Protestantism and indigenous mobilisation: The Moravian Church among the Miskitu Indians of Nicaragua

Journal of Latin American Studies

Volumn 29, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 111-129

  Hawley, Susan ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CHURCH ROLE; ETHNICITY; MISKITU PEOPLE; POLITICAL MOBILISATION; RELIGION;

NICARAGUA;

EID: 0030702093     PISSN: 0022216X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022216X96004658     Document Type: Article

References (106)

1. J. Burdick, Looking for God in Brazul: the Progressive Catholic Church in Urban Brazil's Religious Arena (Berkeley, 1992); M. J. Higgins, 'Martyrs and Virgins: Popular religion in Mexico and Nicaragua', in L. Stephen and J. Dow (eds.), Class Politics and Popular Religion in Mexico and Central America (Washington, 1990); R. Lancaster, Thanks to God and the Revolution: Popular Religion and Class Consciousness in the Near Nicaragua (New York, 1988); J. Nash, 'Cultural Resistance and Class Consciousness in Bolivian Tin-Mining Communities', in S. Eckstein (ed.), Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social Movements (Berkeley, 1989).
2. J. Burdick, Looking for God in Brazul: the Progressive Catholic Church in Urban Brazil's Religious Arena (Berkeley, 1992); M. J. Higgins, 'Martyrs and Virgins: Popular religion in Mexico and Nicaragua', in L. Stephen and J. Dow (eds.), Class Politics and Popular Religion in Mexico and Central America (Washington, 1990); R. Lancaster, Thanks to God and the Revolution: Popular Religion and Class Consciousness in the Near Nicaragua (New York, 1988); J. Nash, 'Cultural Resistance and Class Consciousness in Bolivian Tin-Mining Communities', in S. Eckstein (ed.), Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social Movements (Berkeley, 1989).
3. J. Burdick, Looking for God in Brazul: the Progressive Catholic Church in Urban Brazil's Religious Arena (Berkeley, 1992); M. J. Higgins, 'Martyrs and Virgins: Popular religion in Mexico and Nicaragua', in L. Stephen and J. Dow (eds.), Class Politics and Popular Religion in Mexico and Central America (Washington, 1990); R. Lancaster, Thanks to God and the Revolution: Popular Religion and Class Consciousness in the Near Nicaragua (New York, 1988); J. Nash, 'Cultural Resistance and Class Consciousness in Bolivian Tin-Mining Communities', in S. Eckstein (ed.), Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social Movements (Berkeley, 1989).
4. J. Burdick, Looking for God in Brazul: the Progressive Catholic Church in Urban Brazil's Religious Arena (Berkeley, 1992); M. J. Higgins, 'Martyrs and Virgins: Popular religion in Mexico and Nicaragua', in L. Stephen and J. Dow (eds.), Class Politics and Popular Religion in Mexico and Central America (Washington, 1990); R. Lancaster, Thanks to God and the Revolution: Popular Religion and Class Consciousness in the Near Nicaragua (New York, 1988); J. Nash, 'Cultural Resistance and Class Consciousness in Bolivian Tin-Mining Communities', in S. Eckstein (ed.), Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social Movements (Berkeley, 1989).
5. Nash, 'Cultural Resistance and Class Consciousness', p. 196.
6. Burdick, Looking for God, p. 224.
7. See D. F. Eickelman, 'Changing Interpretations of Islamic Movements', in W. R. Roff (ed.), Islam and the Political Economy of Meaning: Comparative Studies of Muslim Discourse (London & Sydney, 1989), p. 25 and D. H. Levine and S. Mainwaring, 'Religion and Popular Protest in Latin America: Contrasting Experiences', in Eckstein, Power and Popular Protest, p. 205.
8. See D. F. Eickelman, 'Changing Interpretations of Islamic Movements', in W. R. Roff (ed.), Islam and the Political Economy of Meaning: Comparative Studies of Muslim Discourse (London & Sydney, 1989), p. 25 and D. H. Levine and S. Mainwaring, 'Religion and Popular Protest in Latin America: Contrasting Experiences', in Eckstein, Power and Popular Protest, p. 205.
