Cargo Cults and Africa

A couple of weeks ago, I learned about Cargo Movements (aka cargo cults) and I couldn't help but wonder, is Africa in a cargo cult?

The term ‘cargo cult’ or ‘movement’ is a term given to a number of religious or political movements that started when indigenous peoples came into contact with Western civilisation and the technology, they brought with them. Items like radios, aeroplanes, ready-made and abundant food etc. These items were called cargo, hence cargo cult or movement. These indigenous groups then attempt to get these goods by replicating the rituals that caused the cargo to land on their soil; building plane towers and runways, and signalling with radio and military marches. 

This act of replication is what makes them incredibly fascinating, from the outside looking in. It reminds me of a child playing 'grown-up' - in as much as I know better than to infantilise indigenous communities. Or perhaps, more appropriately, it reminds me of the dynamics of cultural appropriation, without the underlying power asymmetry that problematises the cultural exchange that precipitates appropriation and dispossession. In that, you have a group of people replicating what they believe to be the cultural rites of another, without understanding how those rites or rituals work. A great example of this are those Ayuhuasca retreats that borrow enough from Meso-American and Native American spiritual practice to inform their aesthetic and general practice, but not enough to properly contextualise and replicate the experience authentically. The resulting ritual is a facsimile that mimics the thing that inspired it while retaining its distinct identity. Similarly, when cargo movements replicate the rites that brought cargo to their shore, they straddle this same line.

Take, for example, the John Frum Cargo Movement in Tanna, Vanuatu. Every February 15, the members of the John Frum cargo movement honour the American pilot who is said to have landed in Vanuatu in the 1930s. According to legend, Frum appeared one night in the 1930s promising to rescue the people of Tanna from missionaries and colonisers. Frum also promised that if they prayed to him, he would send cargo (foodstuffs, TVs, trucks and radios) to them. And for the last 90 years, members have prayed. They raise the American flag on a pole and march with makeshift bayonets in US Army uniforms with the word "USA" emblazoned on their chest in red paint to a clearing. At this clearing, they line the runway; preparing for an important arrival. But none ever shows up. But why would they expect one to show up? 

From the outside looking in, it feels ludicrous to presume that all it takes for cargo to show up is a simple ritual. We are aware of the massive logistical mountains that are moved every time an American product makes its way around the world. But they aren't. This asymmetry of knowledge got me wondering if Africa is in a cargo cult; seemingly uncritically replicating Western traditions, principles and values without understanding why it is they work for them and why they may not work for us. Particularly in the realm of development and our approach to socioeconomic development. Although we are beginning to engage in this critical and contextualised examination (take Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo, as an example), I worry that the consequences of our, seemingly, uncritical adoption are their own beast to slay. Furthermore, it has always felt weird to me that international development, nearly a generation and a half from its inception after WW2, is still a field dominated by Westerners and how much further we have to go to cement community/local participation. 

But as soon as I had that thought, I began to question that impulse to characterise and infantilise Africa. I also realised that I had misunderstood cargo movements. They are more than a response to colonialism - playing into the mistaken belief that indigenous communities consistently mistook colonisers for gods. Cargo movements were, and are, an act of subtle resistance to colonialism and colonial incursion. In as much as indigenous communities looked to the colonisers for sustenance through cargo movements, they also used these movements to call for the expulsion of the colonisers. Applied to my question, I can make the argument that Africa was developing on 'their' terms until we could develop on our own. The birth of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement and progress made by East Africa to become increasingly integrated (to the eventual detriment of Western influences as a unified Africa is harder to manipulate) are proof of this. 

But in using their methods, we implicitly endorse them as well. That, therein, is my problem and my query. 

Not one that can be easily resolved. 

Happy Early John Fum Day!