Nafanua, the Warrior, Nafanua, the Divine
Was history, to you, ever unkind?
Ought not to be disappointed with
your beloved.
Your name, who would have forgotten?
Perhaps you wish not to be
acknowledged.
I admire your modesty.
Your humility, astounding.
But I must admit, You
are incredibly cunning!
The Rise of Nafanua
A woman of rare breed belonged to a generation,
centuries younger than that from which the Samoan race originated. Her
birth marked, arguably, the first turning point in the history of the people of
Samoa. She was born without a human body but a lump
of jelly-like blood of considerable size. To conceal it from others,
the mother had the blood hidden in the field. At home, she experienced a
powerful eerie presence that compelled her to check up on what she had
hidden. She returned to find a beautiful baby girl lying right where the
blood was placed. The mother named her Nafanua (translated, hidden in the
field) to commemorate her unique beginning.
Nafanua grew up to become the savior that
defeated an army of notorious men who enslaved her entire clan for decades.
Her victory secured her the supreme position as the leading conqueror who
could and would win every battle at will. She was the most feared and
widely respected warrior in all of Samoa.
Samoa (on the Westside) lived under the
direction of four independent paramount kings: Tuiaana, Tuiatua, Gatoaitele,
and Vaetamasoalii. The political boundaries were drawn and
respected. Each king had control of his own territory and nothing more.
Until one day, Nafanua ordered all four political crowns to be handed
over to her. Samoa had no one with the strength and courage to challenge
her degree. Who would or could dare stand in her way? She had no equal.
She was half human, half ghost. She had the spirit of divination; no
secret was safe in her presence. She was the Delphi Oracle of Samoa,
claiming even full control of the underworld.
Nafanua singlehandedly rewrote the story
of Samoa. Samoa became her masterpiece to develop and protect. Her
delegation of authority to have a woman (Valasi) concurrently holding all four
crowns birthed a new tradition that would serve to unify Samoa under one king
in the years to come. No one knows why Nafanua did this. Perhaps
she wanted Valasi and her future successors to deal with the affairs of men
while she focused on the business of the spiritual world.
Then another historic event began to
develop under her adored and honored influence. An ambitious man named
Malietoa approached the Great Nafanua, pleading for a blessing of a kingdom
like that of the four original Paramount kingdoms. He wanted to
be king, but he had no ruling authority. Nafanua had none left to offer, but
she made Malietoa a promise of a kingdom that would eventually come from
heaven. Malietoa must wait.
This Malietoa died waiting for a kingdom
that did not appear during his lifetime. Fortunately, his belief in the
fulfillment of the promise survived through the Malietoa line. For many years,
the Malietoa family continued to survive with eyes fixed on the reality of a
heavenly kingdom that was to come.
Then a new day dawned. Darkness and uncertainty vanished without a trace. The promise of Nafanua was finally fulfilled at the arrival of the London Missionaries Society with the Gospel of Hope and the Christian Church of Jesus Christ. MalietoaVaiinupo welcome the LMS with gratitude, embraced the message of hope, and led Samoa to God. Almost overnight, Samoa became a Christian people. That was the year 1830.
The Samoans
called the white missionaries the 'papalagi' (translated, heavenly agents). With white
skin color and a heavenly kingdom message, the Samoans actually considered the
white missionaries as the herald of the heavenly kingdom for the Malietoa.
Intriguing
observation ...
Nothing from history suggests that Nafanua
ever left Samoa. Her body may have died and turned into ashes, but her
spirit is still with her beloved people today. Think about her
unchallenged control over the four Paramount families and the royal crowns. Consider
her historic influence over the belief system, the mindset, the culture, the
traditions, the practices, and the history of Samoa. I have reason to
believe that she's a Strongman guarding her castle at all cost. She was
more than just a prophetess making prophecies.
As a spirit, she knew exactly what was
going to happen. That the London Missionaries Society would get to Samoa with
the Gospel of hope no matter what. That God's rule, his Kingdom, would be
extended to the hearts of the Samoan people. That Samoa would hear about
Jesus. Those people would call on the name of Jesus and be saved. That
there would be Christian churches in every village of Samoa. That the Samoans
would become the missionaries to other Pacific island people and beyond.
As a strongman of her own castle, how could she maintain control against
an invading power far superior to hers?
Like the
notorious Ancient Serpent responsible for the destruction of the human race in
the Garden of Eden and all the fallen angelic spirits, Nafanua was remarkably
cunning. She had years of experience to hone her skills. She
adopted a devious scheme that would allow the Samoans the liberty to pursue God
with passion without suspicion on who's really in control.
What's my purpose?
I don't think we ever had time to
thoroughly examine our Faasamoa Attitude towards God and everything else
bearing his mark in light of His Word, as written in the Christian Holy Bible.
(Faasamoa means, Samoan way of life). I don't see why we should not do it
now. Socrates, a widely respected wise man of Greece, once lamented that
"an unexamined life is not a life worth living". Who is really
in control of our Samoan churches, God or something else? Let's examine the
evidence. How significant is this work to you? You will be the
judge of that. As your servant in Christ, however, I hope to prayerfully help
those who have felt the inner nagging of the Holy Spirit to revolutionize the
way they think about God, His Word, His Church, and a Christlike way of living.
"Many are called but only a few are
chosen" (Matthew 22:14- KJV).
"Do you not know that in a race all
the runners run, but only one gets the prize?
Run in such a way as to get the
prize" (1 Corinthians 9:24 - NIV).