9. See M. W. Foley, 'Organising, Ideology and Moral Suasion: Political Discourse and Action in a Mexican Town', Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 32 (1990); Levine and Mainwaring, 'Religion and Popular Protest', p. 212; and Richard Wilson, 'Machine Guns and Mountain Spirits: the cultural effects ot state repression among the Q'eqchi' of Guatemala', Critique of Anthropology, vol. 11, no. 1 (1991).
10. See M. W. Foley, 'Organising, Ideology and Moral Suasion: Political Discourse and Action in a Mexican Town', Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 32 (1990); Levine and Mainwaring, 'Religion and Popular Protest', p. 212; and Richard Wilson, 'Machine Guns and Mountain Spirits: the cultural effects ot state repression among the Q'eqchi' of Guatemala', Critique of Anthropology, vol. 11, no. 1 (1991).
11. See M. W. Foley, 'Organising, Ideology and Moral Suasion: Political Discourse and Action in a Mexican Town', Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 32 (1990); Levine and Mainwaring, 'Religion and Popular Protest', p. 212; and Richard Wilson, 'Machine Guns and Mountain Spirits: the cultural effects ot state repression among the Q'eqchi' of Guatemala', Critique of Anthropology, vol. 11, no. 1 (1991).
12. See Stephen and J. Dow, Class, Politics, and Popular Religion in Mexico and Central America and C. van der Burg and P. van der Veer, 'Pandits, Power and Profit: religious organisation and the construction of identity among Surinamese Hindus', Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 9, no. 4 (1986).
13. See Stephen and J. Dow, Class, Politics, and Popular Religion in Mexico and Central America and C. van der Burg and P. van der Veer, 'Pandits, Power and Profit: religious organisation and the construction of identity among Surinamese Hindus', Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 9, no. 4 (1986).
14. See T. A. Diakon, 'Peasants, Prophets and the Power of a Millenarian Vision in Twentieth-Century Brazil', Comparative Study of Society and History, vol. 32 (1990); D. Earle, 'Authority, Social Conflict and the Rise of Protestantism: Religious Conversion in a Mayan Village', Social Compass, vol. 39, no. 3 (1992); and S. J. Stern, 'The Struggle for Solidarity: Class, Culture and Community in Highland Indian America', Radical History Review, no. 27 (1983).
15. See T. A. Diakon, 'Peasants, Prophets and the Power of a Millenarian Vision in Twentieth-Century Brazil', Comparative Study of Society and History, vol. 32 (1990); D. Earle, 'Authority, Social Conflict and the Rise of Protestantism: Religious Conversion in a Mayan Village', Social Compass, vol. 39, no. 3 (1992); and S. J. Stern, 'The Struggle for Solidarity: Class, Culture and Community in Highland Indian America', Radical History Review, no. 27 (1983).
16. See T. A. Diakon, 'Peasants, Prophets and the Power of a Millenarian Vision in Twentieth-Century Brazil', Comparative Study of Society and History, vol. 32 (1990); D. Earle, 'Authority, Social Conflict and the Rise of Protestantism: Religious Conversion in a Mayan Village', Social Compass, vol. 39, no. 3 (1992); and S. J. Stern, 'The Struggle for Solidarity: Class, Culture and Community in Highland Indian America', Radical History Review, no. 27 (1983).
17. The Moravian Church arrived on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua at a time when the region was under a British Protectorate, but its missionaries were largely unsuccessful until the 1880s when the British had left, the Nicaraguan state was making strong claims to the region - leading to outright invasion in 1894 - and US companies started arriving in droves (see S. Hawley, 'Does God Speak Miskitu? The Bible and Ethnic Identity among the Miskitu Indians of Nicaragua', in M. Brett (ed.), Ethnicity and the Bible (Leiden, forthcoming)).
18. Viewpoint from Distant Lands, no. 178 (1970), p. 106. Viewpoint was the Moravian missionary journal, earlier known as the Periodical Accounts, which gave full information about each mission-field once a year, collated particularly for the consumption of the home congregations.
19. G. Smutko, Los Capuchinos entre los Miskitos, 1915-1995 (Cartago, 1995), p. 1; Bishop Schmidt, interview with author in Managua (1994).
20. M. Helms, Asang: Adaptations to Culture Contact in a Miskitu Community (Gainesville, 1971), pp. 206-9 and R. Reyes and J. Wilson (eds.), Rafaga: the life story of a Nicaraguan Miskito Commandante (Norman and London, 1992), pp. 20-21.
