Introduction

I knew in 1986, when I won a job as a tour guide into Papua New Guinea (PNG), it would hold fears. The entire place doesn’t have a lily-white reputation, now, does it? For me – at 22 – it was a dream. I was to go as a tour guide for a reputable firm. It would be my first time back since I graduated from High School there, in 1983. I was most thrilled. It was even better when I got my brief. I was given a trip trekking across the legendary Kokoda Track plus a visit to the remote Trobriands, known for centuries for their promiscuous culture (even after Christians eviscerated it). Yes, indeed, the, “Islands of Love,” called.

Love Me Tender, Love Me Sweet

Image via Wikipedia

The Trobriand Islands are located to Papua New Guinea’s North-East. They lie in the Milne Bay Province and are part of the Kula trading ring. Seafarers landed in this remote and beautiful chain of island many years before the mainland was explored. All accounts tell of a culture of sweet coffee-colour maidens and a highly sexually-based one at that, won the Trobriands the moniker of the, “Islands of Love.” This meant it was “sex-on-tap,” for any fortunate sailor who landed there.

Each year, the Chieftains, build glorious yam huts. These elaborately-carved, square, two-meter tall, thatched roofed huts’ sole purpose is to contain the yam harvest. The yam provides the islander’s their staple carbohydrate. The venerated vegetable is important as the coral soils are poor. Each Chieftain measures every yam religiously placing them one atop another inside the enclosed yam hut. Each man fills his tall yam house with bounty. The man with the biggest, plumpest yam is crowned King.

To the islanders the yam isn’t just something you get from Woolworths and cook in a sweet potato pie. Nay, the yam symbolises fertility and represents the phallus. The big yam equals a big and virile homme. And so it is, yam huts bulging, the village descends into a carnal escapade with the King choosing several winsome maids for coupling into the early hours under flickering bonfires.