Cargo Cults

Cargo cults are millenarian and messianic movements that have emerged in the island nations of Melanesia, though with local variations, as a [Page 185]result of cultural contact. They sprang from the 19th-century arrival of Westerners with their ships loaded with what must have appeared as mind-boggling, out-of-this-world cargos on islands whose inhabitants had hitherto lived in cultural isolation. The doctrines and rituals of the cults derive from traditional beliefs and rituals blended with the moral and apocalyptical teachings of Christian missionaries. They led to nationalistic rebellions, fueled by konors or prophets, against the colonization imposed by Europeans and Australians.

In 1857, the Mansren movement prophesized the coming of a saving god. In 1871, the catalyst around whom the cargo cults would develop, Nikolaï Miklouho-Maclay, a Russian scientist, landed on the northeastern coast of New Guinea. He began to be viewed as an avatar of deities—as Moon-Man, a messiah. The Papuans fell under the spell of his lack of fear and the sign of his supernatural power that produced superior objects—the cargos.

The cargo cults can only be understood within the social organization of the islands, the koula; material goods are handed out by deities and must be permanently exchanged according to specific codes. Since he knew how to give, Miklouho-Maclay attained the status of a god. Bound to their ancestors in a life-death continuum, the Melanesians imagined cargos had been fabricated by the departed to help their descendents but had been diverted by the Whites.

In 1883, a konor predicted that a steamer would unload cargo to restore the koula and the golden age. The Papuans killed a captain and attacked Dutch settlements. In Fiji, the Touka cult, under Ndougoumoï, evolved to fit the new conditions. Their god twins Kilibob and Manoup became known as Jehovah and Jesus. Their return would restore koula; the shops would be full of new cargos—fabrics and canned salmon.

The cults continued well into the 20th century. In the 1920s, the Vailala Madness spread over New Guinea. Through the symbolic appropriation of their power, they aimed at forcing the Whites to disappear and give back their cargo. In 1932, the Solomon Islands plunged into the Bouka revival under Pako, a leader who announced the arrival of food, tobacco, automobiles, and firearms. The departed souls would arrive on steamers. Churches had to be attended to benefit from the power of the Whites’ gods. Pako became identified with Jesus. In the 1940s, the Mekeo Madness sought to address the fear of famine. The souls of the dead would return by plane to drop food and weapons to expel the Whites.

John Frum, the most famous cargo figure, is said to have appeared in the 1940s on Tanna Island (south of the New Hebrides). He was seen as a White God, one of those Americans who were viewed positively as they had not partaken in colonization. It was believed that in typical apocalyptic style, he would distribute money, order the mountains to collapse and the valleys to be fruitful, and create a bridge that would link the island to its neighbors. His soldiers would throw the invaders into the sea. More John Frum–like figures appeared. One, Neloaig, called himself King of America and of Tanna. He recruited an army and labor to build an airfield to allow for the landing of the American Liberator planes that would bring the awaited cargo sent by John Frum's father. When the planes failed to appear, the adepts placed a model plane on the tracks as decoy. In the 1990s, his cult was still being celebrated.

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