“Guns, Germs, & Steel” starts with a New Guinean named Yali asking why Europeans have so much more 'cargo' than New Guineans. Yali comes across as a curious local. But he was actually a fascinating, historical figure who struggled with this question for decades. [thread]

Born in ~1912 in northeast New Guinea, Yali was the son of a respected Ngaing ritual & war leader (the picture shows a Ngaing ritual). But Yali never fully trained in traditional activities. Instead, as a teenager he became an indentured laborer for White Europeans/Australians.

Yali developed alliances with Whites & worked for the Colonial Administration (Papua NG was controlled by Australia until 1975). Starting in 1937, he was a police officer, which allowed him to travel to Australian cities like Brisbane & see the stark differences with New Guinea.

In 1945, still allied with Australian administrators, Yali started giving speeches along New Guinea's northeast coast. He described his impressions of Australia & explained promises of colonial authorities to provide housing, electricity, goods, etc., should people cooperate.

At the same time, he became a messiah. Beliefs (which he did not deny) spread that he had been killed by the Japanese, gone up to heaven, & met a deity who promised him all sorts of cargo (metal, tanks, food, roads). He became known as ‘The Black King’.

By 1948, Yali merged his messianic status with his administrative position. He instituted social reforms aimed at development, hygiene, & fertility, & created an administrative hierarchy with his own lieutenants and police force to enforce his laws. He even began levying taxes.

Colonial authorities found Yali’s movement, as well as his promotion of cargo cult beliefs, threatening and destabilizing. In 1950, he was arrested and found guilty of unjustly depriving people of liberty and inciting rape. He was imprisoned for 5 years.

By the time he was released, Yali’s movement died down. He assumed a magical persona and ran twice for New Guinean House of Assembly but lost.

In 1972, 3 years before he died & after 40+ years of thinking about cargo, Yali met Jared Diamond and asked his famous question.

Yali's story, along with many of these images, can be found in Peter Lawrence's 1964 book Road Belong Cargo, which also shows how many New Guineans—not just this charismatic, worldly politician—struggled to understand why Europeans had so much cargo and New Guineans did not.