Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Vanuatu

Starting point is 00:00:00 Located in the Southern Pacific Ocean lies the small nation of Vanuatu. While it shares many features with other Pacific Island nations, there are things about Vanuatu which are unlike any other country in the world. Its language, some of its religion, and history all have elements that are unlike anywhere else. Learn more about the nation of Vanuatu and everything which makes it unique. On this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes your...

Starting point is 00:00:42 back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the Thuline podcast from NPR. Vanuatu is an archipelago of islands located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It's roughly located between Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Fiji. It's located in the region of the Pacific, which is known as Melanesia. which includes New Caledonia, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Pawp and New Guinea.

Starting point is 00:01:19 Geographically, the Vanuatu Archipelago is a Y-shaped collection of 83 islands that are volcanic in origin, 65 of which are inhabited by humans. There are several active volcanoes in the country, most notably Mount Yasur on Tana Island, which has been erupting almost continuously, at least since 1774, when Captain Cook spotted it. The people of Vanuatu share a similar history to that of other people in the South Pacific. The first migration of humans was believed to have occurred around 3,300 years ago by the ancient Lapita people. The Lapita is the name given to the culture that settled in the Melanesian islands and first developed the seafaring technology to move between them. The Lapita are believed

Starting point is 00:01:59 to have originated from somewhere in the northern Philippines, but the settlers to Vanuatu probably started from somewhere closer. There was probably more than one migration event over time that brought humans to the Vanuatu archipelago. Due to a lack of written accounts, there's very little we know about the first people to settle in the region. One of the first people we do know from Vanuatu's history was a chief by the name of Roy Mata, who lived in the late 16th and early 17th century. He was known for having conquered and united many of the islands, and one of the reasons he's known is because of the oral traditions passed down about him and the discovery of his tomb in 1967. The first recorded European siting of the island, the first recorded European

Starting point is 00:02:38 sighting of the islands occurred in 1606, when the Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernandez de Keros thought he had found Australia. He named the land La Australia di Espiritu Santo, which means the southern land of the Holy Spirit. The largest island in Vanuatu is still called Espiritu Santu today. Despite the early European visit, no Europeans bothered to come back for over 150 years. In 1768, the French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville named the island the Great sickletes after the islands in Greece. However, when Captain Cook arrived in 1774, he renamed the island the New Hebrides, which is the name that stuck until they became independent. The islands didn't have much in the way of resources that Europeans were interested in. The resource they did

Starting point is 00:03:24 have was people. In the 1860s, British plantations in the Pacific needed workers, so they would capture men in Vanuatu and forcibly coerce them to work in the fields. The act of capturing and forcing people to work was known as blackbirding, and it was for all practical purposes, slavery. And this despite the fact that Britain had outlawed slavery several decades earlier. Blackbirding may have resulted in as much as half of the male population in Vanuatu to have been taken. And some demographers believe that the population of Vanuatu in the mid-19th century before blackburning began may have been larger than the population of the islands today. By the 1880s, the people in the New Hebrides became better armed and were able to resist the

Starting point is 00:04:06 blackbirders, causing them to shift their efforts to Pompin New Guinea. An 1882 expose written in the Melbourne Age newspaper exposed the practice, which led to the eventual repatriation of most workers. The New Heberties were not formerly a territory or colony of any European country at this time. Both the French and the British had established small trading communities in the islands, most notably Franceville, which later became the current capital city of Port Vila. In 1878, Britain and France declared the New Hebrides to be neutral territory. This lack of direct control resulted in Franceville declaring its independence in 1889. Independent Franceville, it should be noted, became the first country in the world to establish

Starting point is 00:04:48 universal suffrage without regard to sex or race. At the time of independence, the population consisted of 500 native people and only 50 Europeans. The lack of direct European control wasn't to last very long. In many parts of the world, the French and the British would fight over territories and colonies. But in 1906, having done this for centuries, the two countries did something unusual. They agreed to joint control of the New Heberties, in a unique institution called the British-French condominium. The resulting system was confusing and chaotic. There were two sets of laws administered, and you could choose which set of laws you wish to be under. There were parallel systems for

Starting point is 00:05:26 almost everything, including currency, educational systems, hospitals, and police. It was so confusing and awkward that it became known locally as the pandemonium rather than the condominium. One of the biggest events to happen to Vanuatu was World War II. About 10,000 native men were recruited to serve in the Vanuatu Labor Corps, which existed from 1942 to 1945. The United States eventually took over the project after the British and French couldn't adequately run the operation, and the men were complaining about working conditions and food. The Vanuatu Labor Corps was short-lived, but it had an incredible impact on the men who served.

Starting point is 00:06:03 Primarily, it popularized the John From movement, which still exists to this day. The John From Movement is a cargo cult, which really requires its own episode to fully explain. Having seen the airplanes and all the cargo being flown in, followers of the movement believe that a man named John From, which probably was a form of John from America, would one day return and bring with him cargo. The John From Movement eventually became a full-fledged religion. The followers of John Frum created landing strips to welcome the planes that would bring cargo. They did ritualistic marching like soldiers, and adopted the Red Cross flag as their symbol.

