A 'Nation of Villages' and a Village 'Nation State': The Arapesh Model for Bernard Narokobi's Melanesian Way.

Published writings by the Papua New Guinean politician and intellectual Bernard Narokobi present modern Papua New Guinea as a projection of village-based social relations; as he writes in Foundations for Nationhood, 'We are a nation of villages'. This article explores Narokobi's idea of Papua New Guinea as a village writ large, showing how this conceptualization drew upon his experience of a particular historical and cultural place, the Arapesh village of Wautogik in the mountains of East Sepik Province, where he spent his childhood and returned regularly throughout his life, and which he described as a nation unto itself in an unpublished manuscript that he composed in his later years. Beyond finding reflection in his writings, which often build upon Arapesh concepts and motifs, Narokobi's valorization of Wautogik as a worthy model led him to reciprocally invest, in a deeply principled way, in the village's continued vitality and integrity as a social entity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]