Politics
Be Prepared, Visiting Contingent Told
The revival of paganism could be one surprise
When Australia's police contingent strides into the sweltering Solomons capital, Honiara, to enforce law and order and help bring back normalcy to a country suffering from violence and a wave of criminal activity, it better be prepared for some challenges and surprises. Lack of law and order, lack of medicine, unpaid salaries, armed ex-militants extorting government finances, and a crippled economy have become the order of the day. These are to be expected.
Yet, Solomons' post-tension crisis has resurrected some deeply embedded societal changes‹changes Westerners may have thought to have become extinct. Ritual killings have been linked with headhunting in the past. This to attain reputation, and mana, or metaphysical strength, that is said to appear by a demonstration of bravery achieved through successes in battles. There are many rituals in the Solomons culture connected with the headhunting complex.
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One is the worshipping of spirit gods. A wide range of artifacts and weaponry, and charms are associated with each ceremony‹most prominent is the sacrifice of a pig(s), and the calling upon of the spirits through mediums that are as primitive as the culture it represents. The art of sorcery is known as pela in Marovo, vele in Guadalcanal, or arua on Malaita.
Basically it represents the same thing and refers to witchcraft. According to narrative accounts by early explorers, the Johnsons, three most revered headhunting islands in the Solomons were New Georgia, Guadalcanal, and Malaita. Headhunting ceased in the Western Solomons around New Georgia and Marovo Lagoon between 1900-1903, after the pacification of the area by the British army. East Malaita was reputed as one of the most feared.
Traditional knowledge of the spirits has never really subsided despite the long history of Christianity in the area. And despite the indomitable presence of a Christian institution, Atoifi Adventist Hospital, many bush people's apparent indifference to the steady appeals of Christianity is obvious. "It is a matter of choice," says Genesis Kofana, a post-graduate University of the South Pacific student, who hails from East Kwaio. "Many still adhere to their traditional ways. There are still many pagan worshippers."
"Sacrifices are part of the rituals and the spilling of blood has its place in worship by the killing of animals. Ironically, similarities pervade with certain aspects of Christianity. For instance, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins or genuine regret for having done something bad. By faith Christians see this antitype in Christ's death."
"With paganism, there is a rather distorted concept of sacrifices, where it may be done to predetermine an outcome of an event, to make a request, or before any ritual killing takes place." Within a society deeply embedded in superstition and sorcery, people are generally shy, suspicious and fear is evident. Misunderstanding may turn fatal. A person's life can be taken at any moment under suspicion or pretence of friendliness, or when an oath made to the spirits require this (death) to appease a backlash from the same spirit gods.
Unsurprisingly, the latter has now sprung up as the reason for the death of a missionary in mid-May. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The objective was easy. An auxiliary staff worker at Atoifi Hospital disallowed two pagan worshippers from boarding a chartered boat for not paying their full fares.
In a heated argument, if it were (questionable), the two having their egos humbled and in public vowed to avenge their enemy. Promising to return, the two bushmen returned to the mountains where a sacrifice was made. A deal was struck with the spirits‹death to the staff‹who was also of Malaitan ethnicity. The spirit gods granted a specific number of days to the assailants to commit this ritual killing. Ritual in the sense that in this pagan system the request was approved.
In order to prevent a backlash, blood had to be shed. Someone had to die. The aura of death hovered around the mission compound all week undetected. The intended victim was still in the capital. Time given by the spirits was running out on the pagan killers. Desperate situations called for dangerous alternatives.
Not until the following week on Sunday May 14, 2003 at around 1pm did death strike. And in the most barbaric way! Another decapitation in the Solomons. Another horrendous murder.
This time its victim is an innocent quietly spoken Australian missionary. This is heathenism at its ritualistic heart wrenching and irrational worst. Paganism and its senseless logic. It was a murder executed swiftly, without any witnesses. No one expected it. There were no ominous signs.
But such is the lethal blow of heathenism in an age where most thought it was extinct. And according to sources requesting anonymity it could have happened to anyone at the time. A few days after the murder, law officers with the help of local chiefs made a swift arrest. The man in his early twenties is said to be an accomplice.
However, with so many murders still unaccounted and assailants' parade conspicuously in their four-wheel drive hilux vehicles and marauding presence in and around the capital, this may not be the last. The death sent shockwaves to Solomon Islanders‹near and far‹all condemning the murder and calling for some restoration of justice and law and order. Most were ashamed.
In a country still recovering from the murder of former police commissioner Fred Soaki (also committed on Malaita), this is the first murder of a foreign missionary. Alienated traditional powers still exist. And during Solomons' civil war on Guadalcanal between 1998 and 2000 both warring parties called upon these ancestral spirits. Much like that of neighbouring Bougainville during its 10-year secessionist war, where these practices and ritual killings were quickly revived. Decapitations occurred and revenge killings took place.
In 2000, residents of Honiara woke up to a most gruesome sight in the streets of the main market‹a decapitated body lying in a bag half strung at one end. This is not uncommon in any ethnic war. We saw this in the apocalyptic mass murders committed by indigenous Dayaks on a rampage against immigrants on Indonesia's island of Borneo. And recently in Africa's Congo, where bodies of rival tribes, namely Hema and Lendu, were dismembered, and taken as trophies to enhance some mystical power.
It is ironic in an age when the Solomons through its network of email stations scattered in many of the most remotest of islands in the world is able to send electronic messages through HF radio signals to Honiara before being digitally beamed out via satellite to recipients anywhere in this world, that paganism still exists. Yet this paganism is only isolated to a few areas mainly on Malaita. This type of violence goes against anything that is moral and ethical. Until a few years ago it was unheard of in a country whose majority of worshippers are Christians.
However, post-tension has really changed all this. A rise in lawlessness and a reverting to traditional rituals amongst the younger generation during the crisis have settled to terrorise the society. Ask any Solomon Islander about this recent killing and they'd shudder...and most probably remark, "tumus nao ia!" (This is too much!)
From the onset when Mr John Howard's law enforcement team begins work in the country, they'd better be prepared to handle some strange cases. And be patient to listen to many unusual reasonings. In some cases clearly illogical thinking! This beheading on Malaita in a post-conflict era is now revealing the unimaginable horrors committed during the tension. Not to mention the many killings done on Guadalcanal's Weathercoast. All these hide a sinister motive lurking behind each murder.
A somewhat distaste for violence and bloodshed. Although the arrival of the new policing force is anticipated and welcoming to the general populace and government officials, it may be singly met with some stiff and somewhat unconventional opposition in Honiara. After all, the very perpetrators of some of these horrendous crimes during the ethnic war are today wearing stripes. And if ex-militants don special constables and local police tenures are contested, the challenge will not only be to surrender their weapons and win them to the peace process, but also to fit them into normal society.
If force was capable of pacifying these islands once before, it will be interesting to see whether it will stand up to the test during this technological age.
