- Food scientists in the Fiji Islands say
they have discovered a recipe for a vegetable dish used to accompany human
bodies during cannibal feasts.
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- The scientists plan to market jars of
cannibal chutney as a novelty gift, and argue that Fiji's flagging economy
will have to rely on unique products such as this in the future.
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- Cannibalism was widely practised in Fiji
until about a hundred years ago. But some Fijians are not happy about raking
up their unsavoury past.
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- Recipe withheld
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- The co-inventor of Cannibal Chutney (CC),
food scientist Richard Beyer, has concluded that Fiji is soon going to
have to look beyond its traditional crops such as sugarcane.
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- "Our strategy is to single out products
which are specific to the region and trade in those," Mr Beyer says.
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- Mr Beyer and an Australian colleague
say they have discovered a recipe for a vegetable relish which used to
accompany human meat.
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- He will not reveal the ingredients, but
believes Cannibal Chutney, or products like it, are going to make the Fiji
Islands rich.
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- "It is what we believe is a traditional
recipe and when you think about it, it really doesn't matter what's in
it. It is one of those little novelty products that you see round the world,"
Mr Beyer says.
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- "It's one of those things you buy
as a novelty gift as you're leaving Fiji. It's like visitors to Fiji can
go and buy a little fork which was originally designed to get the little
bits of brain out of the skull," he says.
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- Chutney could harm tourism
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- But not everyone agrees with Richard
Beyer's economic analysis. Trade journalist Daniel Singh thinks Fiji has
plenty of resources to replace sugar, such as the hardwoods in its forests,
before it has to resort to gimmicks.
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- "The idea of CC will not go down
well because people are trying to forget the past... Tourism is an important
industry here and if you associate cannibalism with that, it might affect
tourism badly," Mr Singh says.
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- On the streets of the capital, Suva,
the idea of Cannibal Chutney provoke mixed feelings among indigenous Fijians.
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- "Maybe the tourists would be interested
to see that that was a part of Fiji's history, they might want to eat it
to see what it's like, maybe it would draw them to Fiji," some said,
but others were more critical.
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- "If I heard of cannibal chutney
I wouldn't wanna eat it. We don't like the idea of Cannibal Chutney of
naming our chutney that way. It spoils the Fijian race," people said.
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- "I think it's not really a good
idea. We're almost in the year 2000 now and to talk about the past, we
should forget about it. I think it is very insulting."
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- Missionary who became a meal
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- Contrary to popular myth, only one white
missionary, the Reverend Thomas Baker, was ever eaten on Fiji. His shoes
are in the Fiji museum.
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- "He was foolhardy, he was murdered
and parts of his body eaten," says historical expert Paul Geraghty.
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- "The distribution of cuts would
be similar to pork," he says.
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- "Cannibalism seems to have been
prevalent in the earliest times. In the earliest records there are bones
which appear to have been butchered which indicates it's quite old,"
Mr Geraghty says.
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- "But in every case it was a product
of war. And when war ceased in the mid-19th century, then cannibalism ceased
when people accepted Christianity."
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- Cannibal insults remain
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- The only trace of cannibalism today is
in the language. For example, Fijians still use the common insult "bokola"
which means "body for eating". Otherwise, it is never talked
about.
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- But written records by early explorers
remain, describing how the chiefs made the procedure as gruesome as possible
to terrify their enemies.
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- "In times of bitter warfare, lower
people might get little offcuts - hands and feet to chew on, but it was
really the prerogative of the chiefs," Mr Geraghty says.
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- "They'd bring somebody back alive,
if it was an opposing chief and there are accounts of items being removed
from their person , like tongues, and being eaten while they watch."
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