Melanesian Odysseys by Lisette Josephides

Author:Lisette Josephides [Josephides, Lisette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Oceania, Social Science, Anthropology, General, Cultural & Social, Sociology
ISBN: 9781845455255
Google: H-SjFNxkWEMC
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2008-01-15T02:51:24+00:00

Everywhere in Papua New Guinea

They say Jesus is on the way

I think he will come

Everywhere we go

They sing his name, high and low

Now he will come

This ground I lived on with my dirty skin

until I saw the good place Jesus lives in

And I have no pleasure in this ground any more

God our father, you gave good and powerful things

to Moses in the tablets

Now all of us can share your gifts.

Hapkas had ‘received life’ before Mapi, and it was he who had dreamt that Mapi would also be chosen. He first found Jesus in Kagua, where he was imprisoned following the fight with the Perepe clan. It happened like this. In Sumbura market the police took down the names of all the men who had taken part in the fight, checking them through twice, and both times Hapkas's name had been on the list. But when Rimbu came to pay the fines and set his brothers free, Hapkas's name could not be found on the list, so Hapkas was released without having to pay a fine. ‘God removed my name,’ he said.

As a born-again Christian Hapkas campaigned against polygyny, and in protest went to stay on Yamora hill when Rimbu, Kiru and Waliya all took second wives and Komalo committed incest with his sister (Rimbu's second wife). He was in Yamora for two months, and on the third month he had a dream. He saw the stony ground on which he sat, with all its trees and vegetation, move out of the frame as in a movie-picture, swaying as if drunk, to be replaced by a nice clean place. A white man stood there, who said to him: ‘This bad place, where the pitpit cuts people's skin and they live in suffering, will disappear, and you will find yourself in another place. You must pray to God and Jesus and thank them for bringing you to this good place.’ The man taught Hapkas how to pray, and praying while still dreaming he opened his eyes and saw that his skin had turned white. Mapi stood next to him, and his skin also was white. The white man said, ‘This land which is full of noxious things, where you can think only of gardens and pigs, has gone now, and these thoughts [of temporal things] have gone with it. Now you will think only of one thing.’

In this new place there was an abundance of good food. A wheelbarrow overladen with food rolled in all by itself, and Hapkas took and ate. He was about to eat some more when he woke up and saw that he was back on the stony ground. He tried to sleep again but couldn't. He wept over this, then went to church in Poiale and described his vision. Now he has this dream every other night. Another time the white man was sitting on a chair atop a tree. He held a white shirt which he gave to Hapkas, saying, ‘This uniform is for Rimbu.’ Then,

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