The Mysterious John Frum Motion

What’s a Cargo Cult?

A sort of fetishism of capitalistic commodities, cargo cults are small societies of folks that apply an virtually non secular devotion to sure behaviours and ritualistic acts. They imagine these actions will manifest materials wealth, specifically fascinating Western items resembling ‘cargo’. This often happens because of contact with industrial networks of colonising societies. Cargo cults sometimes type beneath a charismatic chief who could have a dream or ‘imaginative and prescient’ in regards to the future which is commonly linked to the worth of ancestry and the flexibility to get well customs and tradition by a return to conventional morals and practices. Cargo cults have at all times been current all through historical past, with many concentrated in Melanesia. Nonetheless the John Frum motion of Vanuatu is likely one of the most enduring and mysterious.

Who’s John Frum?

There are a selection of theories as to how the John Frum motion started, the one most frequently informed is of a white man who appeared on Tanna Island within the Thirties wearing full army regalia. He informed the native folks to let go of the Christian practices missionaries had dropped at the island and to reclaim their conventional customs and tradition. In keeping with the legend, the person’s identify was John Frum, later believed to be a misunderstanding of the phrases ‘John from’. By most accounts he was nothing however a spirit but he spoke to them clearly of their native language. He promised that in the event that they reverted again to their very own traditions, then at some point People would come to bathe them with wealth and wondrous fashionable conveniences.

Shortly after John Frum’s look, through the peak of World Struggle II, American troops within the lots of and 1000’s swarmed onto the island from the seas and skies. They introduced with them infinite provides of vehicles, radios, telephones, fridges and even Coca Cola. The folks of Tanna Island had no thought the place all these fashionable conveniences got here from and so believed that they had been summoned from the spirit world, despatched by magic. John Frum’s prophecy had proved true and he was hailed their Messiah.

It could sound unusual to us, however the native indigenous tribes noticed fashionable know-how, canned meals and different cargo falling out of the sky. To them, John Frum had dropped at them the generosity of the People simply as he had promised. A part of Vanuatu’s attraction to the American troopers was the respect they confirmed to the native folks. The British and French that had colonised Vanuatu (generally known as New Hebrides on the time) had handled the islanders like garbage, however the American troopers gave them their dignity again and altered the best way that they considered themselves. The People discovered their names, educated them, gave them uniforms and even paid them, fairly handsomely too. They confirmed the native folks how People of all races labored collectively. Issues modified for good on the island.

Earlier than lengthy, the People not wanted Vanuatu and withdrew from the island, taking with them their males, their music and their magic machines. Nonetheless, the folks of Tanna by no means forgot and the John Frum motion continues to today. Yearly on 15 February, the cargo cult proudly flies the American flag and holds a grand celebration in his honour. Donning their modest model of American army uniforms, they paint themselves with the letters USA and proudly march holding bamboo poles as a logo of the American rifles they nonetheless keep in mind so effectively.

The islanders of the John Frum motion love America – presumably greater than People do.

All these years later, they nonetheless maintain out hope that at some point John Frum will return.