Kingdom Tok: Legends and Prophecies in Honiara, Solomon Islands

Abstract

Kingdom tok is an expression that is increasingly used in Honiara. It describes a set of ideas and practices related to what Solomon Islanders see as a recent ‘season’ in their history. Such a season is characterised by the reappropriation of particular meanings of their faith that they perceive as influenced by recent historical processes such as the colonial era, the introduction of Christianity, and the first few decades from independence. In terms of ‘Kingdom’, they envision the possibility to challenge political hierarchies, social stratification, and issues of governance, as well as to re‐define their identities in relation to a general state of empowerment. In Honiara, Pentecostal churches and groups with a strong identification with Judaism make use of Kingdom tok discourses. I claim that they experience the actualisation of Kingdom tok as concrete projects of social action and service provision, which they see as concrete alternatives to historical churches, the state, and the ‘way of the waitman’.

Paradoxes of (In)security and Moral Regeneration in Vanuatu and Beyond

“…It was a 'rescue operation' to obtain new moral cohesion by reminding islanders of God's true ways, which ought to underlie their values and interests, as Stephanie Hobbins (2019) describes from the Solomon Islands. Similar to other Christian charismatic, or Pentecostal, movements in Melanesia and elsewhere, the revival represented a 'break with the past' that had moral and political connotations (see Eriksen 2009;Eriksen, Blanes & MacCarthy 2019;Maggio 2015;Meyer 2004;Robbins 2004).…”