God in a Basket.

Sorcery and witchcraft generally focus on death and illness, thus providing the people with explanations for a wide range of calamities including falling from a tree, being attacked by a wild creature, storms, and destruction of crops. They also included failures, such as the failure of a woman to conceive, or failure in a business venture or failure of a public ceremony or performance.

Choiseul people were often unhappy when in the company of someone not from their kin group because of the fear of sorcery. The danger was that there might be fragments of food or other objects touched by the Choiseul people that would be collected and used by their enemies for some sort of magic. This included hair or nail clippings. This imagined or real danger was usually associated with a past event, and caused confusion for the missionaries because they could not understand the reasons for the fear.

One encounter with the powers of sorcery and magic was with Dalekana who was from Seqa on Choiseul. He carried his god with him in a basket. Dalekana attempted to take one of the girls who lived at the Methodist mission as his third wife. A physical encounter with a determined missionary sister, Sister Jessie Grant, ensued. After a fight between him and Sister Jessie where they both attempted to hold on to the girl, he declared that (during the fight) “twice I took my god out of the basket and sacrificed to him and prayed, and twice he has deceived me and led me astray. He has mocked me and lied to me”. After Sister Jessie shared the Gospel message with him, he said, “I give in. I am a sinful man, but I will now give up all idea of this wrong . . . ”. Mission head, Rev John Goldie described Dalekana as a changed man; no longer the “scowling dreadful savage . . . but laughing and happy”. He became a “success story” for the mission.

In the 1950s, Sister Jessie had another supernatural encounter on Choiseul. She objected to a traditional remedy being worn by her patients. This was a piece of string, known locally as papaqala, worn to ward off evil spirits. Sister Jessie demanded patients remove the string before she gave them medicine. A local member of the nearby Roman Catholic mission objected and said the Catholic priest thought it was fine for a Roman Catholic to wear it if they prayed to God when they tied it on. The inimitable Sister Jessie responded that she would not treat anyone who continued to wear the papaqalas.

There is still a strong belief in sorcery, magic, and customary rituals on Choiseul even though the practice is a state and customary offence. This is despite over 100 years of missionary endeavour on Choiseul, and a continuing missionary presence. Sorcery is a serious concern in society. It has been suggested that the state, church, and community leaders must take responsibility for dealing with any sorcery offence. The Solomon Islands Law Reform Commission (SILRC) Taro Consultation in Choiseul Province declared that “Law should recognise customary law that deals with sorcery. The chiefs should deal with sorcery disputes”. The declaration also included the information that use of witchcraft like black magic for house breaking is still common.

At provincial government level on Choiseul, the Moli Ward Chiefs’ Council Ordinance 2010, sets out the current punishment for sorcery. This includes a fine of “1,000 penalty units and one pig, one chausangavulu (10 string shell money of “protective, preventive, corrective, purification, or productive purposes”, one fathom each string in length), and one chupu” (the piles of cooked food, uncooked garden produce, live pigs and shell money that are exchanged in various ceremonies).

In Melanesia, witchcraft and sorcery are still potent means of dealing with the unknown. In Papua New Guinea recently the tragic case of a woman accused of being a witch and being tortured to death was in the news. These customs are entrenched in Melanesian society and many years of Missionary endeavours have not managed to remove them.