CARGO CULT AS A RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHENOMENA have been around in different parts of Melanesia for quite some time now. Names of cultic figures such as John Frum on Tanna Island (Vanuatu); Yaliwan in the Sepik, Yali in Madang, Paliau in Manus and Johnson in New Ireland (PNG); and movements such as the Maasina Rule on Malaita (Solomon Islands) often come to mind quickly. Different explanations have been used to explain their proliferation. Some were responses to colonialism and emerging nationalism, others were seen as the appropriation and modification of Christianity and still others were seen in light of the challenges and promises of capitalist development. These kinds of activities continue to appear with a constant frequency and they summon a particular kind of curiosity about their appearance.
In the recent edition of the Post Courier (10/09/09) we read of yet another kind of these cult activities which appears in the hinterlands of Morobe Province in Papua New Guinea. This time it is described as a ‘banana cult’ whose tenet aspires to a propagative ideal that translates into a belief that if people in the community engage in orgiastic sex in the public, this will bring about an abundance of bananas. We do not have information about the sociological status of banana in this area. That is, whether they are as highly priced as they are amongst the Tolai in East New Britain or as yams are in other parts of Melanesia or if it just forms part of the staple in mundane ordinary life etc.
Since its emergence this particular cult has paraded itself on a moral of self-help and its vehicle of aleviating poverty in the area is sexual indulgence with an orgiastically voyeurish ambiance. This particular cult group and its adherents have threatened to kill people who report its activities to government authorities. However, word has now come out through a village leader who managed to escape his captors and the police are being deployed to arrest those who are allegedly involve in the cult. The village leader who escaped his captors, Titus Namusa, reported that:
Young men and women including married couples are walking around naked and having sex in public places without being ashamed of themselves. The leader told the people that they have not seen any government services and they have resorted to other means to see services trickling down to their doorsteps.
Lack of government presence , an acute symbol of dire degeneration, has answered itself with a counter symbol of propagative regeneration. For all the interpretations one could make out of this curious enterprise, one question remains supreme: who has gone bananas?
ANYONE WATCHING MEDIA REPORTS OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS would not miss accounts of sorcery related violence. For some reasons sorcery allegations and violence associated with such allegations have been on the rise with startling frequency. This menacing threat is rampant throughout many of the island countries of Melanesia and cases have been reported in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. Sorcery accusations has given rise to people to fight and kill, steal and destroy.
Lives have been lost, properties destroyed and some have been left homeless because of allegations relating to acts of sorcery. Whether an act of sorcery has been committed is beside the point. What has been happening is that a sorcery accusation is a powerful mover of peoples sensibilities and once such an accusation has been fixed on someone or some group of people, the accusation has the power to legitimise its own course of belief and action. This has caused state governments and policy makers to express great concern about menacing sorcery.
In Papua New Guinea, for example, a leading law academic and now Secretary to the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission, Dr Lawrence Kalinoe, has this to say. Problems associated with sorcery
is big and needs consultation from everyone concern….the govrnment has recognised the problems associated with sorcery and has tasked the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission (CLRC) to conduct a review on the current Sorcery Act and come up with a more effective law in the next 18 months. The proposed legislation would attempt to to justly handle the current problems associated with sorcery. Sorcery is a serious problem and is widely affecting PNG communities hence and the Law and Justice Sector Ministerial Committee has directed the Minister for Attorney General to issue a reference to CLRC to review the Act and come up with a more comprehensive and effective one in the next 18 months.
This is a welcome initiative and we await to see what kind of ammendments would be made to the existing Sorcery Act in Papua New Guinea. I am sure other Melanesian countries would also be doing something similar to issues revolving around the threat of sorcery as a menacing scourge.
I do not know the current terms of references under which the CLRC in Papua New Guinea is undertaking its review. I would be curious if it moves beyond issues of criminality and probe the epistemological nature of evidence that is bound up with practices of sorcery and sorcery accusations. Sorcery is a curious intellectual object because it cuts across the logic of science and magic, faith and belief as well as tradition and modernity and we await to see what can come out of the current review that is being undertaken by the CLRC in Papua New Guinea.
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