Ritual widow-killing did not end in PNG until the 1980s

LAURIE GUY | New Zealand Herald

I WAS IN WEST NEW BRITAIN as a missionary from 1983-89 and can confirm that Jared Diamond's latest book, The World Until Yesterday, is substantially correct in relation to widow-killing in a language group of about 2,000 speakers in New Britain.

Diamond’s ideas do, however, need a little nuancing. First, Kaulong was viewed as a derogatory term (similar to bush kanaka).

The self-description of this language group was Arawe (or Arove). And the practice did not end in the 1950s but persisted in pockets of people until the 1980s.

Traditionally the Arawe were semi-nomadic, settling in small groupings (maybe only 10 or 20 people) for a few years and then moving on as soil fertility was depleted.

In 1981, a diminutive, feisty, German woman in her late 50s, Helen Held, trekked into a remote mountainous part of New Britain to share the Christian gospel with some of the Arawe people.

This led to several of these groups coming together to form a settled village, which I shall call 'A'. Two years later (two months before I arrived in New Britain) Helen went with some of the people from Village A to Village B and preached the Christian message there.

The message was immediately embraced by the whole village, largely because the sister of the primary headman had had a dream a little earlier which she had shared with the village. The dream indicated that people with white skins would come to the village bringing good news.

Village B underwent major transformation over the next few years. With World Vision help it planted coconuts (then absent from that inland area) to lift the woefully low protein levels.

Two of the men went off to do a short-term medical course (the remoteness of the village meant that till then basic health care was totally lacking).

A primary school was started. Because of the difficulty of attracting teachers to the location, the village later got some of its children into secondary school and teacher training to provide home-grown teachers. The overall effect was a remarkable holistic transformation.

Certainly there had been widow-killing among these people. My understanding is that this occurred with the co-operation of the widow, who wanted to be with the spirit of her deceased husband.

A key headman at Village A had earlier been involved in the death of his mother on that basis.

In 1988, the Christian gospel was being preached to further small groups of the Arawe people. A new village ('C'), partly Christian, began to form.

An Arawe graduate from the Bible School I led was placed there as pastor. A man died and his widow wanted to be killed - usually this was shown by the widow doing certain ritual acts to provoke the men to kill her.

The woman was about to be killed when the pastor intervened and said, "We don't do this now; we are Christians." There was no killing.

I remember going subsequently to Village C and seeing the widow heavy with grief, demonstrated in her clothing, the dirt on her face and her heavy, downcast demeanour.

But next time I went there she was remarkably joyful. What had happened?

The village story was that lightning had struck a dead tree and set it on fire. The villagers went out to see the amazing spectacle.

When the woman saw it, she interpreted it as a sign to her from God, and speedily embraced the Christian gospel, with a markedly transformative outcome.

What is striking about the incident is how late the widow-killing practice persisted (at least until 1988), even though village C was less than 20km from Kimbe, the capital of West New Britain.

What I saw of the Christian impact on the Arawe people was remarkably good and holistic. Widow-killing did not die out in the 1950s; but it did much later - through the Christian gospel.

Laurie Guy is a lecturer at Carey Baptist College and pastor of the Orakei Baptist Church in New Zealand

Comments

[Peter Kranz]

To support Phil, the original title of this piece in the NZ Herald is "Laurie Guy: Christian gospel finally put an end to PNG widow killing."

So it was the Christians that brought an end to these savage practices. God bless 'em and pass the offering plate.

[Phil Fitzpatrick]

I find the propensity of missionaries in Papua New Guinea, both now and in the past, to discover things that aren't there extremely curious.

This particular account isn't isolated. In fact, a few of the more outrageous and ludicrous accounts have been featured on PNG Attitude.

They seem to be the tip of the iceberg. If you check out some of their blogs, especially the American fundamentalists like New Tribes, hideous pagan rituals and customs in Papua New Guinea are in plague proportions.

The most common modern missionary claim seems to be going to places where no European has ever been before closely followed by the discovery of some licentious behaviour which is healed through the power of prayer.

Either these people are extremely gullible or they are not telling the truth. I suspect the latter.

But I suppose making up wild and improbable stories is part and parcel of the Christian zealot's ethos.

What sad people. You'd think they'd have better things to do than bother hitherto happy villagers.

[Harry Topham]

Laurie - I did quite a few patrols in those census divisions in the late 1960's and there was no evidence that the ritual mentioned was in practice.

Besides the Catholic and Anglican churches had strong influence in those areas at that time.

Anthropologists Chowing and Goodale also did extensive work in that area in the earlier 1960s and the results of their work clearly indicated the practice of ritual widow-killing had long ceased to be practised.

From memory the Kaulong people were very good story tellers.