Starting point is 00:06:43 The number of John Frum followers used to be in the thousands, but today they're believed to be only about 500 remaining, who are mostly in the village of La Macara in the island of Tanna. After the war, as was happening in most of the world, decolonization and independence were put on the table. The problem was is that the New Hebrides couldn't just seek independence from one country, they had to seek it from two countries because of the condominium agreement. The British were pretty quick to agree to independence, having gone through this process with a number of former colonies. The French, however, were very reluctant to let any of their colonies become independent. None of their colonies in the Pacific or Caribbean ever became independent. Rather,

Starting point is 00:07:23 they were just rolled into France proper. Eventually, a plan for independence was agreed upon, and it was to happen in 1980. But in the weeks before independence, in June of 19, an anti-independence rebellion broke out, which had links to the John Frum movement. Despite requests from the local government, the French did not do anything to put down the rebellion because they didn't want independence, and they also blocked the British from doing anything as well. So the local officials asked the government of Papua New Guinea descend in troops, who were warmly welcomed by the locals. The rebellion ended when the son of the leader of the rebellion drove a truck through a blockade

Starting point is 00:07:58 and was killed by Papuan soldiers. The entire 12-week incident became known as the Coconut War. Nonetheless, on July 30, 1980, the condominium of the New Heberties was dissolved, and the independent nation of Vanuatu was born. Supposedly, when the French left after independence, they destroyed all the offices they had in the country, going so far as to pull all the copper wiring out of the walls. There are things in Vanuatu that you will find nowhere else on earth. Bungi jumping was actually based on the ritual known as land diving,

Starting point is 00:08:30 which is practiced on Pentecost Island in Vanuatu. The people of Pentecost will build wooden towers 20 to 30 meters, or 65 to 100 feet high. Men will then jump off the towers with vines attached to their ankles. The towers are usually built on hillsides with fresh, soft soil beneath them in the landing zone. The vines absorb most of the energy from the fall, and its design such that most of the divers will hit the soil moments after the vines have stopped their fall. And there are some incredible videos of this that are available online. However, the most remarkable thing about Vanuatu isn't the cargo cults or the land diving.

Starting point is 00:09:07 It's the languages. Vanuatu has a population of a little over 300,000 people. However, there are 113 native languages in the country. That means that each language averages just under 2,000 native speakers and gives Vanuatu the highest linguistic density of any country on earth. In reality, the number of speakers isn't even. evenly distributed, so there are several languages that are very close to extinction. If Vanuatu has so many languages, how does everyone communicate? Despite all of the native languages in the country, there are only three official languages,

Starting point is 00:09:44 English, French, and Bisma. And I'm sure you're wondering, what is Bisma? There's a good chance you've never heard of it before. You've probably never encountered a Bisslama department in college, never seen a Bisslama a phrasebook in a bookstore or even seen a Bisslama course on Duolingo. Bisslama is an English-based pigeon or Creole language. A pigeon language is a simplified language that often develops when people are put together who don't speak the same language.

Starting point is 00:10:13 In the case of Anahuatu, it happened when men were blackbirded in the late 19th century. They all spoke the many different languages of the region, and to communicate, they developed a pigeon that was based on a simplified English language vocabulary, but using grammar from Melanesian languages. A pigeon becomes a creole when it develops a population of native speakers, which is exactly what happened in Vanuatu. I visited Vanuatu years ago, and when I heard people speaking Bisslama, I could catch about a third to half of what they were saying because the words were all based on English. I found that even if it doesn't seem like a word was based on English, you could usually figure out the origin if you just thought about it for a few seconds. An example would be the

Starting point is 00:10:54 National Anthem of Vanuatu, Jumi, Jumi, Jumi. Jumi is actually spelled Y-U-M-I, which is just an alternate spelling of the words, you and me. Yumi is the word for we, you-me. The name of this podcast in Bisma would be every sampeng, every place, every day. Because it has a limited vocabulary, many word meetings are determined by context. Perhaps the most important and commonly used words, is belong, which comes from the English word belong. Blong can be used to describe almost anything in relation to something else. Book belong me means the book belongs to me. Late belong track means the light is on the truck. Man belong America means the man is from America. Another word with many uses is long, which can mean in, two, on, or by. Because the vocabulary

Starting point is 00:11:50 is simplified, it's often necessary to use descriptive phrases to describe something. All vehicles, for example, are track. All birds are pigeon. All fish are fists. So to describe different types of vehicles, birds, or fish, you need a more lengthy description rather than a single word. For example, the phrase for a toothbrush is brass belong to tuit, which would literally translate to the brush of the tooth. Because Bisslam has an English language vocabulary, it turns out to be one of the easiest languages for native English speakers to learn. From reports that I have heard, you can have a reasonably fluent conversation after about a week or two of study if you already know English. Bismama is also very similar to Tocpissan, which is the English-based Creole spoken in Papua New Guinea.

Starting point is 00:12:37 Vanuatu, as you can probably see, is actually a really interesting country. It's pretty easy to visit with direct flights from all the neighboring countries, including Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. And once you're there, there are a host of natural and cultural things to see and do. And it also might be a great place to visit if you're looking at the easiest way to pass your school's foreign language requirement. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener R. Skillion over at Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write,

Starting point is 00:13:14 15-minute daily gems. If you're a fan of informative podcasts, but you want all the information in 15 minutes from a pleasant voice without any of the unfunny banter or long commercials stretched out over an hour, you've found your podcast. Plus, it's daily. Thanks, R. Skillion. I do make it a point of keeping the show short and tight. It benefits you and it benefits me. And quite frankly, if the show ran any longer, it would be difficult for one person to produce. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you two can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Vanuatu

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