Imagine a scenario where you arrive on a desolate island and you are perceived as a god. Now imagine you are a ship full of sailors and a religion is formed around your divine connections. I kid you not, there’s a tradition that continues to this day that is based on this unique scenario—call it the cult of John Frum.
Based in the tiny South Pacific island of Tanna, Vanuatu, there exists a religion that believes in the Second coming of “John Frum” and the blessings of precious cargo that he will give to the people upon arrival. John Frum—probably John “from” America— was most likely the name of an American sailor or missionary that interacted with the locals. This occurred when the US Navy occupied the area during World War II during the Pacific theater. It wasn’t the first time that the locals encountered foreigners on their land. The Japanese did occupy their island brutally, and were pushed out once the Americans arrived. Before the war, the locals did encounter missionaries.
John Frum: Spirit or Man?
What exactly is a cargo cult you may ask? A cargo cult is a religion where the adherents engage in rituals in the belief that a more technologically advanced people will deliver them goods. The followers of this cargo cult believe that John Frum is a spirit, and some of the prophets of this religion claim to be in communication with him.
The nature of John Frum is similar to classical arguments of the nature of God. They claim that John Frum told them that in 1940, Americans will come with lots of precious cargo for the island. Odds are, this John character was just aware of the global politics of the time and was trying to tell them that the US Navy may arrive soon. One year later in December of 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese and voila; the US sailors arrived. The primitive nature of the islanders’ understanding lead to them thinking this was prophecy and that the great spirit was either talking through John Frum, or that he may have been an incarnation—it’s up to debate.
White Sailors and Precious Cargo
You can only imagine how astonished these people must have been when they saw white faces in white sailor uniforms; thousands upon thousands arriving on massive ships and airplanes, all with precious modern goods that the locals could not explain with their technological ability.
For example, imagine a ballpoint pen in the hands of someone who has never seen technology to make such a pen. The people of Tanna would logically conclude that there is no technology capable of producing this pen (since they never saw anything beyond agricultural technology) so this pen must be made from God. But wait! We realize these sailors aren’t gods either, so their cargo must be of divine origin obviously! We never saw them make it; we only saw them use it.
How Rituals Bring Blessings of Cargo
If you visit Tanna, you’ll see the modern population of 250 followers imitate military drills while marching in formation with mock rifles. There are flag raising and lowering ceremonies twice a day. Villagers have the letters U-S-A painted on their chests. They even have an imitation runway and plane built for when John Frum returns! The question is why? In the 1940s when Tanna was occupied, they witnessed US military personnel doing these ritual, repetitive drills which made absolutely no sense to the local villager.
As a result, they came to the conclusion that these rituals themselves are what attract precious cargo for the sailors as the daily rituals and shipments occurred in unison. So that’s how these sailors obtained precious cargo from god! If we do the same, John Frum will return one day.
Modern Day John Frum
Like all religions, the cult of John Frum is not immune to patterns of factionalism that we see all over the world. John Frum lost thousands of members in the late 1990’s when a “prophet” by the name of Fred, made a prediction about natural events on the island that just so happened to come true. This was proof that he was the new “prophet” and did not want others to follow the chief of the John Frum cargo cult. As a result, thousands went to Fred’s cult and the “orthodox” faction of John Frum was forced to leave with their lives being threatened if they didn’t. Sound familiar doesn’t it?
In Conclusion
If you’re an anthropologist or psychologist and reading this, you’d probably find this experiment fascinating. It gives us insight into how we may have developed our beliefs as people. Now, the moral dilemma: should we just pretend to be John Frum and land on that makeshift runway, full of goodies and cargo just to see those broad smiles of amazement? Well, as the saying goes “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. We might actually be doing them more harm than good.
Since we already have a bad track record on messing up civilizations by trying to “help” them, maybe it’s best we just leave them alone, as our previous contact has already sent them down an irrational and mystical road to rediscover John Frum. Easy to say for me that they’re irrational when what we see in them is what we see in ourselves– or maybe, we are more like them than we realize.
Learn more about John Frum with this Java Films documentary
