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Fijians in cannibal curse ceremony

Nabutautau (above) with an 1867 picture of Baker and the rock where he and his followers were killed.
Nabutautau (above) with an 1867 picture of Baker and the rock where he and his followers were killed.

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Members of a Fiji village believe they are cursed because their ancestors killed and ate a Christian missionary 136 years ago.
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SUVA, Fiji -- An elaborate effort to lift a century-old curse on a remote Fijian village has ended with a traditional apology from locals to relatives of an English missionary killed and eaten in 1867.

Methodist missionary Thomas Baker and eight Fijian locals were clubbed to death and eaten in Nabutautau on Fiji's main island of Vitu Levu 136 years ago, a cannibal act historians say was likely ordered as part of a power play between chiefs.

Folklore has it that Baker was killed after mistakenly touching a chief's head -- a cultural taboo punishable by death. All that was left of Baker were the soles of his leather boots, according to local legend.

The cannibals "cooked the boots for a week with bele (a spinach like vegetable) but they were too tough," a Nabutautau villager, told The Associated Press.

Locals say the incident left a curse on the area and its inhabitants, making the village the butt of Fijian jokes for years

They believe the fortunes of the village's 200 residents are still suffering with, no schools, roads or medical facilities contributing to daily difficulties that have become a way of life.

Fed up with their ill fortune and convinced their ancestors' cannibal past was to blame, the village extended an offer to Baker's relatives to attend the apology ceremony to try and lift the curse once and for all.

But it isn't the first time the village has said sorry. There have been two other attempts to turn around the bad luck, the last in 1993 when villagers presented the Methodist Church of Fiji with Baker's overcooked and slightly chewed shoe soles.

This is our third apology but unlike the first two this one is being offered physically to the family of Mr. Baker," Ratu Filimoni Nawawabalavu, the village's chief, told The Associated Press.

Ten of Baker's descendents made the trip to Nabutautau, including Baker's great-great grandson, Australian Geoff Lester.

Though he didn't believe the village was cursed because of the murder, Lester said it did not matter what he thought but what the villagers believed.

"I and my family are more than happy to help them in any way they want us to," the 48-year old Australian told local media. "I am more than over-awed by what is happening."

Baker's slightly chewed soles are on display in a Fijian museum along with the cannibal fork (front left).
Baker's slightly chewed soles are on display in a Fijian museum along with the cannibal fork (front left).

The ceremony -- consisting of a Christian service and a traditional Fijian apology -- began with kava drinking rituals in a circle of tents erected in the middle of the village.

Fifteen stages and many hours later the ceremony climaxed with the "symbolic cutting of the change of curse and bondage" as the Baker relatives released balloons into the air.

The relatives were offered cows, specially woven mats and 30 rare carved sperm whale teeth known as tabua.

Some expressed awe at the size and scale of Thursday's event, attended by Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs.

"I look forward to this event being of use to the Fiji people and the people of this village," Lester told the chiefs on behalf of the relatives.

Qarase described the apology ceremony as a "very beautiful act."

"Your appreciation of the difficulties your people are facing and your tremendous effort is so critical in trying to solve them through turning to God and seeking his forgiveness for what was done to him and his servant, the Reverend Thomas Baker," he told locals.

However, no mention was made of any funding the government might grant the village.

Locals say the impoverished village has suffered more through a lack of assistance from the government than Baker's restless spirit or gods that disapproved of that long-ago meal.


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