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19 - Prophets and rebels of decolonization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Matt K. Matsuda
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
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Summary

In 1942, in northwest Papua, healer and prophetess Angganita Menufleur spoke of a new order and renewal of history. The islands and territories of Papua had for centuries been nominally ruled by the Sultan of Tidore for the Dutch Empire in the Indies, and the coastal clans subjugated to feudal exactions and plantation labor. Angganita preached against the foreign overlordship and foretold a time when the world would be upside down: trees would grow their fruit underground, black and white people would exchange skins, ancestors would return, and ships bearing cargo would bring the Papuans prosperity as never before.

Her followers danced and sang, spoke in tongues, and waited for Mansren, an old man who had long ago captured the Morning Star and been given magical powers. He had sloughed off diseased skin, become new, and, in the company of a young wife and miracle child, created the lands of Papua. His return would herald the new age.

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Pacific Worlds
A History of Seas, Peoples, and Cultures
, pp. 293 - 314
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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