Next, our discussion will begin in light of Acts 16:16-18
Comment
In Jesus Name. Amen and Amen. Its our Double Blessing, Yay, Thank you, Father. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteEseta, that's deep ...:) Blessings!
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ReplyDeleteThank you Pastor for your informative blog. Like you, I too had proud moments of our Christian heritage forecasted by Nafanua. From what I have learned in college (Chanel College) Samoan history by Petelo Suluape, contrary to the article indicated, Nafanua’s prediction was a reactive response to her moment of humiliation. On her way to approach the tafa’ifa council regarding her district victory, she tripped over by a tree trunk cut low and busted her “kipuka” (chief traditional wear) which exposes her female privates that resulted in her historical shame that named a field in Faleula to this very day (malae o le ma). Correspondingly, my recollection of Nafanua was not to elevate her seer distinctive instinct, but her flaws that made way for the gospel to inhabit Samoa peacefully. However, the elevation of Nafanua as a conjoint effort to resurrect the Samoan cultural superiority over Christianity is another example of the growing relativistic/secular trend that slowly infiltrate the church today. You mentioned the growing intention to compare John the Baptist to Nafanua in light of their function, calls into consideration the contextual significance of the parallelism. This makes the parallelism unparalleled. As you indicated John the Baptist was rejected, but Nafanua was hailed for her desperate wild guess, John the Baptist was human and Nafanua was something else, John the Baptist’s appointment had ancient prophetic indications (Isaiah 40:3) but Nafanua had nothing, or perhaps reactive coverup for her vulnerabilities? To elevate Nafanua for her forecast ability to usher in Christianity may place her in superior to the Christian faith. This is a slippery slope advocated by relativism to cunningly deceive the church claiming shared authority with biblical Scripture. The same as the present effort to resurrect Tagaloa as the God to the Samoan people demanding to change Ieova in the Bible to Tagaloa. Perhaps, we must test the idea through contextual parallelism to find credible consistency and substance. To compare the Samoan culture to Biblical authority we must also consider the sheer context of both scenarios. My response in my Facebook account; “What about the Christology supra-culture? The culture of the Christian faith which is Christocentric in nature, that accentuates the superiority of Christ as the only advocate capable of restoring human fallen-ness, by immersing Himself as Christ of culture, Christ above culture, Christ against culture (sin), Christ and culture paradox, and Christ that transforms culture (Richard Niebuhr). Jesus the incarnated God (Jehovah) proved God's existence in human flesh. In contrast to the human Samoan god Tagaloa, Jesus had a virgin birth (supernatural), died and rose from the dead (supernatural), and ascended into heaven seated on the right side of the Father (supernatural). God's supernatural display through the incarnated Jesus Christ proved that He is from everlasting to everlasting (verifies the Genesis account). Tagaloa is not! Tagaloa died and was forgotten until now”. You are right Pastor, it’s everyone’s choice. Thank you for your thought provoking post. Blessings.
ReplyDeleteThank you pastor. I never heard of Suluape's version before. Interesting recollection. Now we have two 'malae o le ma' - Suluape at Faleula, the other one at Falelima, where Nafanua's milamila (kipuka) fell off while pursuing the losing war party of men. According to the Falelima version, it was the men that were humiliated not Nafanua. They were ashamed of being destroyed by a woman. Mind you, the orators are still referring to the same battle as the origin of the traditional sayings such as, 'a sopoia le Pa o Pualaga' 'sua le tuli aua le alii o aiga', etc. All of those point to the same place in Savaii. But then, as the saying goes, "e logo eseese" (recollections don't agree).
DeleteAnyways, focusing on what matters, I like and appreciate what you said. It serves to inform our discussion from a different angle. Now that you already covered that side, I don't have to worry about addressing it. In my first post, I was being sarcastic. You probably saw that in the opening poem. In my second, I tried to be fair in case someone accuses me of overlooking the addressed possibility. I may have one more area to cover before I can begin to talk about Acts 16:16-18 which will reveal the true message of the blog. Having said that, I'm looking forward to reading your comments. I believe we're just scratching the surface of something that may begin a reformation of our Samoan church mindset. Be Blessed!
"To elevate Nafanua for her forecast ability to usher in Christianity may place her in superior to the Christian faith. This is a slippery slope advocated by relativism to cunningly deceive the church claiming shared authority with biblical Scripture. The same as the present effort to resurrect Tagaloa as the God to the Samoan people ... "
DeleteMy discussion of Acts 16:16-18 will show that Tagaloa is a decoy. You're right about the relativistic worldview that's beginning to have a significant impact on the thought process of the Samoans. Thanks to the effort of the liberal side of the scholarly pursuit. I, on the other hand, am approaching it from the spiritual side, where Nafanua, for reason to be discussed in my next post, has been in control of our Samoan church mindset all along. It's going to be an interesting journey. I have to tell you, Nafanua, not her college educated relativistic Samoans, is smart. She's been lurking behind scene.
Stand corrected. Thank you Pastor, it is Falelima not Faleula.
DeleteWonderful discussion.
Very interesting thought Pastor. I wonder if it's just Nafanua's spirit lurking behind the scenes, or the developed/cultivated wickedness within human heart that uses any excuse he/she finds to place the blame. With all the riots going on here in the States, and the global Muslim movement that demands Allah's sovereignty, I wonder if we are giving the spirits (spiritual realm) more credit than they deserve. I'm interested in your next post. Blessings!
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