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The Significance of Modern Cults in Melanesian Development.

The  Australian Outlook

{Incorporating The Austral-Asiatic Bulletin)

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

cyril S. belshaw, M.A. (N.Z.), Ph.D. (London), specialising in the Study of Economic Change in non-Western communities. Formerly District Officer in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate Administration. Research Fellow of the Australian National University, working in Papua. Author of "Island Administration in the Western Pacific."

The /lustration Outlook

The Significance of Modern Cults in Melanesian Development.

Cyril S. Belshaw.

Although we know that in New Caledonia and Fiji the Melan­esian people have shown themselves capable of considerable political development,¹ many of us who know the Melanesian² in the New Hebrides, British Solomon Islands, and New Guinea are inclined to doubt the possibility, at least in the near future, of Melanesians organising their own political movements. The "Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels" of the war, emerging from the bush with hardly-come-by garden produce, resisting many forms of agricultural innovation, chewing betel nut, wearing cast-off clothing, speaking seemingly mutilated forms of English, appear to be far removed from any form of modern organisation. The British Solomon Island experiments hi Native Courts and Councils, though a tremendously promising innovation, have been temporarily arrested by a strange native cult. The suggestion that there might before long be a pan-Melanesian nationalist movement would evoke incredulous smiles from most European island-residents, who point to the impossibility of persuading labourers from different communities to work together in harmony, to the multifarious languages and cultures, and to the absence of anything approaching a centralised organisation in traditional life.

It is the purpose of this article to suggest, however, that this is far too simple an interpretation of Melanesian possibilities.  An analysis of certain apparently isolated Melanesian cults, which have grown up in European times, will give an indication of some of these possibilities. We may begin by a brief summary of their features.

The Tuka Cult of Fiji.³

About 1885 a prophet arose among the hill tribes of Fiji. He

1. In both colonies there are indigenous tribal sytsems not found elsewhere in Melanesia. In New Caledonia the Melanesians have a limited franchise, in Fiji they play a prominent part in local politics.

2. For the purpose of this article I do not attempt to distinguish between Papuans and Mela­nesians.

3. See A. B. Brewster, The Hill Tribes of Fiji, Seeley Service, 1922.

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claimed that it had been revealed to him that before long the whole world would be turned upside down, particularly that the whites would serve the natives, the chiefs would serve the common people, and his followers would have eternal life. Jehovah was subordinated to local gods, and through the use of supernatural powers derived from the gods, the prophet was enabled to secure the obedience of a large following. This following drilled in European style to repulse the expected advance of the Administration. The prophet was banished, but the belief in the tuka cult continued.

The Baigona Cult of Papua.⁴

The Baigona Snake Cult of the Northern Division of Papua operated for many years from 1911. The prophet had the secrets of sorcery and prophesy revealed to him by the Baigona Snake, and cultivated its good-will by special rites. He sold the secrets of the cult to those who wished to be initiated. The movement was characterised by trances. Its rise coincided with the attempt to bring the area under administrative control. An administrative patrol was endangered and administrative pressure to reduce the trances and abolish the sale of initiation in accordance with anti-sorcery policy was not completely successful.

The Lontis Cult of Buka.

I have not been able to find details of this cult, which occurred in 1913 during the German administration. Numerous arrests were made.

The German Wislin of the Torres Straits.*

This is the first clear specimen of the genus now known as "Cargo Cult". It occurred in 1913 on the island of Saibai, Torres Straits. The prophet declared that his followers would see the markai, the spirits of the dead, who would come to them in a steamer, bringing all kinds of manufactured cargo, and who would kill all the whites. Those who disobeyed the prophet would lose all their money and would be unable to earn any more.

The Taro Cult and its Relatives in Papua.⁶

This cult, very much akin to the Baigona, but in which the native vegetable taro took the place of the baigona snake, was more

4. See Papua Annual Reports 1911/12 p. 129, 1912/13 p. 154, 1919/20 p. 63; Chinnery and Haddon, Five New Religious Cults in British New Guinea, Hibbert Journal, XV, }, 1917; Williams, F. E., Orokaiva Magic, Oxford 1928.

