Jimi Valley

Jimi District is one of the least developed districts in PNG apart from Green River in Sandaun and Rai Coast in Madang. Its geographical location makes it a remote district of the newly created Jiwaka Province, in Papua New Guinea. The district is located in the Jimi Valley, which stretches from the northeast corner of Jiwaka and into Madang Province. Jimi district is almost 90% mountainous and has is covered with rainforest. The district HQ is Tabibuga, originally called "Tapia Poka", which in the Narak dialect refers to a native tree that grows around that area. Because of the complexity of pronunciation by the earlier explorers and discoverers, they more or less pronounced it as "Tabibuga"

The district is further sub-divided into three small sub-districts; Upper Jimi - Kol, Middle Jimi - Tabibuga and Lower Jimi - Koinambe. The district got its name after Jim Taylor who toured the place in the early 1950s.

There are many different languages spoken in Jimi. The major one being Komblaka, Narak and Reai. Komblaka is spoken by people living towards the Upper Jimi, bordering with North Waghi District and towards Kerowaghi District of the Simbu Province, while the Narak is spoken by the Middle Jimi people - from Ngamba to Kwipun and some living along the Bismack Range like Koriom, Mogni, Togban and towards the western end the people living in Maikmol Villages. There are people that speak the Melpa language of the Hagen and these people live along the range towards the western part of the district. Some people towards the Mt. Wilhelm speak the Simbu language, called the Kuman language.

The total population of Jimi District is estimated to be around 70,000 after the 2012 census. However, it is very difficult to get everyone on the common roll due to the isolation of villages. Majority of Jimian are all living by means of subsistence livelihood. The average population growth of Jimi is at present around 7% and life expectancy is around 50 years. Please beware that data in terms of life expectancy is not confirmed, however it concluded based on assumption because most elderly people in Jimi do not know their birth of date, thus making this very complicated. But generally the data on birth dates has improved significantly after the 1970s. With the populations growth being estimated at around 7%, the actual growth is yet difficult to record as more and more Jimian now live outside the district. Some even migrated to other provinces like West New Britain and Madang Provinces due to tribal fighting and poor government services.

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