Whispers and Vanities in Samoan Indigenous Religious Culture

decision. In my moe manatunatu 39 I debated the pros and cons. By not offering a
translation was I not guilty of succumbing to the culture of taumusumusu? However,
if I were to offer a translation would it undermine my efforts to bring out what is best
of our indigenous culture? In the final analysis there was really only one decision to
make. To be able to scrutinise what is best, we must have access to what it is. To be
able to move beyond whispering in fear or with guilt we must be bold enough to say
what it is. This to me is what it is:
Starling, starling we pine for the nimbleness of your leg
You can tell a horny woman.
The way she shakes her right leg
Thrash her under her crevice
It is red like a lobster
Woman, woman, do your thing.
Without the aide of more information on the context for this kava song, it is arrogance
to presume that it is crude and obscene and therefore not worth keeping. This song
can well be part of the celebrations of faafeagaiga o aualuma ma aumaga, and if so it
deserves to be told with the playfulness, pride, verve and mischievousness of the
occasion.
For as Albert Wendt pointed out, these chants might not be the pornography that the
European bourgeois puritan morality had us believe in for far too long. It is, at least
in its original Samoan form and context, an honest human celebration of what makes
us human. In deciding on what is religious, we could learn from the Dalai Lama who
says: “We have enough religions, enough religious, but not enough human beings.
Don’t let us talk too much of religion. Let us talk of what is human”. 40 For me this
means that sometimes in our talk of what is good and true of our religious beliefs and
practices, we forget what makes us human; we forget that all that is human is vanity.
Conclusion: The dilemmas and vanities of our culture of whispers – moving
beyond?
Tala tuumumusu and tala taumusumusu exist as part of the vanities of being human.
In order to survive in the world we develop an instinct for self-protection (the object
of tala tuumumusu) that can easily turn into self-indulgence and self-absorption
(qualities of tala taumusumusu). In the Biblical text of Ecclesiastes there is a concept
“the vanity of vanities” that is described by ‘The Preacher’ 41 as anything that man
seeks in place of God. 42 In chapters 11 and 12 the Preacher pleads with us to release
ourselves of the excesses of our vanities or from the blinds that prevent us from
acknowledging them. In some ways this supports the monk ideal where profound
insight and humility is considered best achieved through a stripping away of the
excesses of life and a focus and refocus through meditation on the wonder and justice
39
Moe manatunatu refers to having a dream dialogue with ancestors and family gods. See Tui
Atua (2009b, p.112).
40
See Picot, I. (2008, p.89).
41
The Preacher here is believed to be Solomon. He is also believed to be the author of
Ecclesiastes. See Nicol, F.D. (circa 1976, p. 1057)
42
Ibid (p.1062).
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