by Damien Arabagali
The Huli believed in the end of the world. This teaching was contained in their prophecies. It was certain knowledge. There has to be a prophet to make prophecies. The prophets in the Bible were those specially called by God to speak in His name. Those prophets had one thing in common: a burning desire to bring all to faithfulness to their covenant with Yahweh. Among the Huli there were some prophets and therefore there were prophecies in the Huli land. They were similar in some ways to those of the Israelites. Datagaliwabe was speaking through them. The rays of the light of God are seen in these prophecies. The old men I got the information from forbade me to tell outsiders, especially Europeans, some of the prophecies because they would die if I did. The prophecies came from their ancestors.
The following people gave me the following predictions they had heard: Albert Aralu of the Mapuli tribe of Koroba, Allan Ango of the Perapuli tribe, Mogobe Yabago, a practitioner of non-Christian religion of the Kokoma clan, Tai and Gale of the Takapua clan, all from the Koroba District, Henry Hepe from Kupari and Hiliwa Parakua from the Kikita tribe of Tari. I was told that now the Huli could count their generations to the fourteenth. The old men said at the twelve generation, the tawa (wild nut trees at Papiale and Olenefugwa) will disappear. At Hongopandu the hongo (giant wild corn plants) will disappear. The swamps of Haiyafugwa, Talifugwa, Kererefugwa and Mogrofugwa will disappear and kunai grass will grow there (kunai grass does not grow on swamps). People will make gardens where the hewe trees grow. No one ever made gardens where the hewe (hardwood) trees grew.
In the thirteenth generation, people will become deaf. They will be greedy. They will try to grab what they can. No one will listen to anyone. People will talk at the same time and no one will be there to listen. People will be very busy doing their own thing. They will not help anyone. They will be busy mudslinging, hitting each other with what they can grab. The hale naholane (“cannot hear” or cannot listen”) generation has already started.
After that, in the fourteenth generation, everything forbidden will take place in public. This generation is called teme hendene bule bira (“eye will see”) because you will be able to see it with your own eyes.
The Huli think that this is the fourteenth generation and that human life began fourteen generations ago.
Sons will have sexual intercourse with their mothers. The women will say, “I am your mother:, but the sons will not give any thought to it. Men will have sexual intercourse with their sisters, even though the women tell them that they are their sisters. Men will kill their brothers, even when the person calls out that he is their brother. Men will kill their fathers, even when the person pleads that he is their father.
When you call your mother “my mother”, she will say, “Get lost. I am not your mother”. When you call your father “my father”, he will say, Get lost. I am not your father”. When you call your sister”, she will say, “Get lost”. When you call your brother “my brother”, he will say, “Get lost, I am not your brother”. There will be total breakdown of family groups. This is already happening.
At the gebe anda (place of worship) of Kelote, Gubu, Anda, Hipirinanda, Pepenete and Deperinite, the evil spirits of Hela Duna, Duguba and Obene will come in and take over. Augustine Agilo, an ex-gebe ali (or ex-priest) of the Daperinite gebe anda told me with a sad face the gebe anda worship was something very good. It was done in honour of Datagaliwabe. Now, the great evil spirit, who is full of lies and tricks, has infiltrated the worship and made it confusing. The prophecy of the great evil spirits of other areas coming into the areas where Datagaliwabe is worshipped has happened already. It was prophesied that ambo and kaloma trees will grow in the nogo uli (“pig cooking pit”) place of worship of Datagaliwabe. Evil will come. Trees have now grown where the holes were for cooking pig meat offered to Datagaliwabe.
There will come a time when young people will get married at an early age. The children they carry around will look as if they belong to someone else, and they were baby sitters. The people will become very soft and become very small. This is happening now. There will come a time when people will cut pig meat in the size of their fingertips. This is happening now. Go to the markets today and see for yourselves.
During the fifteenth generation people will never smile. People will pull their noses gui higi pule bira (“nose will get pulled up”). You will only see sad, dark faces. This will be the time of total selfishness. I am telling you to wait and see – the end will come. The prophecies about the end of the world were also among the beliefs that were believed to have come true. They knew it would happen. These predictions are the same all over Huli. The prophecies speak of a breakdown of law and order. There will not be any respect for elders. There will be a breakdown of the extended family system. The prophecies are being fulfilled now. The old men are sure that life is going to end. They told me that the big men, women, children, pigs and gardens have disappeared. What we live with now are just the shadows of the past. We should all be going to church, they said.
Conclusion
I see that there is a connection with Datagaliwabe and the prophecies. Datagaliwabe was going to come and renew the earth. He will take a male and a female of each kind into heaven. The prophecies seem to anticipate this event – an event that the Huli could not have any control over.
I think that one of the reasons why the Huli came in great numbers to be baptized was because the missionaries message of the coming of the end of the world was in line with their teachings. The earth could not be their permanent home, because the good things and the good times were disappearing. It emphasizes that in some ways this was part of God’s light at work among the people, to prepare them for the coming of the full light, Jesus Christ.