The New Hebrides Vanuatu, the name given to the archipelago of the Vanuatu islands in the South Pacific during colonial times, were colonized by Europeans in the 18th century, but it was not until 1880 that France and the United Kingdom claimed regions of the archipelago. To solve that conflict, in 1906 a condominium agreement was signed so that each one could govern their part under their own legal system. Colonization entailed the prohibition of religious customs and rituals typical of these tribal communities, and the imposition of those of civilization European.
In the late 1930s, a native, who was called John Frum and whose real existence is unknown, led a movement among the natives to return to their original customs, kick out the Europeans and enjoy their privileges, but in the 1940s everything changed with the arrival on the islands of the US soldiers by air and sea . The Marines established a base in the archipelago during World War II. To do this, they recruited the natives as labor for the construction of hangars, landing strips, roads, bridges... but what most caught the attention of the natives was what the Americans called «cargo » (charge) and that they interpreted as the generosity of heaven and its gods for returning to the ancient rituals. Position they were the supplies in the form of boxes full of clothing, tents, weapons, tools, canned food, medicine, Coca-Cola... that the planes carried in their bellies.
Just as they arrived, and without warning, the Americans left and the supplies from the sky stopped coming. The natives thought there was no problem, they had been watching the Americans in their summoning rituals for the gifts from heaven to arrive:they would copy those rituals. They cleared the land for runways, built a control tower out of wood, bamboo antennas, and stood on the runway mimicking the signals the Americans made when planes arrived. The priests and prophets of the cult of John Frum, the messengers , prophesied the return of planes and ships with supplies escorted by John Frum himself. If you ask the natives about this religious belief, they answer:
you have been waiting for your Messiah for more than 2000 years, we have only been waiting for 70
Every year, on February 15, the natives of the Republic of Vanuatu celebrate the John Frum Day Parade . They dress in jeans, paint themselves USA on the chest and back and parade barefoot before the American flag with their bamboo rifles on their shoulders.
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