The White Headhunter: The Story of a 19th-century Sailor Who Survived a South Seas Heart of Darkness

by Randell, Nigel

• ISBN13: 9780786712564
• ISBN10: 0786712562
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-08-06
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

In 1876, sailor Jack Renton was rescued from the Pacific island home of the headhunting Malaitans, after spending eight years in their captivity. His best-selling memoir of how he went from the slave of their chief, Kabou, to his most trusted warrior and adviser remains the only authenticated account of a Westerner's "heart of darkness" journey. But his sensational story turns out to have glossed over the key events of his transformation. Renton's story began with being shanghaied in San Francisco, escaping from the ship in an open whaleboat, and drifting for two thousand miles across the Pacific before washing up on Malaita. Through subsequent generations, the Malaitans' oral history has passed down detailed stories presenting a different version. Documentary filmmaker Nigel Randell spent seven years talking to the Malaitans to piece together this different account. The White Headhunter tells the story of a man who not only adopted their customs but did his best to prepare a people he had grown to love for the onslaught of Western civilization. He lives on in the Malaitans' memory, his hut and weapons preserved as a shrine still visited by the islanders today.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
List of Illustrations	ix
Maps	xi
Introduction	xv
1 The Island	1	(10)
2 Escape from the Reynard	11	(18)
3 Landfall	29	(26)
4 Savage Civilization	55	(20)
5 Headhunting	75	(20)
6 'Grief, Terror and Rage'	95	(20)
7 The Arms Race	115	(30)
8 Between Two Worlds	145	(26)
9 'The Benighted People'	171	(26)
10 Sex and Death	197	(18)
11 Beachcombers and Castaways	215	(22)
12 Kwaisulia of Ada Gege	237	(16)
13 The Last Resort	253	(28)
Endnotes	281	(14)
Bibliography	295	(12)
Selected Sources	307	(10)
Appendix: Oral history from the island of Pentecost	317	(4)
Index	321