Holy Mama, Solomons Prophet

Built A Paradise For His People

RELIGION - Amazing things have been happening in the villages of little-known New Georgia in the Western Solomons, writes Dr Richard H. Chesher, of Cairns, North Queensland, who has visited the area and met a 20th century prophet, Silas Eto. His matter-of-fact, almost racy story of that meeting tells of villagers and villages transformed, of miracles and of a man who people believe is “next to God, his Son and the Holy Spirit”. 7

They call him Holy Mama.

An unlikely enough name until you learn that Mama is derived from a Melanesian word for priest. But then, everything else about the Holy Mama is un likely; unreal in the everyday reality of the rest of the world.

In remote areas of the world,

unlikely things still happen;

miracles occur. The whole life of Holy Mama is a miracle.

He was born in 1905, the eld est son of the chief of Kolum baghea. You’ve never heard of the place! It is located on the northern tip of the island of New Georgia in the Solomon Islands (in the western tropical South Pacific). It rains a lot there and the rain forest is thick and lush with a depth and eagerness known only to the tropics. His people were bush men.

I guess being a bushman on the northern coast of New Georgia was kind of repressive.

They lived in a Stone Age cul ture and were seldom visited by anyone. They were happy not to be visited by their neigh bours, the saltwater people, as most of them were head hunters. The headhunters of New Georgia considered bush men to be stupid, lazy, foul smelling savages. The white people who came to the Solomons about that time (and for a long time afterwards) con sidered the headhunters to be

stupid, lazy, smelly savages.

Which made the bushmen rather far down on the racial

pecking order.

As a matter of fact, they still are. And the northern coast of New Georgia is still remote, unvisited by very many people.

But the New Georgian bush man’s life has been radically

changed.

Not long ago they agreed

with the general view that they were inferior to everyone else.

“Rubbish men”. They see

things differently now. Not

long ago they envied the

powerful saltwater people and

the amazing white men. Today, they think they’ve got it pretty good themselves; maybe even a bit better than their former idols. I think they do, too. And it’s all because of one fantastic, unbelievable man. This guy

they call Holy Mama.

I’ve never been excessively religious but I know when things go beyond normal re ality. When things happen that somehow “couldn’t happen”, I’m willing to admit it if there is concrete evidence. If there is any real “cause” for what hap pened to the bushmen of north ern New Georgia I guess you’d have to say it was Jesus Christ.

One day in 1915 the young Silas Eto (who later became Holy Mama) met another Melanesian who had been taught about Jesus by some white missionaries near Roviana Lagoon. He came to Kolumbaghea to tell the vil lagers about the Man who loved the whole world, es

pecially people who were shy,

humble, and peaceful.

Silas Eto resonated to the story like some spiritual bell being rung. He began to pray to

Jesus, to think of Jesus, to act as he thought Jesus wanted people to act. Of course, he was already shy, humble and peace ful as are most bushmen. But he worked extra hard at it and, when he was 22, he was allowed to go to the mission school to get an education.

He stayed there five years learning how to harvest copra, plant and tend gardens, build

mission buildings, and things

like that. He also attended church services and bible classes. All very normal. Except

that something else happened

at the same time. Feeling he was somehow not making the grade with Jesus he prayed all the time. All the time; like when he should have been eat ing and sleeping. He ‘died’. Or at least fell unconscious and had a vivid vision of Jesus.

Jesus had noticed him. He recovered and began to pray even harder. And then, one evening, his whole life was changed by an incredible vision in which an angel appeared and took him through the path of life to heaven where he was infused with the Holy Spirit.

He felt as if he was ripped apart and reassembled into a

new man. His prayers had been answered and he began a new, brilliant life filled with the love and the presence of Jesus.

Thereafter, when he went to worship he actually saw Jesus before him, smiling to him. His whole body would shake with ecstasy and he would smile and shake his head and cry tears of j°y- Well ... the other islanders didn’t take much note of this as spiritual communication had been part of their culture for thousands of years and they were just beginning to leam about Christianity where these kinds of events are quite rare.

But the missionaries were a little shocked by this display and decided poor Silas Eto must have slipped a gear some where. The rest of the world

might have agreed if things just

stopped there. But they got stranger.

