The Story of Alfred Amasia: Whose History and Whose Epistemology?

Abstract

The history of a man from Malaita in Solomon Islands, who was kidnapped for the labour trade in 1871 and returned home after about 30 years as a Christian evangelist, is recalled in oral history a century later. It was also documented by colonial sources of the time, and the contradictions between local and foreign versions of the history contribute some epistemological questions to the current debate on the dehegemonisation of Pacific Islands scholarship. It is suggested that Islanders have more to gain by reconciling local and colonial histories and epistemologies than by pursuing the distinction between 'insiders' and 'outsiders'.