Billamongawonga

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## Billamongawonga

### Attractions

Tower of Terror (retroactively)
Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

## Physical description

### Species

Human

**Billamongawonga** or **Trader Bill** is a character from *Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar*.

## History

### Biography

Billamongawonga or, "Trader Bill" was an Indigenous South American man in the 19th century. It has been asserted (but not fully confirmed) that Bill was the grandfather of Trader Sam, a mystical South American man. If true, this would make Billamongawonga himself an ancient magic-user as Sam was a grown adult since the early 18th century. This family is also often identified as being composed of shrunken-head traders, warriors and cannibals.

Trader Bill worked as a shrunken-head salesman, an occupation present within the family of Trader Sam. At some point, he became affiliated with the evil billionaire Harrison Hightower III, a colonial explorer and adventurer who travelled the world to grave-rob and pillage marginalized peoples. Trader Bill was considered to by Hightower's right-hand-man with Hightower having even hung up a portrait of Trader Bill within his home at the Hotel Hightower in New York City.

On the December 31 of 1899, Hightower's stolen artifact *Shiriki Utundu* came to life and killed Hightower. This resulted in Harrison Hightower III being imprisoned as a ghost within his own hotel to be eternally tortured. Billamongawonga's further fate is unknown but in the November of 1912, the New York City Preservation Society uncovered his portrait and sent it to Trader Sam.

### Development history

Trader Bill was designed by Disney legend Samuel McKim as concept-art for the character who became Trader Sam in the *Jungle Cruise*. This artwork was later repurposed within Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar at the Disneyland Hotel. The character's design was in line with colonial and racist depictions of Indigenous people (namely the Jivaroan peoples), ever present in the Jungle Cruise property. The backstory presented in the bar retconned the character into the backstory for *Tower of Terror*, an attraction in Tokyo DisneySea. Amidst 2021 refurbishments of the Jungle Cruise, it is believed the character's references will be removed.

## Appearances

### Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

A portrait of Billamongawonga was hung within this bar along with a message from one Vanessa Capshaw of the New York City Preservation Society addressed to Trader Sam in 1912.

## Trivia

* Similarly to Trader Sam's name being a potential allusion to Sam McKim, Trader Bill's name might be a tribute to Bill Evans.
* Harrison Hightower III was also retconned into being a member of the *Society of Explorers and Adventurers*, the same colonial-guild which included Jungle Cruise characters Dr. Albert Falls and Professor Garrett Reed. Hightower has been referenced in the Skipper Canteen and Tropical Hideaway in-addition to *Hightower Industries* being referenced in Disneyland's Jungle Cruise.

## See also

* *List of Racist Elements in the Jungle Cruise*

## External links

* *Billamongawonga* on *Tower of Terror Wiki*

## References

1. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CQwF5igADsI/
2. ↑ https://www.mousesteps.com/2011/09/25/detailed-look-at-trader-sams-enchanted-tiki-bar-disneyland-hotel-from-august-2011/3/