21. M. Helms, Asang: Adaptations to Culture Contact in a Miskitu Community (Gainesville, 1971), pp. 206-9 and R. Reyes and J. Wilson (eds.), Rafaga: the life story of a Nicaraguan Miskito Commandante (Norman and London, 1992), pp. 20-21.
22. Burdick, Looking for God, p. 226.
23. See for instance D. Haslam, Faith in Struggle: The Protestant Churches in Nicaragua and Their Response to the Revolution (Epworth, 1987), p. 25; and E. von Oertzen, 'Protestantism and Ethnic Identity', unpubl. manuscript, 1990, p. 1. In Reyes and Wilson, Rafaga, p. 19, Rafaga states categorically that 'all Miskitos are born into the Moravian faith'.
24. See for instance D. Haslam, Faith in Struggle: The Protestant Churches in Nicaragua and Their Response to the Revolution (Epworth, 1987), p. 25; and E. von Oertzen, 'Protestantism and Ethnic Identity', unpubl. manuscript, 1990, p. 1. In Reyes and Wilson, Rafaga, p. 19, Rafaga states categorically that 'all Miskitos are born into the Moravian faith'.
25. See for instance D. Haslam, Faith in Struggle: The Protestant Churches in Nicaragua and Their Response to the Revolution (Epworth, 1987), p. 25; and E. von Oertzen, 'Protestantism and Ethnic Identity', unpubl. manuscript, 1990, p. 1. In Reyes and Wilson, Rafaga, p. 19, Rafaga states categorically that 'all Miskitos are born into the Moravian faith'.
26. See J. H. Moore, 'The Miskitu National Question in Nicaragua: Background to a Misunderstanding', Science and Society, vol. L, no. 2 (1986), p. 139; L. Rossbach, 'El papel de la iglesia morava en los conflictos entre los indígenas Miskito y el gobierno sandinista en Nicaragua', in R. Rausch (ed.), Europe and the Crisis in Central America and the Caribbean: Proceedings of the ASERCCA Annual Conference (Marburg, 1987), p. 396; and C. Vilas, State, Class and Ethnicity in Nicaragua: Capitalist Modernisation and Revolutionary Change on the Atlantic Coast (Boulder, 1989), p. 53.
27. See J. H. Moore, 'The Miskitu National Question in Nicaragua: Background to a Misunderstanding', Science and Society, vol. L, no. 2 (1986), p. 139; L. Rossbach, 'El papel de la iglesia morava en los conflictos entre los indígenas Miskito y el gobierno sandinista en Nicaragua', in R. Rausch (ed.), Europe and the Crisis in Central America and the Caribbean: Proceedings of the ASERCCA Annual Conference (Marburg, 1987), p. 396; and C. Vilas, State, Class and Ethnicity in Nicaragua: Capitalist Modernisation and Revolutionary Change on the Atlantic Coast (Boulder, 1989), p. 53.
28. See J. H. Moore, 'The Miskitu National Question in Nicaragua: Background to a Misunderstanding', Science and Society, vol. L, no. 2 (1986), p. 139; L. Rossbach, 'El papel de la iglesia morava en los conflictos entre los indígenas Miskito y el gobierno sandinista en Nicaragua', in R. Rausch (ed.), Europe and the Crisis in Central America and the Caribbean: Proceedings of the ASERCCA Annual Conference (Marburg, 1987), p. 396; and C. Vilas, State, Class and Ethnicity in Nicaragua: Capitalist Modernisation and Revolutionary Change on the Atlantic Coast (Boulder, 1989), p. 53.
29. Although the majority of the Church's members are Miskitu, the majority of the 25,000 Creoles, 8,000 Sumu Indians and 800 Rama Indians in the region also belong to the Church.
30. North American Moravian (Dec. 1971).
31. Viewpoint, no. 178, (1970), p. 106.
32. Helms, Asang, p. 168.
33. Helms attributes the withdrawal of banana and lumber companies to over-exploitation and deforestation, leading to a decline in quality of products, as well as to the World Court decision to hand over pan of the northern Atlantic region to Honduras (see Helms, Asang, p. 114). The Nicaraguan Long Leaf Pine Co. (NIPCO), one of the last employers in the region, closed down in 1964.
