Every February a cult gathers at the base of an active volcano in the South Pacific in a religious tribute to a dead American soldier.
The elders wear American military uniforms jangling with medals, the rest paint ‘USA’ in red paint on their bare chests.
They march around a rickety pole in military formation before raising the American flag.
They are the followers of John Frum and on February 15 every year they pay homage in this way to a divine spirit ‘more powerful than Jesus’.
To them John Frum is a god-like spirit most commonly depicted as an American soldier from the World War II.
The cult believes the almighty John Frum will one day return to Tanna bringing wealth, good luck and gifts from America.
The sleepy island heaved with some 300,000 American servicemen preparing for the brewing Pacific conflict with Japan.
New airstrips and hospitals were built and the islanders prospered from the flood of food and supplies.
The name ‘John Frum’, or ‘John From’, comes from the way the soldiers would introduce themselves: ‘Hi, I’m John from New York’ or, ‘Nice to meet you, I’m John from Miami’.
When the war ended and these John Frums left Vanuatu, the bounty of food and cargo dried up.
Recognising that the soldiers were responsible for the island’s brief wealth, a large portion of the islanders took to worship in the hope they would return.
They ploughed imitation runaways and built ramshackle observation towers to try and coax back their departed luck.
Soon they were also donning discarded military uniforms and raising the American flag in increasingly elaborate rituals.
Since its beginnings in the 1940s the John Frum ‘cargo cult’ has swollen to number as many as 6,000 believers, according to the BBC.
In 2006 a reporter from Smithsonian Magazine travelled to Vanuatua to speak to the cult and stay in their village.
John Frum’s then leader, a man known as Chief Isaac, explained that the cult was both a spiritual and cultural movement.
He said: ‘If we keep praying to John, he’ll come back with plenty of cargo.
‘John Frum came to help us get back our traditional customs, our kava drinking, our dancing, because the missionaries and colonial government were destroying our culture.
‘John is a spirit. He knows everything. He’s even more powerful than Jesus.’
Another village elder told the Smithsonian that John Frum would one day return to the island bringing ‘wonderful’ things from America.
He said: ‘John promised he’ll bring planeloads and shiploads of cargo to us from America if we pray to him.
‘Radios, TVs, trucks, boats, watches, iceboxes, medicine, Coca-Cola and many other wonderful things.’