5. Set Chinnery and Haddon, op. cit.

6. See Chinnery and Haddon, op. cit.; Williams, op. cit.

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vigorous in its proselytism and lasted from 1914 into the late twenties. Dreams, ritual, and shaking fits played a prominent part in it. Off-shoots were the Kava Kara and Kekesi cults in the same area (Northern Division).

The Vailala Madness of Papua.⁷

The "Vailala Madness", which swept the Gulf Division of Papua from 1919 to 1923, was in the hands of sorcerers who had the power of divination during trances, and who encouraged their followers to take part in orgies of shaking fits. The great bull-roarer ceremonies of the kinship groups were abandoned, and new ceremonies were created to take their place. A steamer was expected, bringing the deceased relatives who were to have white skins. The new ceremonies contained a Christian element, flag-poles were given names and treated as the media through whom messages from the dead were received, there was a certain element of military drill, and women were given equality. Public confessionals took place.

The Murder of Clapcott, New Hebrides.⁸

In 1923 the inland people of Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, were influenced by rumours of death-raising. The prophet concerned claimed that if all the Europeans were killed the dead would arise, with white skins. They would bring European goods with them, and a house was built to receive these. To join the movement, it was necessary to pay a pig, or a fee of 5/- to one pound. During a great feast the prophet's wife died, and a European, Clapcott, was immediately killed. It is stated that the same people killed some Europeans called Greig rn 1908, but details do not seem to have been published. These are the only occasions in which Europeans have been assaulted during these movements, though resistance and threats have been offered on several occasions.⁹

The Cargo Cults of Buka.¹⁰

In 1932 and 1933 a cargo cult arose which appeared to be related to the previously mentioned Lontis cult. The prophets claimed that a steamer would arrive, laden with good things, and that all Buka would be ruled from their village. A store was to be

7. See F. E. Williams. The Vailala Madness, Papuan Anthropology Report No. 4, Port Moreiby, 1923, the best account which has yet appeared of any of these movements.

8. See Appendix in Williams. 1928, op. cit.

9. I am assuming that the numerous killings in the nineteenth century, the two revolts in New Caledonia, and the murder of Europeans and police on Guadalcanal and Malaita in. 1927, were not accompanied by these movements.

10. Report to the Council of the League of Nations on the Administration of the Territory of New Guinea, Canberra, 1933/4. 1934/5.

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built to receive these goods, and the police to be resisted if they interfered. But the ship would not come while food was available, and hence gardens were abandoned for some time. The leaders were imprisoned, but the cult continued.

The Markham Cargo Cult, New Guinea.¹¹

In 1933 a prophet arose in this area who claimed that Jehovah was subordinate to Satan. Once again the spirits of the dead were expected to return, bringing goods; gardens lapsed; and seances took place. Villages were destroyed and community houses built, and it was erroneously believed that the Administration would be passive.

The Chair and Rule Movement of the Solomons.¹²

About 1939 a European missionary encouraged the Melanesians of Santa Ysabel, Gela and Savo to agitate for a seat on the nominated Advisory Council. He emphasised the need for a chairman and rules of procedure. The movement got out of hand and was mis­interpreted. The Melanesians elevated a flag, a wooden chair and a wooden rule into positions of ritual importance. They wrote to friends in San Cristoval and agitated for higher wages. Those involved were punished and the missionary asked to leave the Pro­tectorate. His memory was still revered in 1945 among some people. The Administration was prompted into plans for Native Courts and Councils by this movement.

The John Frum Movement, New Hebrides.¹³

In 1940 a native of the island of Tanna declared himself to be the prophet of John Frum, a spirit which evidently took the place of the ancient spirit of Karaperamun, formerly of great power. John Frum declared that the whole island was shortly to change in nature—its volcanic cone to be replaced by fertile plains, its people to be eternally young and healthy, and to have everything that they could ever desire. In order to achieve this end, it was necessary to hunt and kill all Europeans, to rid themselves of the taint of European money, to rid themselves of immigrant natives, and to return to the old customs of polygyny, dancing, kava-drinking and so forth which had been rigidly proscribed by the theocratic Presbyterian Church. Money was taken to the stores and a great spending spree indulged in. The Administration took action; arrests were made.