34. Viewpoint, no. 168 (1960), p. 41.
35. Helms, Asang, p. 115; S. Howard, 'Ethnicity, Autonomy, Land and Development: the Miskitu of Nicaragua's Northern Atlantic Coast', unpubl. PhD diss., University of Oxford, 1993, p. 112; B. Nietschmann, Between Land and Water: the Subsistence Ecology of the Miskito Indians, Eastern Nicaragua (New York, 1973), p. 202; R. Dunbar Ortiz, Indians of the Americas: Human Rights and Self-determination (London, 1984), pp. 222-6.
36. Helms, Asang, p. 115; S. Howard, 'Ethnicity, Autonomy, Land and Development: the Miskitu of Nicaragua's Northern Atlantic Coast', unpubl. PhD diss., University of Oxford, 1993, p. 112; B. Nietschmann, Between Land and Water: the Subsistence Ecology of the Miskito Indians, Eastern Nicaragua (New York, 1973), p. 202; R. Dunbar Ortiz, Indians of the Americas: Human Rights and Self-determination (London, 1984), pp. 222-6.
37. Helms, Asang, p. 115; S. Howard, 'Ethnicity, Autonomy, Land and Development: the Miskitu of Nicaragua's Northern Atlantic Coast', unpubl. PhD diss., University of Oxford, 1993, p. 112; B. Nietschmann, Between Land and Water: the Subsistence Ecology of the Miskito Indians, Eastern Nicaragua (New York, 1973), p. 202; R. Dunbar Ortiz, Indians of the Americas: Human Rights and Self-determination (London, 1984), pp. 222-6.
38. Helms, Asang, p. 115; S. Howard, 'Ethnicity, Autonomy, Land and Development: the Miskitu of Nicaragua's Northern Atlantic Coast', unpubl. PhD diss., University of Oxford, 1993, p. 112; B. Nietschmann, Between Land and Water: the Subsistence Ecology of the Miskito Indians, Eastern Nicaragua (New York, 1973), p. 202; R. Dunbar Ortiz, Indians of the Americas: Human Rights and Self-determination (London, 1984), pp. 222-6.
39. Nietschmann, Between Land and Water, p. 202.
40. Helms, Asang, p. 123.
41. Ibid., p. 156.
42. Viewpoint, no. 172 (1964), p. 21.
43. Viewpoint, no. 69 (1961), p. 46.
44. P. Bourgois, 'The Problematic of Nicaragua's Indigenous Minorities', in Thomas Walker (ed.), Nicaragua in Revolution (New York, 1982), p. 314; Vilas, Class, State and Ethnicity, p. 85.
45. P. Bourgois, 'The Problematic of Nicaragua's Indigenous Minorities', in Thomas Walker (ed.), Nicaragua in Revolution (New York, 1982), p. 314; Vilas, Class, State and Ethnicity, p. 85.
46. Diakon, 'Peasants, Prophets and the Power of a Millenarian Vision', p. 508.
47. See P. Dennis, 'Costeños and the Revolution in Nicaragua', Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, vol. 23, no. 5 (1981), p. 278, and C. Hale, Resistance and Contradiction: Miskitu Indians and the Nicaraguan State, 1894-1987 (Stanford, 1994), P. 127.
48. See P. Dennis, 'Costeños and the Revolution in Nicaragua', Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, vol. 23, no. 5 (1981), p. 278, and C. Hale, Resistance and Contradiction: Miskitu Indians and the Nicaraguan State, 1894-1987 (Stanford, 1994), P. 127.
49. B. Muratorio, 'Protestantism and Capitalism Revisited, in the Rural Highlands of Ecuador', The Journal of Peasant Studies, vol. 8, no. 1 (Oct. 1980), p. 50.
50. Stern in 'The Struggle for Solidarity', p. 21, argues that the formation of 'closed corporate communities' among indigenous groups in Latin America was the result of the local class forces created by colonialism and the attempt to build 'solidarity and unity against the forces of fragmentation'.
51. Nationalisation had been the goal of the missionaries since the beginning of the twentieth century, but was more or less forced upon them in 1974 by the lack of missionaries ready to run the church, pressure from educated Creole pastors in Nicaragua, the general move among Protestant missions towards self-governance, and the financial instability in the region.
