Island's 'cargo cult' celebrates 50 years worshipping the US
The US's standing in the world may have plummeted under President George W. Bush, but a bizarre cargo cult in the Vanuatu island nation holds America in god-like esteem.
The Jon Frum movement celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding yesterday with a lavish feast in which village men dressed up as US soldiers and marched in front of a giant Stars and Stripes flag on a bamboo pole...
The origins of the cult date back to the 1930s, when Britain and France jointly ran what was then the colony of New Hebrides. Tanna's inhabitants bridled at colonial rule and the missionaries who badgered them...
Village elders tell of how a mysterious outsider came to their forbears in a series of apparitions, telling them to go back to their traditional ways. The idea of a messiah-like outsider was given a huge boost during the Second World War...The movement was officially founded on Feb 15, 1957, to celebrate the release of cult leaders who had been imprisoned by the ruling Anglo-French authorities.
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The Jon Frum movement celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding yesterday with a lavish feast in which village men dressed up as US soldiers and marched in front of a giant Stars and Stripes flag on a bamboo pole...
The origins of the cult date back to the 1930s, when Britain and France jointly ran what was then the colony of New Hebrides. Tanna's inhabitants bridled at colonial rule and the missionaries who badgered them...
Village elders tell of how a mysterious outsider came to their forbears in a series of apparitions, telling them to go back to their traditional ways. The idea of a messiah-like outsider was given a huge boost during the Second World War...The movement was officially founded on Feb 15, 1957, to celebrate the release of cult leaders who had been imprisoned by the ruling Anglo-French authorities.