Malakula
 Malakula
is the second largest
island in Vanuatu with 2069 km2, being 94 km long and 44 km
wide at its broadest end, from Melip to Rerep.
In 1965 a major earthquake caused the northern part to lift
by 40 cm. This is the most accessible area of Malakula, the
south is more rugged and inhospitable.
There are over thirty dlfferent dialects spoken on the
island, one of the richest from a linguistic and cultural
point of view. But what really typifies this island are the
tribes which used to live up in the hills : the Big Nambas
in the North and the Smol Nambas in the central part of the
southern area, whose names stem from the size of the penis
sheath
they wear, made out of banana or pandanus leaves.
According to legend, in South Malakula there lived Ambat and
his children who had the particular trait of being white and
having long straight hair.
Then one day, the children ate a pink apple, something their
father had forbidden them to do and thereupon they turned
black. As a punishment they were banished to the south and
required to wear a penis sheath.
In 1768, Bougainville gave his name to the straits which
separate Malakula from Santo.
Six years later, Cook was given a hero's welcome in memory
of Ambat, because in the local people's eyes, the white man
was a god.
Unfortunately, this notion was to be short-lived with the
arrival of the labour recruiters, the black-birders.
Relations deteriorated very rapidly thereafter : in
retaliation, the villagers attacked the ships captured the
crews and sometimes they even ate them.
Cannibalism caused the few white settlers who had
plantations there to abandon the island.
Throughout the 1920's and 1930's a series of bad epidemics
decimated Malakula.
In 1939, a copra cooperative was set up at Matanvat in
northern Malakula. In no time, it took on some of the cargo
cult traits, up until 1950, after which it returned to its
original purpose, copra production. Today, the largest
copra-producing plantation in Vanuatu is located at Norsup
(i.e. P.R.V.).
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