It was like I found a reflection of their behavior in some Indonesians. Is this indeed the product of centuries of colonialism? Or is this because the horizon of knowledge and thinking is too narrow?
By
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
·4 minutes read
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
Tais people, Papua New Guinea have great respect for white people
In a rural Papua New Guinea (PNG) village, I realized that the color of my skin could scare people. When I walked around Tais village on the southern coast of Western Province, many small children ran for their life from me or hid behind their mothers\' backs. The smaller babies could even cry out loud if I approached them, as if they had seen a ghost.
White skin, according to local beliefs, is synonymous with ghosts and death. It is said in the folklore of this area that the spirits of the dead fly to the west, and there, their skin color will change to white.
In the book The Folk Tales of Kiwai Papuans, there is a record of the journey of European explorers who moved into the Kiwai Islands area near Daru at the end of the 18th century. The locals at that time immediately kneeled and bowed at the feet of the Europeans because they thought the white people were the incarnation of their ancestors from another world.
Pastor Keiko Menggo, who serves in Tais, told me the fear of white people was still quite strong in the 1960s. At that time, the first white man came to his village and all the residents ran into the forest to hide. At that time, they still thought that white people were spirits.
The first white man to come to Tais was a missionary, who converted the villagers to Christianity.
"It was ordained by God that we black people come to believe in God through the white people," said Pastor Keiko.
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Europeans came to PNG with modern knowledge and technology, as well as the religion the local people now profess. That is why they have great respect and admiration for white people, whom they consider superior.
I am not European, but to them, I am already considered a “white man”. The people in this village call me a markai (white person), a term similar to bule (foreigner) in Indonesia. As a markai, I received very special treatment, as if I was a great guest who had to be served at all times.
It was ordained by God that we black people come to believe in God through the white people.
I got the best room in the newest house in all of Tais, complete with a thick mattress wrapped in sheets. Meanwhile, the villagers all slept on the floor or on mats on a hard wooden couch. They also equipped my mattress with pillows and bolsters (which they bought from Merauke). Sisi, my host, insisted that I needed all this because “I am a white person from Indonesia”.
AGUSTINUS WIBOWO
Tais residents on their way home from hunting. Deer meat is one of the foods consumed by many Tais residents
Regarding food, Sisi also made special dishes for me every day. The locals eat only cassava and sweet potatoes boiled in coconut milk every day. However, Sisi would make a meal with snapper caught by the neighbors, or venison the men hunted, braised with salt, which was a luxury in Tais. Once every two days, Sisi also washed my clothes.
Apart from all the extraordinary services, Sisi\'s father even thanked me for being "willing" to live in his village.
"I\'m glad you\'re a white person who is different from other white people. You want to talk and joke with us, eat our food, sleep in the same room with us black people. I\'m really touched," he said.
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I felt that their admiration for the white man was excessive, leading to the inferior mentality that is typical of colonized nations. It was like I found a reflection of their behavior in some Indonesians. Is this indeed the product of centuries of colonialism? Or is this because the horizon of knowledge and thinking is too narrow?
During his research in PNG, Jared Diamond was once asked by a local Melanesian: Why do you white people have so many great things when we black people have nothing?
The question is essentially about why white people are superior to black people. That question bothered Diamond so much that for decades, he continued to research to answer it. He poured the results of his research in the famous book Guns, Germs, and Steel (published in Indonesia as Bedil, Kuman dan Baja).
In the thick book, consisting of almost 500 pages, Diamond describes the long journey of human civilization. Europeans are actually the same as Papuans or any other nation around the world, starting their long journey of civilization as a nomadic hunter-gatherer herd. However, the historical process experienced by Europeans led them to live a different life from the Papuans.
