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9780786712564

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

by
  • ISBN13:

    9780786712564

  • ISBN10:

    0786712562

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 2003-08-06
  • Publisher: Perseus Books Group
  • Purchase Benefits
List Price: $25.00

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

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