11. Ibid, 1934/S.

12. Based on Melanesian informants.

13. See P. O'Reilly, Prophetisme aux Nouvelles-Hebrides, le Mouvemcnt Jonfrum a Tanni (1940-1947), Le Monde non-Chretien, n.s., 10, 1949; I am also indebted to a letter from Rev. J. Miller in 1947.

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The movement continued, however, especially in 1942, 1945, and 1947, encouraged by letters from the former leaders, who had been banished to Malekula. A modern touch was added by the construction of an aerodrome for American Liberators. The imprisoned leaders succeeded in converting neighbouring villages on Malekula. A similar movement arose on Ambryn, in which a house was built to receive goods from the Messageries Maritimes steamer, Le Polynesien.

The Naked Cult, Espiritu Santo.¹⁴

This cult, seen from 1944 to 1948, appears to be connected with the Clapcott Murder Case mentioned previously. It has, however, rather different features. The followers of the prophet are to go naked and are to cohabit in public. Villages are to be destroyed and replaced by two communal houses, one for the men and one for the women. All animals and property received from the Europeans is (sic!) to be destroyed. Old customs such as exogamy and marriage payments are to be scrapped. The people are no longer to work for the Europeans, but to wait for the arrival of the Americans, when they will receive all good things. The people are to have immortality.

The Masinga Rul¹⁵ Movement of the Solomons.¹⁶

The Masinga rule movement first made its appearance at the end of 1945 and in 1946 and is the most political of any of the movements that have yet appeared. In its early stages it appeared to have connections with the earlier Chair and Rule movement, and with disaffection which was rife on Guadalcanal, following the presence of Allied troops. It soon took on its own form, however, with Malaita the centre. Buildings were erected to warehouse the expected free gifts from American liberators; monetary contributions were exacted from the adherents of the movement; the leaders were reputed to have boundless wealth in dollars and to pay their followers twelve pounds a month; Melanesians were forbidden to work for Europeans unless a wage of twelve pounds a month was paid; missionary and admini-

14. See J. G. Miller, Naked Cult in Central West Santo, Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 57, No. 4, 1948.

15. This is the correct name of this movement, masinga being an Ariari word meaning brother. The version Marching Rule was due to European attempts to decipher the word, and to its pronunciation by Melanesians who did not speak Ariari. The version Marxian Rule is due to the hysteria of some Europeans who like to see communism in every Eastern nationalist movement.

16. See C. S. Belshaw, Native Politics in the Solomon Islands, Pacific Affairs, 1947, and Island Administration in the Western Pacific, Royal Institute of International Affairs and Institute of Pacific Relations, 1950. I am also indebted to conversations with administrative officials in London during 1949. See also Colonial Annual Report for the British Solomon Islands, 1948.

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strative work was resisted; demonstrations of several thousand natives took place on Government stations demanding education, higher wages, political independence, and the removal of Europeans; "soldiers" were drilled; the central organisation on Malaita established connections with Ulawa and San Cristoval and the movement was eventually copied in the Santa Cruz group and the Western Solomons. At first the Administration was prepared to tolerate the movement and wait for it to die out, but as resistance, and particularly drilling, grew in scale, several score of arrests were made. The movement still continues, and so do the arrests.

Other Contemporary Movements.¹⁷

At the close of the recent war, Melanesia was left with three described movements, Masinga Rule, John Frum, and the Naked Cult. There appears, however, to have been a general revival of similar movements all over Melanesia, with the possible exception of New Caledonia, though we still await published details of them. There is the Apolisi prophet movement of Fiji, a cargo cult in the Loyalty Islands (the first reported) and in New Guinea, and a similar movement in the Purari Delta of Papua. This latter appears to have interesting possibilities, for it is reported that for the first time the Administration, while watching it carefully, is encouraging it and aiding it in its development programme—including re­building of villages and re-organisaton of agriculture. (These two objectives were also part of the Masinga Rule movement, but neither Melanesian leadership nor Administration pursued them vigorously.) [Note 2001 - In the Solomon Islands, after a Fijian led military expedition which arrested the leaders, a programme of showing the leaders what actually went on in industry overseas, plus the creation of local councils in which the returned leaders had roles, appears to have succeeded in secularising the movement]

These then are the principal details of about thirteen movements that have been described over the past fifty years. What is their significance?

