Religion in Vanuatu

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Sacred Heart Cathedral in Port Vila.

Christianity is the largest religion in Vanuatu. Vanuatu is an archipelago made up of 13 larger islands, and approximately 70 smaller surrounding islands, each home to multitudes of diverse cultural and religious communities.[1]

As of 2020, the population of approximately 300,000 people speak as many as 145 languages throughout the island nation.

Jehovah’s Witnesses and some Protestant denominations.[5]

The

proselytize or hold public religious ceremonies.[6]

History

The traditional religion of Vanuatu

Before Christianity, the indigenous religion of Vanuatu was inherited from Oceanian and Melanesian traditions.[7] Missionaries often called this pre-Christian religion “pagan” or “heathen” in English, and as “times of darkness” in the country's local languages,[8][9]: 207  or in Bislama (taem blong tudak).[10]: 86  [11]: 140 

The traditional religion, sometimes considered a form of

Anglican missionary and anthropologist Robert Codrington in his famous 1891 monograph The Melanesians: Studies in Their Anthropology and Folk-lore (1891).[12] He was followed by other scholars, including anthropologists[13][14]
and linguists.[9]

Concepts central to the traditional religion include

Tagaro on Ambae, Lisepsep across the archipelago.[9]
: 218–222 

Grade-taking ceremonies, which existed throughout Vanuatu, were associated with the indigenous religion, and with the transmission of mana.

Many aspects of the traditional religion have survived until today, in parallel with the adoption of Christianity, at least in some rural areas of Vanuatu.[10]: 86  [11]

Christianity

Christian missionization of Vanuatu began as early as 1606 upon the arrival of the Spanish explorer

Summer Institute of Linguistics have been active in translating the Bible into the country's many indigenous languages.[6][19][20]

Because of the modernities that the military in

Queen Elizabeth, fit the description exactly and is therefore revered and even held as a god around the isle of Tanna.[22]

The effects of colonial Christianity on Vanuatu culture

The effects of colonialism and Christianization have differed enormously throughout Vanuatu, partially due to the Anglo-French condominium governance as well as due to the uncoordinated Christian missionization efforts throughout the nation.[23] The diverse approaches of the Catholic mission, the Melanesian Mission and the Church of Christ combined with varied cultural communities resulted in vastly different local attitudes regarding religion, tradition, and community restructuring.[23] Often, Ni-Vanuatu converted to Christianity in the hopes of attaining the apparent wealth and prosperity the European Christians possessed.[18] Through the spread of Christianity, missionaries aimed to restructure indigenous societies by desegregating gendered eating and sleeping customs, prohibiting exclusive men’s houses, and reworking the idea of the domestic Ni-Vanuatu woman, in order to save women from what the missionaries saw as a “degraded state in kastom."[24] In doing so, the missionaries inadvertently thrust Ni-Vanuatu women into the separate, but similarly gender-segregated Christian church, where men hold disproportionate power. While this new religious system upheld women in familial, motherly roles, it “stripped away those sacred aspects of human kinship which gave women a crucial if subordinated place in the ancestral religion."[24]

The effects of Christianity on Vanuatu kastom

As Christianity gained followers, eventually becoming the prominent religion, support of local kastom decreased due to missionaries’ habitual suppression of the incorporated local values, practices, and traditions.[23] Kastom is an all-encompassing Bislama word that refers to traditional practices including culture, religion, art, economics, and magic in Vanuatu.[25]

Vanuatu indigenous culture and kastom dramatically declined in the face of European colonization. The Europeans brought with them disease, weaponry and alcohol which lead to the death of indigenous peoples, as well as forcibly removed Ni-Vanuatu citizens, relocating them to Australia for forced labor.[23] As well, European missionaries and Ni-Vanuatu Christian converts consciously oppressed certain kastom ways of life. While tolerance of kastom varied between churches, locations, and missions, the majority of Christians deemed the erasure of certain customs as a precondition to Christian conversion. Some of these practices included: “Polygyny, pig sacrifices, ‘idolatry,’ kava drinking, and men’s secret societies,” as missionaries believed such practices exemplified “heathenism” and “the powers of darkness.”[23]

The roles of Christianity, kastom and national identity on the 1970s Vanuatu independence movement

Kastom played a key role in mobilizing Vanuatu's independence movement in the 1970s, through establishing a national identity within a largescale resistance against Anglo-French colonialism.

