ABSTRACT
For Kwara’ae this was a spiritual as well as a political struggle and as the establishment lost its influence people began to lose faith in their ghosts and seek new sources of spiritual power. By 1920 those who upheld the social order of the ghosts were themselves on the defensive against a new order supported by the power of God and government. Christian prospects only began to improve after the government started taking effective measures to bring Malaita under administrative control. A government station was established on Malaita itself in 1909, but it was several years before the permanent government presence had much effect in Kwai. The man who brought Kwara’ae and most of Malaita under government control was William Bell, who was appointed District Officer in 1915. The logic of Kwara’ae theology is indeed that Christianity should discourage killing, for Christian neglect of tabu and sacrifice undermined the power of the ghosts to enforce their authority in this way.
