The chief of a Pacific village that worshiped Britain’s Prince Philip with religious fervor yesterday said that it was too early to know whether the British royal’s descendants would receive similar deification.
Yakel village on the Vanuatu island of Tanna for decades venerated Philip, who last week died at Windsor Castle at the age of 99.
Village chief Albi said it was unclear how the religious movement would change following Philip’s death, as his spirit is believed to be adrift and seeking a new home.
Photo: AFP
While many outsiders assumed Philip’s son or grandsons would succeed him in having a special place in the villagers’ hearts, Albi said nothing is certain.
“The spirit of Prince Philip has left his body, but it lives on — it is too soon to say where it will reside,” he said.
Beneath a British flag flying at half-mast, Albi yesterday joined elders at Yaohnanen, another village that worships Philip, to discuss how to mark the momentous death.
Chiefs spoke in turn during painstaking discussions on what the death means for their customary belief system, with a resolution likely to be days away.
Albi had words of comfort for Queen Elizabeth II, wishing her joy because even though Philip’s body is lost, his spirit lives on.
The Yakel chiefs said they are sending a confidential message to the royal family following Philip’s passing.
The Prince Philip Movement is believed to have started in the late 1970s following a visit by the Duke of Edinburgh to Vanuatu earlier that decade.
British officials investigating the phenomenon concluded it stemmed from an age-old legend of a returning son who had pale skin. Upon learning that Greek-born Philip was not born in England, France or the US, they might have decided that he must be from Tanna.
Anthropologists say that the movement is a way for villagers on the lush volcanic island to find a spiritual connection to the outside world.
In other villages on Tanna, locals are part of the so-called John Frum Movement, a similar cult that stems from the appearance of a pale-skinned stranger in the 1930s.
Adherents to the movement, which encourages the return to traditional customs of dancing and kava-drinking, believe that a hero, “John Frum,” will one day return, bringing with him the riches seen in the hands of US GIs during World War II — including radios and vehicles.
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