seemed to be a new sense of urgency and the people of the Pacific took their first true leap forward into the modern era.
Having employed a lot of islanders in our war-surplus scrap reclamation, we were well accepted by the locals. We were also on good terms with the colonial administration and the churches, for similar reasons. Different churches predominated in different areas – Catholic, Anglican and Seventh Day Adventists, known commonly as the SDAs, who ran the best schools. The Mormons, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, arrived on the scene a little later.
From the beginning Joe, who came from Chicago via Alabama and had been brought up in the Southern Baptist tradition, seemed to know exactly how to handle the various denominations promulgating their particular version of Christianity to the local people.
‘Brother Nick, it the same God, only He got Himself a house a different style in many neighbourhoods. They all want souls; they in the soul-countin’ busi-ness. So what we gotta do is bring dem souls, man!’ He’d clap his hands and laugh, ‘Then they gonna cooperate big time!’
It was clear to us that for the indigenous population of any island there were two main European authorities as well as the underlying tribal system, the most powerful of all: one was the colonial administration and the other was whichever church controlled the area where we worked . It became my job to deal with the various arms of the colonial administrations and Joe’s to deal with the churches. Both were important, but the denominations competing for souls were often more important to our daily operations than the sporadic visits of a district officer attempting to supervise the remote jungle areas where some of the largest dumps were located. Our profit margins depended on working salvage sites seven days a week and this brought us up against the Catholics, Methodists and Anglicans on Sunday and the Seventh Day Adventists (or SDAs) on Saturday.
Joe used the church or mission as a labour-recruiting centre, and a condition of employment was that the labourer’s children, should he have any, must attend the mission school. Joe would then reward every child with an Uncle Joe Scholarship. This involved the recipient being supplied with slate and stylus, textbooks, writing paper and pens, and if a school uniform of sorts was required, that too.
Joe explained. ‘The church dey know der neighbourhood and dey do the recruitin’. Naturally dey in the soul-countin’ business.’ He spread his arms. ‘But, hey, it don’t cost nuttin’ but peanuts to send dem village kids to mission school. An’ every worker don’t have fifteen children, so who’s countin’, man? The mission dey gonna see-lect only the best workers, ’cos dey don’t want their soul count to go tumblin’ down. If the worker he screw up on the job, then his kids don’t have no Uncle Joe Scholarship no more and the numbers drop at the school. Ever-one o’ dem young souls saved for Jesus gonna stay forever wid dem. So, you see ever-body they gonna win! The souls dey gonna be counted. The kids dey gonna get some itty bitty schoolin.’ And the workers dey gonna bust their sweet ass for yours truly or the Lord Jesus he gonna want to know why dey screw up.’ He’d laugh and show his large palms. ‘The ree-sult, we ain’t got no recruitment problems. We can work on Saturday and Sunday ’cos we got special dispensation. We ain’t got no bad labour relations. The Church, dey gonna take good care of us ’cos we labouring in da jungle for Jesus.’
As the sweetener for the SDAs, Joe Popkin would pay our workers a fixed daily rate then add a tenth as a tithe to the local mission. Joe got me to organise black school caps for the kids – boys and girls alike – with a white cross on the front. ‘Ever-body countin’ souls dey got the same cross for Jesus.’ On every island and every mission station Uncle Joe Scholarship kids could be
Having employed a lot of islanders in our war-surplus scrap reclamation, we were well accepted by the locals. We were also on good terms with the colonial administration and the churches, for similar reasons. Different churches predominated in different areas – Catholic, Anglican and Seventh Day Adventists, known commonly as the SDAs, who ran the best schools. The Mormons, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, arrived on the scene a little later.
From the beginning Joe, who came from Chicago via Alabama and had been brought up in the Southern Baptist tradition, seemed to know exactly how to handle the various denominations promulgating their particular version of Christianity to the local people.
‘Brother Nick, it the same God, only He got Himself a house a different style in many neighbourhoods. They all want souls; they in the soul-countin’ busi-ness. So what we gotta do is bring dem souls, man!’ He’d clap his hands and laugh, ‘Then they gonna cooperate big time!’
It was clear to us that for the indigenous population of any island there were two main European authorities as well as the underlying tribal system, the most powerful of all: one was the colonial administration and the other was whichever church controlled the area where we worked . It became my job to deal with the various arms of the colonial administrations and Joe’s to deal with the churches. Both were important, but the denominations competing for souls were often more important to our daily operations than the sporadic visits of a district officer attempting to supervise the remote jungle areas where some of the largest dumps were located. Our profit margins depended on working salvage sites seven days a week and this brought us up against the Catholics, Methodists and Anglicans on Sunday and the Seventh Day Adventists (or SDAs) on Saturday.
Joe used the church or mission as a labour-recruiting centre, and a condition of employment was that the labourer’s children, should he have any, must attend the mission school. Joe would then reward every child with an Uncle Joe Scholarship. This involved the recipient being supplied with slate and stylus, textbooks, writing paper and pens, and if a school uniform of sorts was required, that too.
Joe explained. ‘The church dey know der neighbourhood and dey do the recruitin’. Naturally dey in the soul-countin’ business.’ He spread his arms. ‘But, hey, it don’t cost nuttin’ but peanuts to send dem village kids to mission school. An’ every worker don’t have fifteen children, so who’s countin’, man? The mission dey gonna see-lect only the best workers, ’cos dey don’t want their soul count to go tumblin’ down. If the worker he screw up on the job, then his kids don’t have no Uncle Joe Scholarship no more and the numbers drop at the school. Ever-one o’ dem young souls saved for Jesus gonna stay forever wid dem. So, you see ever-body they gonna win! The souls dey gonna be counted. The kids dey gonna get some itty bitty schoolin.’ And the workers dey gonna bust their sweet ass for yours truly or the Lord Jesus he gonna want to know why dey screw up.’ He’d laugh and show his large palms. ‘The ree-sult, we ain’t got no recruitment problems. We can work on Saturday and Sunday ’cos we got special dispensation. We ain’t got no bad labour relations. The Church, dey gonna take good care of us ’cos we labouring in da jungle for Jesus.’
As the sweetener for the SDAs, Joe Popkin would pay our workers a fixed daily rate then add a tenth as a tithe to the local mission. Joe got me to organise black school caps for the kids – boys and girls alike – with a white cross on the front. ‘Ever-body countin’ souls dey got the same cross for Jesus.’ On every island and every mission station Uncle Joe Scholarship kids could be
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