South Pacific tribe that worshipped Prince Philip as living god prepares to hold day of mourning

The island tribe in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu that has for decades worshiped the Duke of Edinburgh as a deity will hold a day of mourning and feasting on Monday.

Hundreds of people are expected to converge on the rainforest village of Yaohnanen on the island of Tanna to pay their respects to Prince Philip after he died on Friday at the age of 99.

The village is the focus of a visionary movement in which Philip is viewed as a god, a pale-skinned mountain spirit who left Tanna decades ago to seek a rich and powerful woman to marry.

The belief was reinforced during the colonial era when islanders saw the respect that was accorded to Prince Philip, whose portrait hung in government offices and who visited what was then an Anglo-French colony, the New Hebrides, in 1974.

The prince was supposed to have returned to the island bringing wealth and wisdom but those hopes, which persisted for decades, have now been dashed.

Islanders, who live in thatched huts and hunt wild pigs and flying foxes in the forest, have been left grief-stricken by the death of the prince, said Jean-Pascal Wahé of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, a national museum of anthropology.

“They knew that Prince Philip was ill and that he was in hospital. But they were still very upset and emotional when they heard the news of his death. It was a shock for them,” he told The Telegraph from a village on the coast of Tanna.

“Tomorrow will be a great day of mourning. We are making the arrangements. People will come from all the surrounding villages. There will be feasting, people will come together, they will share their emotion and exchange tok tok,” he said.

“Tok tok” means to speak or discuss in Bislama, the pidgin English spoken in Vanuatu – the term comes from a 19th century corruption of the word beche-de-mer or sea cucumber, which were traded as a commodity and brought together European colonialists and South Seas islanders.

Villagers will discuss the death of the prince over cups of kava, a narcotic drink that is made from the crushed roots of a pepper plant and helps them commune with their ancestral spirits.

Holding a traditional wooden club and with a string of cowrie shells around his neck, one of the chiefs on the island paid tribute to Prince Philip in a video message recorded by Mr Wahé.

“We on Tanna believe in Philip and we have big regret that we lost him,” Chief Willie Lop said on Sunday.

“We believe he was originally from Tanna. We are very sorry for his death,” said the chief, who was flanked by three other chiefs.

In a nearby village, Ikuanala, another tribal elder paid tribute to the Duke.

"The connection between the people on the island of Tanna and the English people is very strong," said Chief Yapa Nekiwris. "We are sending condolence messages to the royal family and the people of England."

He was one of four men from Tanna who travelled to Britain in 2007 to participate in a three-part documentary called "Meet the Natives" - the "natives" being the British. The men visited Windsor Castle and met Prince Philip.

When The Telegraph visited the village of Yaohnanen in 2007, there was no doubt of the high regard in which the prince was held.

“He’s a god, not a man,” said Chief Jack Naiva. "Sometimes we hear his voice. You must tell King Philip that I'm getting old and I want him to come and visit me before I die," said the white-haired chief, who sadly died in 2009. "If he can't come, perhaps he could send us something to help us: a Land Rover, bags of rice or a little money."

While it is tempting to see the reverence for the Queen’s consort as South Seas eccentricity, anthropologists say it is in fact a deeply complex and highly nuanced response by islanders to the arrival on their shores of colonialism and Christianity.

By melding their ancient beliefs with new influences introduced by the outside world, they were successful in resisting the influence of missionaries and preserving their “kastom” – the pidgin word for custom and culture.

Prince Philip was not the only far away outsider who was worshipped by South Pacific communities trying to make sense of the immense changes that they underwent in the wake of colonisation and proselytization.

The people of New Hanover, an island in what is now Papua New Guinea, launched a campaign in the 1960s, prior to independence, for US President Lyndon Johnson to represent them.

The “Johnson Cult”, as it became known, arose in 1964 at a time when Papua – a formerly British and Australian administered territory – was joining with the former German colony of New Guinea to form Papua New Guinea.

The focus on LBJ was seen as a protest by islanders against colonial rule in the years leading up to independence in 1975.

It also reflected admiration for the United States after islanders worked as labourers for the American military during the Pacific campaign in the Second World War.