Culture
There are approximately five languages, apart from the national language of Bislama, spoken over Shefa including the Ifira/Mele, South Efate, Nakanamanga of North Efate and outer Efate islands, Namakir of Tongoa and parts of Emae, and Emae language (a Polynesian outlier, in contrast to the other Melanesian languages). French and English are also spoken widely through the province.
Shefa Province is home to the Chief Roi Mata Domain located in Northwest Efate covering the area from Mangililui and Mangaas to Lelepa Island to Eretoka (Hat) Island. Chief Roi Mata Domain was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. It is the first such site to be inscribed in Vanuatu and is a popular attraction for tourists. The legend of Roi Mata speaks of a mighty Chief who brought peace to Efate and its surrounding islands after years of clan fighting and warfare. Jealous of his status, the Chief's brother shot him with a poison dart. Chief Roi Mata succumbed to the poison within Fels Cave on Lelepa island. He was then interred on Eretoka. Many still-living men and women were buried alongside him. This oral history was passed down over 400 years until a French archaeologist confirmed the tale by excavating the burial site and found some 40 skeletons adorned with jewellery denoting high rank.
There are no kastom villages left in Shefa Province, that is, with people walking around in grass skirts and blowing conch shells on a daily basis; however, many traditional cultural practises are still strong in Shefa. Despite the inward-bound Western influence, people predominantly consume traditional foods, such as coconuts, bananas, and island cabbage, rather than packaged foods.
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Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Culture is the suggestion, from certain best thoughts, that a man has a range of affinities through which he can modulate the violence of any master-tones that have a droning preponderance in his scale, and succor him against himself. Culture redresses this imbalance, puts him among equals and superiors, revives the delicious sense of sympathy, and warns him of the dangers of solitude and repulsion.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Any historian of the literature of the modern age will take virtually for granted the adversary intention, the actually subversive intention, that characterizes modern writing—he will perceive its clear purpose of detaching the reader from the habits of thought and feeling that the larger culture imposes, of giving him a ground and a vantage point from which to judge and condemn, and perhaps revise, the culture that produces him.”
—Lionel Trilling (1905–1975)
“The higher, the more exalted the society, the greater is its culture and refinement, and the less does gossip prevail. People in such circles find too much of interest in the world of art and literature and science to discuss, without gloating over the shortcomings of their neighbors.”
—Mrs. H. O. Ward (1824–1899)