Cargo Cults
An interesting fact about the Buddha is that he was a real person that was confirmed to have existed, the only chief deity in a major system of belief (with Jesus Christ as a debateable contender) to have done so. Siddharta Gautama, his mortal name, was born around 2500 years ago in what is modern day Nepal (or northern India). His life, and path to enlightenment, is fairly well documented in Buddhist history stretching from India to Thailand, China, Korea, and Japan.
John Frum is a less straightforward, and less well-known, character - despite living only about a century ago.
The cargo cult of Vanuatu in the South Pacific is an exceptionally unique system of tradition and belief left over from the Second World War. Its adherents are the descendants of local tribesmen who witnessed a level of wealth and development by US forces stationed on their islands, that they determined they quite simply must be gods who summoned their endless food, wealth, and supplies from thin air by magic. The symbol of the cargo cult believers is a simple red cross - a symbol left behind by the medical staff that gave them life-saving medicine. Many believe that by imitating the servicemen who came to the islands, they can will them into returning with their infrastructure and riches.
The believers on some islands go to extreme lengths to do so.
To explain, the locals believed that rituals performed by the US military - wearing uniforms, marching around, and building aeroplanes - were what summoned the wealth and the cargo. It makes sense, too: not understanding how a radio worked would lead one to similar beliefs. As such, cargo cult members copy US uniforms, march in step with bamboo “rifles” over one shoulder, and have even built “airstrips” with “control towers” filled with “radios” to oversee “planes” - all of which are made entirely out of wood.
So, who’s John Frum?
The short answer is: nobody knows for sure. John Frum is, on the island of Vanuatu, a figurehead of the cargo cults - though local elders insist that he was a white American who urged the locals to stop following the lifestyles largely forced upon them by the British colonial government. They contend that he brought so many material goods with him, that he is “an all-knowing spirit, even more powerful than Jesus" who lives inside their local volcano.
Cargo cults exist across Melanesia - the island archipelago consisting of many nations across the South Pacific - and vary from country to country. And while our world is “shrinking”, as geographers like to describe it, it may be several more generations before the wealth from the Global North reaches these islands, fulfilling the John Frum prophecy.
TAI Score: Degree 0. Although some cargo cults in Papua New Guinea have been associated with cannibalism, this practice is likely far older than the “cult” itself. The belief systems that encourage people to build fake wooden planes and pretend to be air traffic controllers are harmless, and do not present any threat to international society.