52. Helms, Asang, p. 158.
53. Ibid., p. 191.
54. That is to say that Moravian-ness rather than being any essential or permanent aspect of Miskitu identity, was a diverse and flexible symbol with distinct nuances at different periods within Miskitu history.
55. G. Smutko, 'El Apostolado con los Miskitos', unpubl. chapter of the history of the Capuchin Vicariate of Nicaragua, 1994, p. 13.
56. G. Smutko, Pastoral Indigenista (Bogotá, 1975), pp. 49-59.
57. Smutko 'El Apostolado', p. 12.
58. Smutko, Pastoral Indigenista, p. 59.
59. Smutko, 'El Apostolado', p. 13.
60. See the interview with Hamlyn in R. Ridenour, Yankee Sandinistas: interviews with north americans living and working in the new Nicaragua (Connecticut, 1986), p. 20.
61. Smutko, Los Capuchinos, p. 19.
62. J. Jackson, 'Being and Becoming an Indian in the Vaupés', in Urban and Sherzer, Nation-States and Indians; E. Burgos-Debray, I, Rigoberta Menchu: an Indian Woman in Guatemala (London, 1984), pp. 131-2; R. Pace, 'Social Conflict and Political Activism in the Brazilian Amazon: a case study of Gurupa', American Ethnologist, vol. 19, no. 4 (1992); D. K. Pollock, 'Conversion and "Community" in Amazonia', in R. Hefner, Conversion to Christianity: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation (Berkeley, 1993); J. Shapiro, 'From Tupã to the Land without Evil: the Christianisation of the Tupi-Guarani Cosmology', American Ethnologist, vol. 14, no. 1 (1987); and Wilson, 'Machine Guns and Mountain Spirits', p. 35.
63. J. Jackson, 'Being and Becoming an Indian in the Vaupés', in Urban and Sherzer, Nation-States and Indians; E. Burgos-Debray, I, Rigoberta Menchu: an Indian Woman in Guatemala (London, 1984), pp. 131-2; R. Pace, 'Social Conflict and Political Activism in the Brazilian Amazon: a case study of Gurupa', American Ethnologist, vol. 19, no. 4 (1992); D. K. Pollock, 'Conversion and "Community" in Amazonia', in R. Hefner, Conversion to Christianity: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation (Berkeley, 1993); J. Shapiro, 'From Tupã to the Land without Evil: the Christianisation of the Tupi-Guarani Cosmology', American Ethnologist, vol. 14, no. 1 (1987); and Wilson, 'Machine Guns and Mountain Spirits', p. 35.
64. J. Jackson, 'Being and Becoming an Indian in the Vaupés', in Urban and Sherzer, Nation-States and Indians; E. Burgos-Debray, I, Rigoberta Menchu: an Indian Woman in Guatemala (London, 1984), pp. 131-2; R. Pace, 'Social Conflict and Political Activism in the Brazilian Amazon: a case study of Gurupa', American Ethnologist, vol. 19, no. 4 (1992); D. K. Pollock, 'Conversion and "Community" in Amazonia', in R. Hefner, Conversion to Christianity: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation (Berkeley, 1993); J. Shapiro, 'From Tupã to the Land without Evil: the Christianisation of the Tupi-Guarani Cosmology', American Ethnologist, vol. 14, no. 1 (1987); and Wilson, 'Machine Guns and Mountain Spirits', p. 35.
65. J. Jackson, 'Being and Becoming an Indian in the Vaupés', in Urban and Sherzer, Nation-States and Indians; E. Burgos-Debray, I, Rigoberta Menchu: an Indian Woman in Guatemala (London, 1984), pp. 131-2; R. Pace, 'Social Conflict and Political Activism in the Brazilian Amazon: a case study of Gurupa', American Ethnologist, vol. 19, no. 4 (1992); D. K. Pollock, 'Conversion and "Community" in Amazonia', in R. Hefner, Conversion to Christianity: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation (Berkeley, 1993); J. Shapiro, 'From Tupã to the Land without Evil: the Christianisation of the Tupi-Guarani Cosmology', American Ethnologist, vol. 14, no. 1 (1987); and Wilson, 'Machine Guns and Mountain Spirits', p. 35.
