image stats
rating
2.99
votes
207
views
4456
uploader
Harvey Wallbanger
comments
1
date added
2010-01-12
category
Sport
previous votes
Loading..
Vanuatu
1 star2 stars3 stars4 stars5 stars
Vanuatu

"a group of men standing outside"

Rate image:
[ | | ]
[ | ]
Comments for: Vanuatu
Harvey Wallbanger Report This Comment
Date: January 12, 2010 01:07PM

Natives of the Erromango section of the Pacific island Vanuatu recently held a formal "conciliation" with the great-great-grandson of the British missionary whom the islanders' ancestors ate when he came ashore in 1839. Charles Milner-Williams' forebear, Rev. John Williams, was regarded as the most famous Christian missionary of the era. Vanuatan legislator Ralph Regenvanu told BBC News that cannibalism was traditionally a sacred warrior practice for "vanquishing a threat (and) absorbing the power of the enemy." Nonetheless, he said, the island has long felt "guilt," and even a "complex," from killing and eating Rev. Williams. In penitence, Vanuatu symbolically gave the Williams family a 7-year-old girl, who will not be eaten but whose education Milner-Williams promised to underwrite. [BBC News, 12-7-09]