Silas Eto was sent home and told to teach his people more about Jesus and to help the teacher-preacher in his home village. So he did. Unlike many of the other teacher-preachers, Silas Eto was not hampered by the fact that there was no bible translated into his language and no hymn books. Nor was he concerned that his education lacked most of the essentials about how church services were to be conducted. Because, of course, Jesus told him what to do.

Before long, his visions led him along a path nobody would

have predicted. The villagers,

apathetic and bored, inferior and shy, uneducated and

uninspired, began to perk up.

Soon, they all got together the whole village and built an enormous church. Biggest any one had ever seen in the Solomons. They then tore down their old thatched houses and built new ones. Silas Eto showed them how.

They planted orange groves

When not filling the role of Holy Mama, Silas Eto is a shy, friendly man who loves to play with children.

and began a community project to plant coconut trees for copra.

Silas Eto had a green thumb.

Everyone got busy and every body began to look forward to their Sunday sessions in church. Silas Eto became very popular and his inspiring ser mons and his new type of vil lage life became known as the

“New Way”.

Time passed and things got better for the bushmen. Some of his neighbours felt Silas Eto might be on a political cam paign to become a “big man” but nobody who really knew him believed it. He liked to help people, to teach them about Jesus, to build churches and homes. When the chiefs got together to argue politics, Silas Eto would be off playing games with the children or working on some new construction project.

Everyone liked him a lot.

Except some of the neighbour ing Big Men who, jealous of his popularity and fearful of his

growing power subjected him

to ridicule, scorn, and even managed to get him thrown into jail at one point. Typical of the sort of things that seem to happen to really wonderful

people who successfully help

others help themselves out of a

down-trodden position.

Things came to a boiling point in the 19505. Silas Eto had a vision in which an angel instructed him to lead the people of the village of Menasakapa from their pre sent, dilapidated village, to a new site where they would con struct an entirely new village to be named (what else?) Para dise. Without reading a host of anthropologic literature about the Melanesians in the Solomons, you’d have no real appreciation as to the impossi bility of that vision.

A Melanesian just doesn’t walk into a strange village and tell everyone to destroy their homes and follow him over to yonder ridge to build a new vil lage. And set up a whole new way of life to boot. But that is exactly what he did.

When the new village was finished it was the most beauti ful village in the Solomons. In fact, it still is. The church was the largest leaf structure in the Solomons. Still is. The living houses look like intricately woven baskets, all arranged in long, straight rows behind the

huge church. On either side of the living houses are two flourishing orange groves with cooking houses nestled in their shade. The school is a multi roomed, thatched structure decorated daily with fresh hibiscus flowers. The broad lawns are covered in lush green clover and the paths lined with

majestic hibiscus hedges

loaded with flowers. There are acres and acres of proud coco nut trees, kapok trees, a mar vellous coral wharf and canoe house and turtle-holding pens, a perfect anchorage and . . . well, after all, it IS Paradise.

On Sunday, everyone dresses all in white with red hibiscus flowers in their hair and they march into their huge church and have a really inspiring and

entertaining service.

As if the completion of Para dise was some kind of occult

detonation, things began rad

ically changing on New Geor gia, Holy Mama may, or may not, have been the catalyst; most people think he was. But strange events began to hap pen. Stranger than the things

which had already happened.

Beginning with Paradise, 22 villages were visited by the

Holy Spirit. Entire villages be

came possessed. It was quite a scene. In some villages people shrieked and howled and climbed the walls of the church.

But in most villages things were

relatively restrained. People

felt a sudden, growing terror.

An electric-like shock tore through their bodies and they went numb all over. They began to cry and laugh, to

dance and quiver with strange

sensations. Many people spoke

in English and could quote long passages from the Bible even when they, formerly, had no

experience with these things.

They could not eat or sleep, they were alternately in terror and ecstasy “My heart was on fire, I couldn’t see where I was. It came so strong I felt I died and was born again,” recalled one man.

The villagers sent for Silas Eto and he came and calmed them. His mere presence seemed to transform the un earthly sensations into a more substantial and recognisable one; love. He told the villagers; “It is the completion of our Christianity. It is the comforter promised by Jesus to lead us to his love. The Holy Spirit has come to you.”