66. J. Jackson, 'Being and Becoming an Indian in the Vaupés', in Urban and Sherzer, Nation-States and Indians; E. Burgos-Debray, I, Rigoberta Menchu: an Indian Woman in Guatemala (London, 1984), pp. 131-2; R. Pace, 'Social Conflict and Political Activism in the Brazilian Amazon: a case study of Gurupa', American Ethnologist, vol. 19, no. 4 (1992); D. K. Pollock, 'Conversion and "Community" in Amazonia', in R. Hefner, Conversion to Christianity: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation (Berkeley, 1993); J. Shapiro, 'From Tupã to the Land without Evil: the Christianisation of the Tupi-Guarani Cosmology', American Ethnologist, vol. 14, no. 1 (1987); and Wilson, 'Machine Guns and Mountain Spirits', p. 35.
67. J. Jackson, 'Being and Becoming an Indian in the Vaupés', in Urban and Sherzer, Nation-States and Indians; E. Burgos-Debray, I, Rigoberta Menchu: an Indian Woman in Guatemala (London, 1984), pp. 131-2; R. Pace, 'Social Conflict and Political Activism in the Brazilian Amazon: a case study of Gurupa', American Ethnologist, vol. 19, no. 4 (1992); D. K. Pollock, 'Conversion and "Community" in Amazonia', in R. Hefner, Conversion to Christianity: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation (Berkeley, 1993); J. Shapiro, 'From Tupã to the Land without Evil: the Christianisation of the Tupi-Guarani Cosmology', American Ethnologist, vol. 14, no. 1 (1987); and Wilson, 'Machine Guns and Mountain Spirits', p. 35.
68. Pollock, 'Conversion and "Community"', p. 182.
69. As Father Gregory noted himself at the time: 'the program of formation [of native evangelists] adopted by the Catholics was clearly influenced by the success of the Moravian Church in the formation of evangelists from the country' (Smutko, Pastoral Indigenista, p. 23).
70. Miskitu anger about their oppression was directed solely against the Spanish, thus leaving untouched and unanalysed one of the most fundamental relations of exploitation that affected the Miskitu: the transnational companies that had seriously depleted the resource base of the region, causing Miskitu impoverishment.
71. Helms noted in the 1960s that 'a few informants claimed that the king would some day be restored to his position and that the Miskito would again be an independent nation' (Helms, Asang, p. 83). Dennis, meanwhile, observed that during his fieldwork in the late 1970s, Old Testament passages about the Israelite kings were read avidly by the Miskitu (P. Dennis, 'Coronation on the Miskito Coast', The Geographical Magazine (July, 1982), p. 395). Whether this interest in the Miskitu king was as a result of the growing ethnic-nationalist movement, however, or represent a continuation of an older practice is unclear and perhaps unascertainable.
72. See J. Howe, 'The Effects of Writing on the Cuna Political System', in F. McGlynn and A. Tuden (eds.), Anthropological Approaches to Political Behaviour (Pittsburgh, 1991), p. 341; B. Muratorio, 'Protestantism, Ethnicity and Class in Chimborazo', in Norma Whitten (ed.), Cultural Transformations and Ethnicity in Modern Ecuador (Urbana, 1981, p. 528.
73. See J. Howe, 'The Effects of Writing on the Cuna Political System', in F. McGlynn and A. Tuden (eds.), Anthropological Approaches to Political Behaviour (Pittsburgh, 1991), p. 341; B. Muratorio, 'Protestantism, Ethnicity and Class in Chimborazo', in Norma Whitten (ed.), Cultural Transformations and Ethnicity in Modern Ecuador (Urbana, 1981, p. 528.
74. Bourgois, who conducted fieldwork in the region from 1979-80, noted that 'in the 1970s under Somoza there were repeated rumours that the Miskitu king had returned and was circulating throughout the lower Coco River preparing his people for secession'. P. Bourgois, 'Nicaragua's Ethnic Minorities in the Revolution', Monthly Review, vol. 36, no. 8 (Jan. 1985), p. 30.
75. Joaquin Swaso in an interview with the author, Waspam (1994). Swaso, now the local judge of Waspam on the Río Coco, was himself involved in the founding of ALPROMISU.
