The men who want to be king

November 27, 2021 8:09 AM

Travellers to tiny islands in Vanuatu claim to fulfil a local belief that a mysterious figure from afar will one day bring prosperity. What are they hoping for? (SLGuardian)
posted by ShooBoo (11 comments total)

I've always found stories like the John Frum movement or the Prince Philip movement really interesting. I appreciate this article goes beyond the awful colonial condescension of how we talk about it. Starting with Ketty Napwatt's characterizing them as "crackpots", and then this bit (from an outside observer)

“People tend to forget there is a huge amount of local politics on these islands ... One level of analysis is that these chiefs are using outsiders for their own benefit.”

This all reminds me of the Hawaiian Monarchy and their trips to Europe, when Hawaiʻi was still an independent country. Sort of the inverse of the situation this article is about. My memory from what I've read is the various European courts did give the Hawaiian visitors full respect as fellow monarchs. But also maybe in a slightly condescending way, clearly part of their welcome was that they were seen as a fun and novel diversion. The Hawaiians were much more shrewd than that and conducted some fairly effective diplomacy. I wonder if there's a good book specifically about the European visits? Captive Paradise covers some of this story but in the context of a broader history of the country.
posted by Nelson at 8:56 AM on November 27, 2021 [7 favorites]

One level of analysis is that these chiefs are using outsiders for their own benefit.

Seems like something chiefs everywhere do, innit?

-
posted by lon_star at 9:18 AM on November 27, 2021

meanwhile in Texas:

Kari Nickander drove to Dallas through the night on October 29 from her home near Indianapolis so that she wouldn’t miss anything at Dealey Plaza. She was arriving days before fellow QAnon supporters planned to gather to welcome the return of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. at the site of his father’s assassination, part of a key QAnon prophecy that holds the Kennedy scion faked his death in 1999 and will reemerge to run with Donald Trump in 2024.
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:35 AM on November 27, 2021 [18 favorites]

Nostalgia for imperialism is a hell of a drug.
posted by ActionPopulated at 11:28 AM on November 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

“Apparently there was a prophecy I would come,” said Soling, wearing white chinos and a baseball cap. ... In our conversations with the chief, he evaded the question of whether Soling was the man they’d been waiting for.

If you're willing to go across the globe to a foreign people and say you're the one they've been waiting for, you could at least stop at a therapist first for just one hour. You'd realize that you're not even the one you've been waiting for. If you were, you wouldn't be doing it.

Who is Princess Sylvaine? His wife? In the photo here, she looks exactly like a cheerful superannuated fangirl at a con, meeting an actor.
posted by Countess Elena at 11:40 AM on November 27, 2021

I don't know for sure what they are hoping for, but I know what I'm hoping for, which is that they get their just deserts.
posted by allthinky at 1:35 PM on November 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

Well, as we should all know, it's good to be the King.
posted by Naberius at 1:36 PM on November 27, 2021

I don't know for sure what they are hoping for, but I know what I'm hoping for, which is that they get their just deserts.

In that context, the lack of active volcanoes is a bit of a shame.
posted by notoriety public at 3:22 PM on November 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

"Kings killed when their strength dies; Kings killed at the end of a fixed term; The supply of kings; Temporary kings."
posted by clew at 5:19 PM on November 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

Kings drawn with a very fine camel hair brush; kings that from afar look like flies...
posted by flabdablet at 5:24 PM on November 27, 2021 [5 favorites]

There was an AMAZING TV show called "Meet the Natives" about the indigenous people of Tuva, five of whom traveled to the UK, and they narrated their adventures in the UK -- including that people live in FUCKIN POVERTY in one of the richest nations in the world, which they really struggled to get to grips with. They meet people in different "tribes" -- working class, middle class, and aristocrats. In the last episode of the series, their aristocratic host, having learned they're part of the Prince Philip movement, arranges for them to meet Prince Philip. The meeting is not shown on camera, but everyone involved is clearly very moved by it. (It is so incredibly touching that it made me feel warm feelings towards Prince Philip, who is like generally not a great dude and also pretty racist, but he clearly managed to acquit himself well in THIS ONE MEETING, and this meeting mattered a lot, and I laud him for it.)

Season 2 was "Meet the Natives: USA" and in one episode they HILARIOUSLY discovered bison (TOTALLY TERRIFYING IF YOU DON'T KNOW THEY EXIST!) and in another they had Thanksgiving in Peoria, with a Peoria Public Schools teacher WHO IS AMAZEBALLS and we were all so proud of her. The plot centered around them trying to meet Colin Powell, which they did. The narrative was that they struggled with the idea of the US engaging in a war with random others (after 9/11), which was a lot less compelling than the season 1 narrative where some of them legit thought Prince Philip was a god. But the season 2 narrative of "okay blowing up buildings is bad, but the US is incredibly powerful and I have some questions about them going to war here" was also kind-of moving.

NB that one of the most important parts of both seasons was that the "Natives" were given hand-held cameras and encouraged to film, and their first-person narratives were centered in both seasons. It would have all been creepy and weird if they were objects, but they were given the power to be first-person narrators, which made both seasons kind-of amazing, even when they kind-of sucked.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:33 PM on November 27, 2021 [8 favorites]