a cura di uqbal

il 17 novembre scorso, un giovane missionario è stato ucciso dalla tribù che vive sull’isola di North Sentinel, parte dell’arcipelago delle Andamane, nell’Oceano Indiano.

Un articolo del NYT spiega chi era John Chau e racconta nel dettaglio i suoi ultimi giorni.

In the past few decades, mission work has soared. The number of American Christian missionaries going overseas has increased to around 130,000 today, from 57,000 in 1970, said Gina A. Zurlo, associate director at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

The reasons, scholars say, are the rise of evangelicalism; an increase in the number of independent churches organizing their own missions; and the ease of travel.

After college, Mr. Chau hit the road. He took temporary jobs — soccer coach, wilderness guide, AmeriCorps — so he could hike, mountain climb, kayak and scuba dive, blogging all the way.

Un articolo di Forbes racconta della tribù che dopo aver ripetutamente intimato a Chau di andarsene lo ha ucciso a colpi di freccia.

The Sentinelese weave mesh baskets, and they use wooden adzes tipped with iron. Salvage crews anchored near the island in the mid-1990s described bonfires on the beach at night and the sounds of people singing. But so far, none of the Sentinelese language is known to outsiders; anthropologists usually make a point to refer to people by the name they use for themselves, but no one outside North Sentinel Island actually knows what the Sentinelese call themselves, let alone how to greet them or ask what their view of the world and their role in it really looks like.

What we know for sure is that they don’t care much for company, and they’ve expressed that clearly even without a common language.

IFLS invece riporta l’opinione di alcuni esperti sul perché questo tentativo di contatto era una pessima idea fin dall’inizio.

The lesson, it seems, is quite clear: unless actively welcomed, leave remote tribal groups alone, for your benefit and, perhaps most importantly, theirs.

Immagine: Rita Kulshrestha