Party: Kakamora

Details

The Solomon Islands have many intriguing stories. There are some who believe that giants still live in huge caverns under the islands and that kakamora continue to roam deep in the bush. Kakamora are the legendry midget humans of Makira, Guadalcanal and Malaita, said to be about one-half to one metre in height with long black hair and long fingernails. They are called mumu in southern Malaita, dodore in northern Malaita, kalibohibohi on Guadalcanal, and tutulangi in other places (and nopitu in the Banks Islands in northern Vanuatu). They are believed to hide in the mountains, living in caves and eating wild bush foods, and never using fire. Kakamora have a mischievous reputation and are said to become aggressive when cornered. Rev. Charles Fox (q.v.) seemed to believe they existed when he wrote about them in his book The Threshold of the Pacific (1924), and he used the name as the title for his autobiography. Fox said that they 'build no houses, have no tools, make no fires, but they are strong and live in holes or caves'. They are something like fairies and goblins in European mythology. However, there are also very short people in the Solomons such as those seen by District Officer Dick Horton (q.v.) in the 1930s at Veramakuru village on Guadalcanal. An archaeological discovery in the 2000s, that a pre-modern human-related race once lived on Flores Island in Indonesia has restored some plausibility to the kakamora myth. (NS Feb. 1962; PIM Feb. 1950, Mar. 1950; Horton 1965, 25, 122-134; Fox 1962, 22-23; Montford 1994, 37)

Published resources

Books

  • Fox, Charles E., Kakamora, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1962. Details
  • Horton, Dick C., The Happy Isles: A Diary of the Solomons, Originally published: 1965, Heinemann, London, 1965. Details
  • Montford, C.L., The Long Dark Island, The Desk Top Press, Wellington, 1994. Details

Journals

  • Pacific Islands Monthly. Details
  • British Solomon Islands Protectorate (ed.), British Solomon Islands Protectorate News Sheet (NS), 1955-1975. Details