 km from the regency seat at Masamba. It is located to the north of the regency, bordering the provinces of

West Sulawesi West Sulawesi (), covering a land area of 17,152.99 km2 with its capital at Mamuju, is a province of Indonesia on the western side of Sulawesi (formerly Celebes) island, consisting 6 regencies ('' kabupaten''), namely Polewali Mandar, Ma ...

and

Central Sulawesi Central Sulawesi (Indonesian language, Indonesian: ''Sulawesi Tengah'') is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located at the centre of the island of Sulawesi. The administrative capital and largest city is located in Palu. The provin ...

. The district's topography is mountainous with stretches of savanna land. The rivers of Betue, Kasumong, and Oro flow through the district, the rivers merging to form the Karama River. The region has an elevation of about 1,000 meters. With an area of over 2,100 square kilometers, it is the largest district in North Luwu Regency.

History

A number of stone structures, carvings and artefacts have been found in Seko, estimated to indicate human habitation from at least the 15th century. Earthen mounds and burial sites are also found across the district. Seko contained iron ore mines, one of the few in premodern Indonesia to be easily accessible, and gold was also panned in the rivers, resulting in the region's integration with an ancient trade network. At some point, it was conquered by the

Luwu The Kingdom of Luwu (also Luwuq or Wareq) was a polity located in the northern part of the modern-day South Sulawesi province of Indonesia, on the island of Sulawesi. It is considered one of the earliest known Buginese kingdoms in Sulawesi, fou ...

Kingdom, whose ruler assigned the region its current name.

Administration

Seko is subdivided into twelve villages, listed below. The district office is located in the village of Padang Balua.

Culture

Aside from the administrative division, the broader Seko area is traditionally divided into three traditional regions: Seko Padang, Seko Tengah, and Seko Lemo, and local tradition further divided these regions into nine customary areas. The Seko Padang area is drained by the Betue and Kasumong rivers, whilst the Seko Tengah area comprises the lower Betue river after Kasumong's confluence and the Seko Lemo area is drained by the Oro river. The region is home to the

Seko languages The Seko languages are a group of four closely related Austronesian languages spoken in West Sulawesi and South Sulawesi provinces, Indonesia. They make up a primary branch of the South Sulawesi subgroup. The languages of the Seko branch are: S ...

, a native language group with around 9,000 speakers in the 1980s.

Transport

Seko is connected to Masamba by a partially (as of 2020) paved road, which reached Seko in early 2020. The trip from Masamba to Seko takes around 5 hours. Prior to the road's opening, Seko was largely isolated from land routes, requiring offroad motorbike taxis to reach which were reported as "the most expensive motorcycle taxi in Indonesia". The

Seko Airport The Seko Airport is an airport in Seko, North Luwu Regency, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. General The runway is usable by CASA C-212 aircraft. It serves around 1,300 to 1,500 aircraft annually. History There was already a grass airstrip at Seko in ...

serves the district with pioneer flights to Masamba,

Palu Palu, officially known as the City of Palu ( Indonesian: ''Kota Palu''), is the capital and largest city of Central Sulawesi Province in Indonesia. Palu is located on the northwestern coast of Sulawesi and borders Donggala Regency to the north ...

Toraja The Torajan are an ethnic group indigenous people, indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, regency of T ...

, and

Ampana Ampana is a town and the administrative centre of the Tojo Una-Una Regency, in Central Sulawesi Province of Indonesia. Ampana is located in the middle between Poso and Luwuk. Transportation The city is served by the Tanjung Api Airport . Cli ...

Economy

With the recent opening of the road to Masamba, Seko has been electrified, with its economy based around agriculture with products including rice, cocoa, and coffee. Rice farms are mostly wetland paddy fields, covering over 4,200 hectares, with around 450 hectares being planted with coffee and another 750 hectares with cocoa. There are plans for the development of a mine, plantations and a hydroelectric power plant, which has faced significant opposition from locals and environmental groups.

References

{{reflist Districts of South Sulawesi