One of the missionaries was sent to Paradise to find out what all the rumours were about. The possessions were a little out of line with basic missionary teachings. How ever, the reverend reported, “The people were happy, well controlled, yet with a serious spirit of worship. The teachers say it (the seizures) is the fire of the Holy Spirit which is burn ing the sin and rubbish from their hearts; they show obvious signs of conversion in their per sonal behaviour; and disin terested folk have reported that social sins have been reduced to a minimum along the Kusage coast.”

It was true. The people changed. One man told me; “It was amazing. Before the Holy Spirit came, the people of New Georgia hated each other. Vil

lage fought against village,

family against family. Our lives

were changed. We loved one another. We began to work

together.”

Holy Mama became a truly charismatic leader. He is con sidered (by the people of the 22 villages of New Georgia who received the Holy Spirit) to be right there next to God, his Son, and the Holy Spirit. With the advent of the Holy Spirit, Holy Mama began to perform real miracles. He healed people by his touch and his blessing. He revived three people from the ‘dead’. He could interpret dreams and visions. He could calm those too violently seized by the Holy Spirit. But, I can’t think of anything more miracu lous than the changes he

brought to his people.

He’s still doing his work.

When I visited him in 1977 he

was busy reconstructing two

more villages. Helping people

with their problems. Finding

ways to get the young people of the villages a good education.

Bringing the joy of Jesus to his friends in a real, vital way. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any group of people so happy about their relationship with Jesus, or so eager to go to church.

The people love Holy Mama

dearly. They identify easily

with him. He is shy and humble, his English is poor and he has no possessions others do not have. He shows no interest in

advancing his own personal

The multi-roomed school, with its neatly dressed scholars, is typical of all the buildings in Paradise, which must be one of the most attractive and best-kept villages in the Solomons.-All photos by Dr Chesher.

This young woman 'died' when she was a child. Holy Mama prayed over her. Today, she is obviously in good health.

power and never pushes him self on anyone. Yet, he’s right there to help anyone who needs him. He talks of brotherly love and he loves everyone; no mat ter who. He tells the villagers to work together and when it comes time to do the work he’s right in there sweating away with his friends. He tells every one to live in peace and he lives that way; never criticising or

arguing or condemning any

one. Not even in his sermons.

He has a strange dual per

sonality. During his everyday

life he is just plain old Silas Eto;

quiet, shy, reserved, always

busy on some projects to help

others. He goes barefoot, like everyone else, and wears only a piece of old calico around his waist. But when he marches into church he changes. Maybe it is the people who change him. He really seems to take on

another personality.

He dresses in snowy-white robes with colourful decor ations and a strange fire lights his eyes. He strides through his congregation casting love like a glowing net over everyone. He ascends the pulpit with a weightless step and speaks in a deep, resonant voice. His ser mons are simple and beautiful.

He is a brilliant speaker. His messages are straightforward.

He tells of his love for Jesus and the beauty of the Holy Spirit.

He asks the people to love one another, be of one mind, to

work together.

Somehow, the way he says it, it makes you really want to do it. What’s more, with the help

of the Holy Spirit, he’s actually

got his villagers to really live that way.

I don’t know what to make of the reports about people

coming back from the ‘dead’.

Maybe the spiritual healing is

partly the power of suggestion.

There are lots of people who say they’ve had visions of Jesus Christ. But I know a miracle when I’ve seen one. I’ve been to the area where Silas Eto was born. I know the obstacles set before him by fate and man.

I’ve visited a lot of villages in the Solomons who do not know about this man and have seen how those people live.

Knowing these things, I saw Jesus Christ’s hand at work when I visited the beautiful vil lage of Paradise and talked to those people. I saw something

phenomenal happen when I

attended Holy Mama’s service.

I could feel it in the air and see it on the faces of the people. I could see it in Holy Mama’s eyes. His love of Jesus has done something to Silas Eto. I’m not exactly sure, but I think I know what that something is. When I talked with him, it seemed he lacked something most people have. Negative emotions.

Somehow, he’s been freed of hate, envy, selfishness, arro gance, greed and worry. All the common life-destroyers. I got the feeling he didn’t even recognise these things in me, even though I’ve got at least my normal human share of them. It was a very good feeling.

If this is his reward, if Jesus has taken these evils from him I think it is another miracle.

Like I said to begin with, his whole life is a miracle. Some thing which is too improbable to happen without some expla nation outside the normal levels of reality. These things still happen in some parts of the world. In fact, it’s all happening right now in Paradise.