Cargo Cults - The John Frum Movement

I first heard about "cargo cults" while reading Paul Theroux's Happy Isles of Oceania. Theroux had visited a "John Frum movement" village on the island of Tanna. I'd since read a bit more about this bizarre cult following, but a microserf I know encouraged me to personally check it out. And so, soon after arriving in Tonga, I was already making mental plans to visit the island of Tanna in Vanuatu.

My style of travel is a lot more laid back now then it used to be, and upon arriving in Vanuatu in July, I handed planned much of anything. I found a tourism agency who booked me a flight on a small plane to Tanna. That's "plane" in the most liberal sense; it was something that flew and could land, and they allowed me to be the co-pilot (limited seating). I spend an hour battling the constant urge to pulls leavers flip switches and press pedals.

Must not...press...pull...flip...

I had a couple days to kill before my flight to Tanna, and no idea how I was going to find a cargo cult village once I had arrived. That was when drinking kava paid off. At a kava namakal on my first night in Port Vila, I met a ni-Vanuatu who had spent time in Tanna. When I told him I was interested in visiting a cargo cult village, he gave me a note to give to the principal of a school near the resort I would be staying at ("resort" in the most liberal sense). "Please help my friend to visit a John Frum movement village in Tanna," it read, and upon arriving, finding the school, and presenting the note, I was directed to a resident of a nearby village, who arranged for a friend to drive me to meet the chief of a large John Frum village. I brought a bundle of kava roots to give as a gift, and the next morning I was on my way.


During the hour and a half trip along Tanna's only road ("road" in the most liberal sense, as that 90min was needed to cover just twenty kilometers), locals who were headed our way piled into the truck. One such local, the cousin of the driver, was Thomas. Thomas claimed that he was the man to see for any John Frum information. He said he had interviewed everyone connected to the movement, and had cut through the BS to compile the one true history of "John Frum." Thomas proceeded to enlighten me with the details:

Thomas, a young and educated John Frum follower, and leader of a unity movement to patch a divide in the cult.

Isaak, the chief of a John Frum village of about two hundred residents. Isaak told me he was born in 1939, though he may be taking theatrical license as the history of the cult centers around the events of World War II. Isaak is the leader of the splinter group Thomas is working so hard to bring in.

In 1936, a spirit appeared to a village in South East Tanna. It appeared in the form of a white man, but would later take many shapes including that of a tiger and a pussy cat. the spirit called itself "John," speaking in the language of the villages (no small feat, considering most villages in Vanuatu had their own language and there are still more then 150 languages spoken in the islands today).

Most of what John told the villages was prophesy. Tanna was one of the islands furthest from the colonial capital Port Vila from which Britain and France governed Vanuatu. But John told the people that they would learn to drive, to speak English and French, and be blessed with great material wealth. His biggest prophesy, though, and the one around which the movement would center, was that America would come and be a friend to Vanuatu.

In 1941 Japan bombed the American naval base at Pearl Harbour, and in 1942 the USA made Vanuatu its main staging ground in the South Pacific. Thousands of American soldiers passed through Vanuatu every month on their way to the battlegrounds of the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. These soldiers had a major impact on every Pacific nation they spent time in. In Kiribati, their wealth and friendliness encouraged the locals to ask the US Naval Commander who they could switch from being a British colony to being a colony of America. In Tonga, hundreds of Americans took Tongan girlfriends in exchange for cigarettes, beer, and radios. But to the people of Tanna, who traveled to Port Vila to work for the Americans, these soldiers and their unending supply of cargo represented the fulfillment of prophesy.

The Tannans returned home to their island at the end of the war, expecting their own material wealth (and driving lessons!) to come at any time. They copied what they had seen in Port Vila - they built runways in their villages for cargo planes to land, constructed radio towers out of tin cans so the Americans could contact them, and raised the flags they had seen on the Americans bases - the Stars and Stripes, and the Red Cross - to help the cargo planes find their villages.

The British and French did their best to quash the "cargo cult villages" in Tanna, because the people there ignored the government and looked to America. A Pentecostal missionary even spread a rumour that the villages were practicing Devil worship. Time passed, and the "founders" who had seen the spirit of John (one was Isaak's father) died. People learned English, French, and how to drive, but they never received the great wealth they had witnessed in American military bases.
So what are the followers doing now? Are they still waiting for the cargo planes to come? Do they expect John to return, with more prophesies? Here is where the rift formed in the movement. When I met him, Isaak explained to me that they are indeed waiting for such things. However, for that to happen, he said the people needed to abandon western ways and return to their cultural beliefs. For this reason, Isaak does not allow his villages to attend school of Christian church services, the two biggest institutions of "western influence" in Tanna. Every Friday night, Isaak's village holds their own Church service, where they sing, perform custom dances, and raise the flags of (among others) America and the US Marine Corps.

No school, and a visit from a white man in an AMERICAN Ralph Lauren shirt? Hot dog!

But Thomas claims that Isaak and other elderly John Frum followers misunderstood John's original message. John never told the people to abandon "Westernism" and embrace custom. Instead, says Thomas, John was simply speaking about change. Thomas encourages his people to go to school and to church, while looking at John Frum as a kind of John the Baptist, readying the Tannan people for the coming of the West.

Arriving in the village, I spoke with Isaak but already had a pretty good idea of the movement's history. Isaak didn't speak much English or French, but his son was fluent i n French and interpreted my confusing Canadian French. I saw the meeting hall, the flag polls, and many many kids (Isaak himself has over a dozen). When my ride returned, I wished Isaak the best, and wished I had brought a Canadian flag for them to add to the ceremony. Whoever John Frum was (some claim Frum is a corruption of "From," and John was simply introducing himself as "John from America"), I thought about all I had learned first hand about a cult I'd only read about before. As I got in the 4WD, Isaak sent his son to get something. He handed me his business card, instantly shattering everything I thought I understood about his movement.