Pacific Answers to Western Hegemony by Jürg Wassmann

Author:Jürg Wassmann [Wassmann, Jürg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781859731598
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 1998-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

Doktoboi and the Plantations

Nothing had changed; or almost nothing, since for Arese a third phase was beginning.

This was a complex period, marked by two antithetical experiences: the acquisition of knowledge that had previously been the preserve of whites (doktoboi) and the plantation experience. The young man who set out for the plantations had nothing in common with the one who had watched Matot’s hanging. Something happened at Angoram, where Arese was training to be a doktoboi, which will help one understand this.

One day the kiap returned from their far-flung expeditions with some ‘savages’ they had just captured in a region that Arese locates in the upper Sepik valley. The whole village turned out to gape at this spectacle, which was as rare as it was fascinating:

The biggest were really very big. They were taller than any of us. Their spears were completely different from ours. They were made out of a piece of palm tree with no bamboo point. The arrows were different, too; they were very short, just like their bows. They had wide armbands with shells, like the ones we used to wear. They also had necklaces made from dogs’ teeth or pig tusks cut in half. They had beards that came down to their chest and long hair. And breech-cloths made from bat-skins that showed their balls hanging down and their bare butts. They were like wild men. When they arrived we all went to see them, but the kiap told us to keep our distance. We stayed well back. We stared at them. The kiap shaved them. They stripped off their ornaments, worthless things, they threw their bat-skins in the river and gave them clothes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.