Kava History Vanuatu in the 1980's

[kastom_lif]

Stan Combs and his family from Canada lived on Malekula for several years in the 1980's. They used to have memoirs hosted at shaw.ca (since closed). Thankfully, the pages have been archived and you can still read them here: https://web.archive.org/web/20151219201946/http://members.shaw.ca:80/scombs/vanuatu.html

By the way, thanks, @kasa_balavu for suggesting making this a thread!

The stories are an entertaining mix of culturally nuanced observations and devastatingly blunt opinions. I can't say that he's wrong or right. Definitely worth a read, though.

This site is about what I learned about Vanuatu during 1987-92, when I worked as a development adviser first to a regional government and then to the central government .... I characterize "underdevelopment" in Vanuatu as a clash of the Melanesian and Western cultures, with "bewilderment" being the operative word on both sides.

As a development adviser, I was favourably impressed by kava because commercial nakamals are the only sector of Vanuatu's money economy that is completely controlled by ni-Vanuatu. The urban nakamals are run along family lines, with the kava roots being grown by relatives back on the islands. They are sent to town on the coastal traders that buy copra (dried coconut meat, Vanuatu's main export, which is sent to Europe to be crushed for coconut oil). In town, nakamal businesses fail and re-open according to management ability and social distractions, but there are always many open at any one time. The commercial kava trade is a good way to get money out to the outer islands, and money spent on kava circulates among ni-Vanuatu. It is much less expensive than domestic or imported beer, and it is culturally and socially appropriate.

I made an error a while back when I told you that half the people here believe in custom sharks. Everybody does. I had a chat on the subject with Kalosak, my new counterpart, the other day, and with a guy in Lamap on my recent cruise around Malekula. The ability to assume the form of an animal and work other spiritual magic is nakaemas (pronounced na-kie'-mas). I think it is inherited. It isn't all fun and games, because if you don't use it, it will kill you. Also, while your spirit is inhabiting another body, your own body looks like you are asleep. If anyone tries to wake you, you die. The same if someone kills the animal whose form you have taken. Kalosak tells me that there used to be lots of men with nakaemas on Malekula, but not so many anymore. Ambrym, on the other hand is "fulap". Everyone in Vanuatu is afraid to go to Ambrym. Government workers who are assigned there often refuse to go, or leave shortly after moving there. Kalosak said that if a man Ambrym wants to kill you, he does the deed. Then he guts you and fills the cavity with kastom lif (custom leaves) and his spirit enters your body. He then returns to your home and lives with your family, sleeping with your wife (this always enters into the issue), for some predetermined time until abandoning your body and returning to his own. You can tell such a possessed dead man because he passes green stools (from the leaves). Kalosak told me that everyone here has to learn science in school, but think it is all gyaman (lies). In response to his inquiry, I told him that because I was a whiteman, I have trouble believing in nakaemas, but his attitude seemed to be that, well what can you expect - that was my problem.

Final Note on the Relationship Between Europeans and ni-Vanuatu:

I have been advised that, in order to keep a realistic perspective on one's time in Vanuatu, that an expatriate advisor must keep the following in mind: "Our primary function here is to provide entertainment for the locals."

So, locals of the Kava Forums, mix up a bowl of kava, put on some tunes and get ready for some entertainment.