The first point to notice is that the movements are widely separated in time and place, from the Torres Straits to Fiji, and that this effectively rules out the possibility that they are copies of each other. Their similarities must be due to similarities in local conditions which produce them.

The movements fall into two main groups, with borderline cases in between. The first of these is seen in its purest form in the Baigona and Taro Cults in Papua. There is no hint here of conflict with the European until the European Administrator, from the Melanesian

17. I have been unable to consult the manuscript of W. E. H. Stanner's forthcoming book, or his Reconstruction in the South Pacific Islands: A Preliminary Report. Part I. Papua-New Guinea, Institute of Pacific Relations, 1947, in which an analysis of cargo cult and some modem movements is made.

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point of view, "butts in". In their essentials, the cults are similar to those found everywhere in Melanesia at the time of the arrival of the Europeans.¹⁸ They express the indigenous Melanesian animist interpretation of the world and his centuries-old traditional delight in ceremonial and cult-practices. They are novel only in that their origins have been observed and not speculated about, and from this point of view they are of considerable interest to the sociologist.

The other cults are a modern modification of this phenomenon. But before we make this clear, a number of alternative hypotheses may be disposed of.

First, there is the understandable Administrative view that these are dangerous movements, interrupting Melanesian life, threatening good order, and evidencing the unhealthy despotic powers of sorcerers who, by trickery, have bullied the local people, and who make their fortune by the sale of their tricks. Of the political aspects of this view, I will speak later. But as a theory of origins it is most defective. No leader, it must be emphasised, in the absence of mechanical instruments or a police state, can force people to follow him or accept his doctrines. The traditional Melanesian method of avoiding unwanted leaders is simply to move somewhere else, found a new village, grow new gardens, or retaliate by counter-sorcery or murder. It must be accepted that the religious element in these cults is sufficiently near the Melanesian pattern to enable us to believe that their following is by and large popular. As for the sale of the tricks of the trade, that too is common to most forms of Melanesian sorcery, and even to the passing on of dance movements and songs. It is, as it were, payment for copyright.

Secondly, there is the view that the cults express a reaction to a particular event or organisation. It is superficially possible, for instance, to blame the John Frum movement on to the rather rigid and narrow interpretations of recent Presbyterian proselytising.¹⁹ Similarly, one could blame the Espiritu Santo movement on to the sale of liquor and to other abuses by the traders. And the Masinga Rule movement has been blamed on "Marxist elements" among American troops.

All these views possess an element of truth, but all lack conviction. Why should such diverse historical facts give rise to such unified movements? On the other hand, if we describe the position

18. See for instance C. E. Fox, Threshold of the Pacific, Kegan Paul 1924; A. B. Deacon, Malekula, Routledge 1934; J. W. Layard, Stone Men of Malekula, Chatto & Windus; Cambridge Expedition to the Torres Straits 1908.

19. This is not a criticism of present missionary methods, which show much greater awareness of possible reactions.

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of these Melanesian communities in the modern world we can see that there is indeed a common element.

None of these communities is untouched by European influence; and none of them has been able to take full advantage of living under that influence. Moving roughly West to East, the Torres Straits have been the happy hunting grounds of pearl fishers and labour recruiters, but at the beginning of the century the island of Saibai was subject to no permanent European influences; the Gulf of Papua is not a favourite area of European exploitation, though there have been European planters there; Buka again is on the fringe of European activity; Gela it is true is very close to the pre-war Solomon Island capital of Tulagi—but here the movement was more definitely political rather than religious and it was stronger in the less developed north than in the more developed south; Malaita is a classic example, for here there was practically no European activity, while the almost over-populated communities sent their sons to other islands for plantation work; inland Espiritu Santo has hardly been visited by Europeans, though there is a thriving community on the coast; Tanna is a small island well off the beaten track, again exporting a few of its people as seamen; and the Loyalty Islands, unattractive to European settlers, live by exporting produce to Noumea, the New Caledonian capital. Inland Fiji, at the time of the Tuka cult, was quite primitive.

