The death of Prince Philip will certainly be met with great sadness and many “ritual cries” by villagers on a small island in the South Pacific – where they worship him as a god.
About 700 villagers on the island of Tanna attribute to the so-called Prince Philip movement and believe that he is the son of a mountain god who will one day return to ‘heal the land’.
Philip made a great impression on tribal members in the tropical rainforest village of Yaohnanenon during visits there over the decades, even after the island’s archipelago gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1980.
“They were hoping he would return in person,” anthropologist Kirk Huffman said of Philip in February.
“But they will imagine that his spirit can return to the island.”
The news of Philip’s passing will hit them hard, Huffman said.
“They will mourn in mourning,” he said. “There will be rituals moaning and also a series of dances that sum up parts of the island’s history.”
Now the movement will continue with Philip’s firstborn, heir to the throne Prince Charles, who visited in April 2018, Huffman predicted.