A tribe in the remote island nation of Vanuatu believe Prince Philip is not a man but a god.
Estimated to be 700 people, a tribe in the village of Yaohnanen living in a tropical forest on the island of Tanna ascribe to a cult, the so-called Prince Philip Movement.
The villagers believed the Duke of Edinburgh who died on Friday to be a reincarnation of an ancient warrior who left the archipelago to fight a war. The believers make a fair fraction of the island’s total population of 29,000.
Prince Philip, husband to the Queen of England, became linked to the legend in the 1960s when Vanuatu was an Anglo-French colony known as the New Hebrides. The village has limited communications with the outside world but because of their idolization of the prince, the locals have frequently featured in media reports.
The villagers’ special interest in Philip manifested itself in daily prayers for his blessing of their banana and yam crops. He also featured in photos at villagers’ homes – including one of the duke in a suit in 1980, holding a club made and sent to London by the islanders.
Kirk Huffman, a Sydney-based anthropologist who spent 18 years in Vanuatu, and an authority on the Prince Philip Movement says the villagers believe Philip is not English but from their island.
Former Buckingham Palace spokesman Dickie Arbiter says the duke came to be worshiped during a visit to Vanuatu with his wife Queen Elizabeth II in 1974. One of the oarsmen taking them ashore thought Philip was a warrior from a long time ago who had come down from the mountains and gone off to England in search of a bride.
According to him, the bride was Queen Elizabeth and so Philip is the god. Villagers believe the royal to have descended from their spirit ancestors and possess framed photos of Philip and praying to him to one day “return to heal the land”. They were hoping he would return with a rich, white wife.
“He is a god, not a man,” the village chief Jack Naiva told the Christian Science Monitor during an interview in 2017. “Sometimes we hear his voice, but we can’t see him.”
Philip had also maintained a respectful 50-year relationship with the tribe before his death on Friday.
In April 2018, Prince Charles, Philip’s son visited Vanuatu where a member of the religion, Jimmy Joseph, presented him with a carved wooden stick intended for his father.
This community is however expected to be deeply affected by the Duke of Edinburgh’s passing. Huffman, said he believes the tribe will mark his death with ritual wailing and ceremonial dancing.
Experts say the veneration of Prince Philip by the tribe was one of the more curious aspects of his life. Now that Philip is dead, it is highly anticipated the villagers will worship Prince Charles -the 72-year-old prince of Wales and heir to the British throne.
Mr Huffman said the islanders’ honour of Philip is unlikely to cease following his death, although it may change form. However, he added it is too early to know what the group will make of his death since there is limited access to electricity and mobile phones.
He added that the tribe’s belief system is not tied to the monarchy and so it is unclear if they will now venerate Prince Charles in the same way.
The Prince Philip Movement is often compared to the “cargo cults” that arose on certain Pacific islands during World War II where natives came to believe that performing rituals would lead to good deliveries from more technologically advanced societies.
In 2018, the village of Yaohnanen reportedly celebrated the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with dancing and by eating “many, many pigs.”