As a child, I was fascinated by Natural History, and visits to
the shore and to the countryside were supplemented by watching programmes on
our newly-acquired Radio Rentals black-and-white TV. David Attenborough’s Zoo Quest series were among my favourites,
but it was another Attenborough programme that had the strongest effect on me: this
was People of Paradise 2. Cargo Cult,
first broadcast on 28th April 1960 [1]. I was thirteen years old when I first saw
the programme; at a time when I was questioning my religious beliefs. Our
family had always attended Winner Street Baptist Church in Paignton but, by April 1960, I had left
the church as I found it too parochial. My father insisted that I
should still attend some form of Christian worship, so I became a regular attendee
at the local Crusaders Union sessions on Sunday afternoons in Paignton YMCA.
People of Paradise 2
focussed on the John Frum cult on Tanna in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) and
Attenborough began by interviewing an Australian copra trader. He recalled
an uprising of the John Frum cult members who carried bamboo models of
carbines, complete with bayonets, and had USA painted in red on their chests (both
practices continuing today, see below). As we travelled across the island in the programme, we
were shown many clearings with red crosses surrounded by fences and near
Sulphur Bay, a centre of the cult, a strange enclosure containing a statue of
John Frum, a large model of an aircraft with four engines and a cage containing
a crudely carved model of a winged rat. There followed an interview with “Nambas”,
the chief of the community at Sulphur Bay who was the leader of the John Frum
cult on the island. “Nambas” said that he was in contact with John Frum by
radio and he had been told that Attenborough and his colleague would be
arriving by fast ’plane. The radio was not like white-man’s radio as it did not
have wires, but Attenborough was not allowed to see it. “Nambas” then explained
that John Frum would come with cargo and this would be “everything”
that white people had, the precursor being that all money had to be thrown away,
which they had done. When asked about the cross on the lip of the active
volcano, “Nambas” said that this was erected because there were many men
(soldiers) inside the volcano and these were mostly white, but also contained
some red and some black people (the crosses presumably acted as guides and the
red colour was of the clothing, replicated among followers of the cult).
As someone living a small-town life in South Devon, the TV
programme made a strong impression on me and I was not alone, as Richard
Dawkins refers to the interview between David Attenborough and “Nambas” in The God Delusion [2], giving some details
that were not included in the original broadcast. I was amazed at the
imagination shown by my fellow humans. They had borrowed some ideas from
Christianity - the imagery, the idea of John Frum as a saviour who would bring
rewards - and superimposed them on the cargo cults that arose in Melanesia
after native peoples saw traders coming with ships and, latterly, aircraft.
Since re-viewing
that programme on BBC iPlayer - I had not seen it since the first broadcast in
1960 - I have had the chance to read more about the John Frum cult. It was
given its strongest boost by the building of an airstrip on the neighbouring
island of Éfaté as a staging post in
the Second World War battles in the Pacific. Men from Tanna were involved in
constructing the airstrip and they observed all the materials that were
offloaded, stockpiled and distributed by the US military. It was a powerful
reinforcement of the ideas of a Cargo Cult and provided the origins of the
physical appearance of John Frum, the use of tall masts to convey radio
transmissions, and the need for clearings to allow aircraft to land. It is
likely that the red crosses over the island were an amalgam of the Christian
symbol and the Red Cross that appears on medical supplies. All of the men’s
observations were translated into the forms seen on Tanna and the idea of the
US military in the volcano tagged on another layer of invention. The cult that
developed was thus a mixture of Christian religious traditions, observation of
something that was not understood, and existing tribal culture involving kava
drinking in special clearings near villages (it should be pointed out that
another group on Tanna have Prince Philip as their equivalent of the John Frum
character).
According to scholarly research, the first major uprising of
the John Frum movement was in May 1941 following a desertion from the
Presbyterian Mission [3,4] and Guiart reports that “a new leader was having an
aerodrome built in the name of John Frum to enable the new god’s planes to land
with their cargoes of soldiers” [3]. Although John Frum is/was white, it is
important to note that the residents of Tanna who had helped in the
construction of the airfield on Éfaté
had seen African Americans [5] and this explains the multi-ethnicity of the
soldiers believed by some to inhabit the volcano. How easy it seems to have the
basic idea of a supernatural being and then create myths that believers will be
rewarded. We know that has happened with the John Frum movement and this still
endures, with the cult being used in advertising by the tourism industry [6].
The movement has thus been in existence for over 70 years, with information
being passed down from the original elders to a succession of new leaders.
As a thirteen-year old, I found the Attenborough programme
so fascinating that I started to question how religions were founded, what
ensured their longevity, and what controlled their imagery. There were no easy
answers, but those thoughts marked a turning point, as I moved away from Christianity
and towards atheism of a reflective, and non-proselytising, variety.
[2] Richard Dawkins (2006) The God Delusion. London, Bantam Press.
[3] Jean Guiart (1956) Culture contact and the “John Frum”
movement on Tanna, New Hebrides. Southwestern
Journal of Anthropology 12: 105-115.
[4] Jean Guiart (1952) John Frum Movement in Tanna. Oceania 22: 165-177.
[5] Daniel J Crowley and Magdelen L Crowley. Encounters with
folklore. Journal of Folklore Research
33: 155-163
P.S. I give “Nambas” in quotes as this is also the name of
the penis sheath traditionally worn by men on Tanna. It have been a pseudonym.
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