Tavua, the white cannibal

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This is the remarkable story of Rick Williamson’s relentless struggle to document primitive cannibalistic pygmies, hidden in the rugged interior of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu’s largest island. The pygmies and other clans sharing the same complex beliefs, have such an instinctive hatred of outsiders, he is the only man that has been able to record their fascinating culture. Rick endures an initiation rite and becomes an intimate part of a society practising cannibalism, human sacrifice, and other horrific and bizarre rituals. Ten years later, he becomes a spiritual paramount chief, and is gifted the essence of one of the world’s most primal religions. Deep in the jungle, where the supernatural and black magic define daily life, and adaptation and aggression are the keys to survival, in his search for unadulterated answers about the very crux of our existence, he undergoes a ritual that’s so brutal, most die during their first attempt, and to survive it twice, as he does, is a rarity.