76. Interview with author, Puerto Cabezas (1994). Tilleth's monarchist message, and the theme of the return of the Miskitu king in general should not be seen as an atavistic nostalgia for past glories but rather as conjuring up a potent political symbol of Miskitu political autonomy protected by external forces.
77. Several people observed during the 1970s that ALPROMISU was a top-down organisation with little grass-roots participation. M. Ashby, 'The Mosquitia of Honduras', unpubl. fieldtrip report, CIIR, London, 1976, p. 34; Helms, in a letter to Richard Adams, quoted in Dunbar Ortiz, Indians of the Americas, p. 240.
78. Several people observed during the 1970s that ALPROMISU was a top-down organisation with little grass-roots participation. M. Ashby, 'The Mosquitia of Honduras', unpubl. fieldtrip report, CIIR, London, 1976, p. 34; Helms, in a letter to Richard Adams, quoted in Dunbar Ortiz, Indians of the Americas, p. 240.
79. North American Moravian (May, 1980), p. 26.
80. North American Moravian (May, 1981), p. 20.
81. D. Saunders, 'Mosquitia and Nicaragua: An Incomplete Revolution', in J. Brøsted et al., Native Power: the Quest for Autonomy and Nationhood of Indigenous Peoples (Oslo, 1985), p. 82.
82. Hale, Resistance and Contradiction, p. 126.
83. M. Diskin, 'Ethnic Discourse and the Challenge to Anthropology: the Nicaraguan Case', in G. Urban and J. Sherzer (eds.), Nation-States and Indians in Latin America (Austin, 1991), p. 169.
84. Ohland & Schneider, National Revolution and Indigenous Identity, p. 51, emphasis added.
85. K. Ohland & R. Schneider (eds.), National Revolution and Indigenous Identity: the Conflict between Sandinistas and Miskito Indians of Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast (Copenhagen, 1983), p. 52.
86. Interview with author, Managua (1994).
87. According to Myrna Cunningham in an interview with the author, Puerto Cabezas (1994), Hazel Lau later told her that they had taken this decision.
88. Interview with author, Managua (1994).
89. Reyes and Wilson, Rafaga, pp. 38-9.
90. Helms, Asang, p. 221. Helms notes that during the Vietnam war, the Miskitu on the Rio Coco looked out avidly for aeroplanes 'feeling that it was a mark of importance and recognition to have a war on the river, or in other words, if warfare were part of the modern world, the Miskito should be involved also'.
91. Interview with author, Puerto Cabezas (1994).
92. M. Douglas, Purity and Danger: an Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London, 1966).
93. The accusation of communism against the Sandinistas, many of whom were practising Catholics, was confirmed in the eyes of the Miskitu by the presence of Cuban teachers in the communities, and of convinced atheists on some of the international brigades sent to the Coast.
94. Foley, Organising and Ideology', p. 455.
95. Hale, Resistance and Contradiction, p. 97.
96. Fagoth, according to one source, took his girlfriend to the Sunday service and, in the middle of it, marched up the aisle with her and demanded that the Pastor marry them.
97. Interview with author, Waspam (1994).
98. Reyes and Wilson, Rafaga, p. 44.
99. Interview with author, Managua (1994).
100. M. Wilde, 'Faith and Endurance in Eastern Nicaragua', Christian Century (Nov. 1989), p. 974.
101. Interview with author, Waspam (1994).
102. D. Stoll, Is Latin American Turning Protestant? The Politics of Evangelical Growth (Berkeley, 1990), p. 256. Although most pastors stayed in Nicaragua, the majority were implacably opposed to the Sandinistas and tacitly sympathetic to Miskitu combatants. The hierarchy of the Moravian Church in Nicaragua publicly condemned the activities of the Contras, and the intervention of the USA, and acted as mediators with the government. However, they were rejected by much of the grassroots in the Moravian Church for doing so.
103. Interview with author, Rio Coco (1994).
104. Reyes & Wilson, Rafaga, p. 101. Presumably the Pastor was thinking of the 'Epistle of Paul' ....
105. Van der Berg and van der Veer, 'Pandits, power and profit', p. 521.
106. Interview with author, Puerto Cabezas (1994).