Posted
on July 30, 2013
Independence
from France AND Britain?
This
South Pacific island nation had a unique government during most of
the twentieth century: it was ruled by both France and the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. One reason this sort
of arrangement was so unusual was because France and the U.K.,
historically, have been enemies more often than friends!
But
many of the settlers who came to the islands from the 1600s to the
1800s were British, and even more of the settlers were French—and
each group of European settlers wanted their home countries to
provide a government to protect their interests against the
Melanesian peoples who had lived on the islands for thousands of
years.
During
the colonization and the joint rule by France and Britain, Vanuatu
was called the New Hebrides (in French, Nouvelles-Hebrides) after the
Hebrides Islands of Scotland. It sounds as if the joint rule was a
bit inefficient. If I've understood what I read correctly, there were
two of everything, so if the bureaucratic mess of (say) the British
immigration office got you down, you could turn around and try the
French one. There were two court systems and two prison systems, too,
and people could choose which courts to use and which prison systems
to submit to. I read that the British prisons were more strict but
also more humane, but the food in the French prisons was better.
(Well,
of course!)
The
British helped Vanuatu gain its independence on this date in
1980—after the brief “Coconut War”—although France dragged
its feet all the way through the independence process.
 |
| Melanesian kids |
A
Cargo Cult...
Have
you ever heard about the Melanesian religions known as “cargo
cults”? Vanuatu has a famous cargo cult revolving around John Frum.
It is possible that this religion (and, now, also a John Frum
political party) was inspired by an American G.I. named John Frum—or
any John at all (“John Frum” could have evolved from the phrase
“John from America”). It's of course possible that Frum is an
entirely fictional character, someone who never existed but who was
created in bits and pieces from reports of people's visions and
dreams. No matter what, Frum was supposed to be a god who appeared to
the Melanesians and promised that all the white people would leave
the islands and the Melanesians would enjoy a new age of
prosperity....but only if the Melanesians first cut themselves off
from every aspect of European society and took up traditional ways.
Because
of Frum's supposed message, his followers gave away all their money
and Western-style possessions, and they left their schools and
churches and plantations. They moved to the island interior and began
to participate in traditional feasts, dances, and rituals.
The
cult got its start shortly before the start of World War II, and
during the war its popularity increased. After all, the American
G.I.s who came by plane during the war brought with them a lot of
cargo, both supplies and equipment.
 |
| This grass airplane was built to show what the symbolic landing strip was... |
When
WWII was over, the airfields abandoned, and the equipment removed,
many believers in John Frum began to build symbolic landing strips in
an apparent effort to lure American airplanes back, and more cargo.
A
leader of the John Frum religion, named Nakomaha, created what he
called the “Tanna Army,” a non-violent ritualized army that
participated in parades. Every year on February 15—the date that
John Frum is supposed to come back, some unspecified year—the Army
holds a parade, and they march with chests painted with "USA" (or shirts that read "Tanna Army USA").
I
found the accounts of this religion—which is now, somehow, a
political party in Vanuatu—sort of confusing. Do Frum followers
pretty much worship Western goods (cargo), and yearn for more? Or do
they avoid or give away all Western goods?
To
learn more about Vanuatu, check out this earlier post.
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest pages on July
holidays, historical
anniversaries in July,
and July
birthdays.
And
here are my Pinterest pages on August
holidays, historical
anniversaries in August,
and August
birthdays.
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