Who is John Frum? Inside the ‘cargo cult’ that worships American GIs
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A bell rings. Men carrying thick bamboo poles as “rifles” with U.S.A. painted on their bare chests begin to march, in lockstep, toward a clearing in the forest. The man-made clearing is a rough opening meant to be a landing strip.
Awaiting the “soldiers” is a wooden replica of a light aircraft.
“On one side of the strip lies a control tower made of bamboo,” writes sapiens.org. “On the other sits a satellite dish built of mud and straw. Undeterred by the apparent lack of any actual aviation technology, some of the men light torches and place them alongside the runway. Others use flags to wave landing signals. Everyone raises their gaze to the sky in anticipation.”
The group is waiting — and have been since 1945.
While scenes like this have been reported by anthropologists, colonial explorers and other observers since the early 19th century, as Indigenous communities came into contact with American and Australian military personnel during the Second World War, “cargoism” — a religious movement among natives of the islands of Melanesia in the South Pacific — began to crop up.
The theology is simple enough: The practice of the cult centers on the worship of cargo.
As hundreds of thousands of American troops flooded the Pacific from the skies and seas during World War II, roughly 70 “cargo cults” began to spring up among the villages in the South Pacific.
In particular, on the remote island of Tanna in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, there’s the worship John Frum, an idealized American G.I. who communities believe will bring back radios, TVs, medicine, chocolate, trucks, boats, planes — and Coca-Cola.
“John promised he’ll bring planeloads and shiploads of cargo to us from America if we pray to him,” a village elder told Paul Raffaele of Smithsonian Magazine in 2006.
Read more https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/military-history/2025/09/23/who-is-john-frum-inside-the-cargo-cult-that-worships-american-gis/
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