New Caledonia

Dewe Gorodey

As for the missionaries, none of them could possibly conceive of the fact that Jesus Christ could be coloured and a woman, as our Maori sister Ti Harawira of New Zealand said. They are pleased to present us with a pure, white and civilised god. Just before 1853, it was an archbishop called Douarre who intervened with Napolean III to have the French government take possession of New Caledonia, for above all, it must not be left to the English and to their pastors of the Mission Society of London. After that, these missionaries dare come to us insinuating that it is a sin to get involved in politics, that to demand one's land is to cry vengeance, hate and violence, that one must love one's enemy as oneself. I answer them that from the moment they do not take issue with the colonial system, they justify it. And to justify a governmental system is to get involved in politics.

Violence! As it is, they who did not hesitate to massacre the Kanaks with guns in order to implant their christianity in my country, while he of whom they claim to speak, Christ, let-himself-be crucified-peacefully, it is they, along with the administrators, the military and the settlers, who have imposed violence on my people, stealing their land and annihilating their culture.