Cannibal Tribe Apologises For Eating Methodists

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 8-16-2007 | Nick Squires

[blam]

Cannibal tribe apologises for eating Methodists

By Nick Squires in Sydney
Last Updated: 3:29pm BST 16/08/2007

A tribe in Papua New Guinea has apologised for killing and eating four 19th century missionaries under the command of a doughty British clergyman.

Sorcery and witchcraft are still common in some Papuan tribes

The four Fijian missionaries were on a proselytising mission on the island of New Britain when they were massacred by Tolai tribesmen in 1878.

They were murdered on the orders of a local warrior chief, Taleli, and were then cooked and eaten.

The Fijians - a minister and three teachers - were under the leadership of the Reverend George Brown, an adventurous Wesleyan missionary who was born in Durham but spent most of his life spreading the word of God in the South Seas.

Thousands of villagers attended a reconciliation ceremony near Rabaul, the capital of East New Britain province, once notorious for the ferocity of its cannibals.

Their leaders apologised for their forefather's taste for human flesh to Fiji's high commissioner to Papua New Guinea.

"We at this juncture are deeply touched and wish you the greatest joy of forgiveness as we finally end this record disagreement," said Ratu Isoa Tikoca, the high commissioner.

Cannibalism was common in many parts of the South Pacific - Fiji was formerly known as the Cannibal Isles - and dozens of missionaries were killed by hostile islanders.

Born at Barnard Castle, Durham, Rev Brown emigrated to New Zealand as a young man and served as a missionary in Samoa before moving with his wife and children to New Guinea.

He was familiar with the cannibalistic traditions of the region and once described a visit to a village in which he counted 35 smoke-blackened human jaw bones dangling from the rafters of a hut.

"A human hand, smoke-dried, was hanging in the same house. And outside I counted 76 notches in a coconut tree, each notch of which, the natives told us, represented a human body which had been cooked and eaten there," he told the Royal Geographical Society.

Even so, he was shocked when told that four of his staff had been cannibalised.

"They were killed simply because they were foreigners, and the natives who killed them did so for no other reason than their desire to eat them, and to get the little property they had with them," he wrote.

He reluctantly agreed to launch a punitive expedition, ordering his men to burn down villages implicated in the murders and destroy wooden canoes.

At least 10 tribe members blamed for the attack were killed in an area known as Blanche Bay. Rev Brown claimed the raids made the region safe for Europeans.

In a letter to the general secretary of the London Missionary Society he wrote: "The natives respect us more than they did, and as they all acknowledge the justice of our cause they bear us no ill will."

But the reprisals attracted fierce criticism from the press, particularly in Australia.

The Australian newspaper said: "If missionary enterprise in such an island as this leads to wars of vengeance, which may readily develop into wars of extermination, the question may be raised whether it may not be better to withdraw the mission from savages who show so little appreciation of its benefits."

However, an official investigation by British colonial authorities a year later exonerated Rev Brown.

[BibChr]

Another great title.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Hey! Don't you know the Methodists are supposed to apolgize to you for judging your quaint non-western ways by biased western standards???? What's going on here! Has the world turned upside down?

You guys are "noble savages," and that's beautiful. It's the plain ordinary "savages" who aren't noble (ie, Biblical Fundamentalists) whose worldview rationalistic westerners are supposed to destroy! Didn't you get the memo???

[Bookwoman]

that could be an onion headline

That was my first thought!

[xJones]

A tourist goes to Africa and asks his tourist guide while walking in the jungle, “Are we safe here? Aren’t there cannibals around here?”
And the tourist guide says, “Yes, you're safe and you can be sure there are no cannibals in Africa.”
And the tourist says, “But there may be still some cannibals.”
And the tourist guide says, “No, rest assured. We ate the last one last Monday.”

[apocalypto]

The apology is a little late.

[elcid1970]

“monkey tastes a lot like human”

American forces in the Philippines were cut off from resupply after Pearl Harbor. The “Battling Bastards of Bataan” took to killing and eating monkeys for sustenance.

One survivor of the Bataan Death March later recalled that monkey meat wasn’t all that bad, unless your portion included the hands.

[dixiechick2000]

Thank you!

I think we taste better than chikken. ;o)

[OB1kNOb]

Note for possible revision to Methodist missionary handbook:

1) Should you be insulted by the native Papuan cannibal tribes, tis best to not respond by replying, "Eat me!".

1a) "Bite me!", is also a phrase that should be avoided.