Why did they apoligise

[akka]

Why did the inhabitants of a Fijian village make a formal apology in October 2003 to the family of Rev Thomas Baker, who died in 1867, and what was interesting about the boots they returned.

[shaneystar2]

The Rev Thomas Baker, of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, was killed in the remote mountain community of Navatusila in 1867, possibly after he took a comb out of a chief's hair.

Touching the head of a chief was taboo in Fiji, once known as the Cannibal Isles.

Mr Baker, from Playden, East Sussex, is the only European to have been cooked and eaten in Fiji.

His death helped to foster an image of missionaries as blundering proselytisers who inevitably ended up in a simmering pot surrounded by dancing natives.

A contemporary account of the 35-year-old churchman's grisly death quoted villagers as saying: "We ate everything but his boots." One of those boots is on display in the national museum in the capital, Suva.

The people of Navatusila want to atone for the sins of their ancestors because they believe they have been cursed by Mr Baker's death, with their village suffering a string of misfortunes.

[auntiebertie]

a qick google on '1867 rev thomas baker' shows "While visiting the mountain village of Navatusila in Fiji in 1867, the Rev. Thomas Baker, of the London Missionary Society, removed a comb from a chief's hair. Baker, previously unaware that touching the head of a chief was strictly forbidden, was promptly butchered. In 2003, the villagers, supposedly cursed since Baker's death, offered a traditional apology to his descendents"