These people, then, have all been in contact with thriving Euro­pean communities, but none of them have been able to participate in vigorous activity leading to a higher standard of life. I think it is most significant that the two extremes of Melanesian life do not appear so far to have succumbed to these cults, though they have problems of their own. On the one hand, we have the thriving native settlements in or near such towns as Port Moresby, Rabaul,²⁰ Vila and in New Caledonia, and areas of intensive missionary industrial work. Here the people are in the grip of modern life—and have little time or inclination to organise into cults. On the other hand, we have areas such as the interior of New Guinea and Malekula, where cults continue in their native form, unmodified by European intrusion.

If we accept this thesis, it is easy to understand that the similarities in the cults are due to the position of the communities half way between the old and the new way of living; and that the differences are due almost solely to particular historical circumstances. The universals seem to be these. The "half-way" Melan­esian sees other people who possess a way of living that he tends

20. Though here there was a formidable general strike—I am assuming that it was not a cult.

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to envy. He has to find some explanation of European power holding sway over multitudes; of the miraculous arrival of manufactured goods in ships and aeroplanes; of strange European behaviour which sends away piles of raw materials; of the peculiar distaste with which Europeans treat him. On the one hand, it gives him an end of activity—he must strive to attain a similar power. On the other hand, it sets him an intellectual problem and gives him an emotional experience. His emotional experience is jealousy, sometimes hatred, of the European, who neither gives him these things as a friend nor initiates him into the mysteries of the process of sale and production—indeed, tries to fob him off with  Biblical education.²¹ His intellectual problem is, first, to explain European success, and, second, to achieve a method of parallel success.

This problem must be solved in terms of Melanesian experience. There is behind him the great tradition of cults such as the Baigona and animism. It is natural that he should turn to find a superior cult. At first, it was Christianity in many parts, which was conceived as a superior, sometimes as a supplementary, animism. This fails, or is not understood, and is moulded on to something new. The new cult endeavours to copy significant European activities. There is the belief in shipping, that is in the origin of cargoes  --  for remember most Melanesians have not seen or experienced the manufacturing process. There is a mystical significance in the revolting white skin of Europeans, and m money, which circulates so strangely; in flags and flag-poles, which the European treats with peculiar reverence; in towns and houses rather than villages; in soldiers and drilling—which must be mystical, for what use is there in it? And in later years, of course, there is the myth of American arrival, so obviously based upon the big-handedness and freedom of American troops. These things supplied the modern elements in the cargo myth, the myth which explained European successes and indicated the correct road to follow.

Administrations have a tremendous task before them. They must adapt the Melanesian to live a modern life, without destroying unique elements of value in his culture. What attitude should they adopt to the cargo cult?

With one possible exception, that of the current movement the Purari Delta, Administrations have treated the cults with police measures. In no case have they destroyed the cult until it was ready to die of its own accord. Usually it re-appeared some

21. In the words of a Native Medical Practitioner.

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years later in more virulent form. Police measures are often neces­sary, but always inadequate.²²

The threat to law and order is nothing to the greater threat to future relations between Melanesian and European. The Melanesian wants to know the secret of our success. It is up to us to tell him. We need to teach him all we can of agricultural development, manufacturing processes, and market activity, so that he can understand correctly his possibilities and limitations. At the same time, we must build commercial development upon indigenous processes in the village, rather than upon alien plantation systems, for in this way the Melanesian may be brought to realise that he can work out his own future rationally, along his own lines, with native dignity, and that he does not have to invent new methods or make crude, distorted copies of ours. If we can do this, now and quickly, we can at one blow restore confidence and empty the gaols; and give the Melanesian something to look forward to.

If, however, we neglect the warning—that the Melanesian can organise effectively for his own ends, however irrational those ends may appear to be—then we will truly stir up a vicious Melanesian national movement which in time will transcend colonial boun­aries, and which will be so bitter in emotional content and so full of religious feeling that they will rapidly get out of hand. Already sophisticated educated natives are joining the movements, promis­ing even more effective leadership, and every few years the cults grow in number. We can compare them, not without reason, to the great fanatical religions which have in the past swept New Zealand and other parts of Polynesia.²³

22. I can understand this attitude. I myself, while an Administrative officer, was isolated with my wife and a Catholic missionary during the first upsurgings of Masinga Rule on the island of Ulawa. Police measures were certainly necessary and taken as soon as police were available.

 25. I am indebted to Mr. H. E. Maude of the South Pacific Commission, for a number of references.

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