Religion

Prince Philip: the unlikely but willing Pacific deity


Of the many honours and titles bestowed on the Duke of Edinburgh, the strangest was his status as a deity to a remote south-west Pacific people.

The Prince Philip Movement, a sect followed by the Yaohnanen tribe on the southern island of Tanna in Vanuatu, believed him to be the pale-skinned son of an ancient mountain spirit.

This small community, who built beliefs around cargo or western goods brought to the New Hebrides especially by the US military during the second world war, believed he was the brother of John Frum – thought to be a corruption of John From, a supposed manifestation that encouraged a return to traditional ways before American and European influence.

The tribe offered to build Prince Philip a hut.
The tribe offered to build Prince Philip a hut. Photograph: Richard Shears/Rex Shutterstock

The origins of Philip’s divine status are unclear. But ancient tales tell of the mountain spirit’s son travelling to a distant land, marrying a powerful lady and, in time, returning.

The belief that Philip was the embodiment of this spirit was strengthened when he and the Queen visited Vanuatu in 1974, unaware of his status. Apprised later, he agreed to a request from the British resident commissioner in Vanuatu that an official photograph of himself be sent to the Tanna-based sect.

The villagers responded, sending him a traditional pig-killing club, and requesting he be photographed holding it. This he duly did, posing at Buckingham Palace.

Two tribe members show the photo of Philip holding one of their clubs, which he sent them in 1980.
Two tribe members show the photo of Philip holding one of their clubs, which he sent them in 1980. Photograph: Richard Shears/Rex Shutterstock

Another official portrait followed in 2000, and in 2007 five members of the Tanna community, invited to Britain for a TV reality show, met him privately and off-camera.

All three photographs were kept by the chief Jack Naiva, who died in 2009 having never saw his dream of the duke’s “return” to Tanna realised.



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