New Hebrides National Party (NHNP), a political party which aimed to revive and maintain kastom as an essential part of Vanuatu nationalism.[23] The Vanuaaku Pati highlighted the need for Vanuatu to break away from its colonizers, while simultaneously “emphasized the importance of kastom as a non-European ‘grass-roots’ force exemplifying the ‘Melanesian way’ as opposed to ‘the white man’s way.’[23]

Prior to the 1979 national elections, the Vanuaaku Pati “published its electoral platform,” affirming protection of kastom within the government. The document outlined a plan to create a National Council of Chiefs, ultimately ensuring the inclusion of kastom via leaders with power within custom law.[23]

National symbols of kastom and Christianity

  • The Vanuatu flag design, which features a boar's tusk symbolic of wealth and crossed palm leaves, a symbol of peace.
  • The Vanuatu motto, "long God yumi stanap," translating to "before God we stand," appears alongside a warrior wearing traditional Vanuatu clothing, as well as a boar’s tusk and crossed palm leaves.
  • The Vanuatu national anthem, Yumi Yumi Yumi, both acknowledges God as well as the importance of kastom.
    • Regarding God, the anthem states “God i givim ples ia long yumi / God i helpem yumi evriwan” translating to “God has given us this land / God helps us in our work."
    • Regarding kastom, the anthem states “Plante fasin blong bifo i stap / Plante fasin blong tedei / Be yumi i olsem wan nomo / Hemia fasin blong yumi!” translating to "Many customs of before we have / Many customs from today / But we are all one / Despite our many ways!”
  • Independence Week of July 1980, which included the presence of both Christian and kastom leaders, ceremonies, and celebrations, including church services, kastom dance, pig-killing, and traditional feasts.[23]

Symbols and rituals of kastom in daily life

[25]

Freedom of religion

Vanuatu religiosity
Religion Percentage
Christianity
 
 83%
Animism
 
 7%
Buddhism
 
 4%
Baháʼí
 
 3%
others
 
 3%

The Constitution of Vanuatu establishes the freedom of religion, and also states that the state is founded on a commitment to "traditional Melanesian values, faith in God, and Christian principles."[27]

Religious groups are allowed to establish private schools, and both private and public schools include optional religious education courses.[27] Secondary schools must offer at least one hour a week of religious instruction, but parents can request an exemption for their children.[5]

Religious groups are required to register with the government or face fines, but this law is not enforced in practice. Since 2016, high ranking members of the government have expressed the intent to define Vanuatu as a Christian country and to prohibit other religions from entering the country; as of the end of 2022, Vanuatu has no state religion.[5]

The

Baha'i House of Worship, or "Haos blong Wosip" in the local Bislama, was announced, serving as a space for people of all religions and backgrounds to gather, meditate, reflect, and worship. Ground was broken for the structure in 2019 and progress continues.[28] At the groundbreaking ceremony, Vanuatu government officials and traditional leaders highlighted the importance of the local House of Worship on the island, stating that "This Temple will symbolize what we wish to see in Vanuatu in the years to come, which is peace and unity among us all, irrespective of belief" and describing that it "provides us a place where we can meditate deeply about our spiritual reality."[28]

In 2023, the country was scored 4 out of 4 for religious freedom.[29]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Vanuatu | History, People, & Location". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
  2. ^ Barbour, Julie; Daly, Nicola. "People on Vanuatu's Malekula Island speak more than 30 Indigenous languages. Here's why we must record them". The Conversation. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
  3. ^ United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom (2020). "Vanuatu 2020 International Religious Freedom Report" (PDF).
  4. ^ "World Convention » Vanuatu". Retrieved 2012-06-09.
  5. ^ a b c d e US State Dept 2022 report
  6. ^
    Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (September 14, 2007). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain
    .
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-0-02-909880-6
    .
  8. ^ See entry toglolqōn̄ in A. François’ Cultural dictionary of the Mwotlap language (2023).
  9. ^ a b c d François, Alexandre (2013), "Shadows of bygone lives: The histories of spiritual words in northern Vanuatu" (PDF), in Mailhammer, Robert (ed.), Lexical and structural etymology: Beyond word histories, Studies in Language Change, vol. 11, Berlin: DeGruyter Mouton, pp. 185–244
  10. ^
    hdl:10125/21181
    .
  11. ^
    ISBN 978-90-04-21723-2
    . Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  12. ISBN 9780486202587
    .
  13. ^
    JSTOR 2843828
    . Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  14. ^
    ISBN 9782854300642
    .
  15. JSTOR 3629696
    .
  16. JSTOR 40332069.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link
    )
  17. doi:10.1353/ol.2022.0017
    . Retrieved 2022-07-11.
  18. ^
    S2CID 145645031
    .
  19. ^ Bloom Library website
  20. ^ Vanuatu Education Support Program
  21. ^ Fifty facts about the Duke of Edinburgh 25 January 2002 Archived July 25, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ Squires, Nick (27 February 2007). "South Sea tribe prepares birthday feast for their favourite god, Prince Philip". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 April 2007.
  23. ^
    ISSN 0025-2328
    .
  24. ^
    ISBN 9780521346672
    , retrieved 2021-10-23
  25. ^ a b "What is Kastom". www.vanuatu.travel. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
  26. ^ "Crossed Namele Leaves Shadow Vanuatu Elections | Pacific Islands Report". www.pireport.org. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
  27. ^ a b International Religious Freedom Report 2017 § Vanuatu US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
  28. ^ a b "Milestone for Vanuatu Temple uplifts, galvanizes island | BWNS". Bahá’í World News Service. 2019-11-17. Retrieved 2021-08-06.
  29. ^ Freedom House website, retrieved 2023-08-08
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