Basiana

Basiana was a ramo, a warrior and bounty-killer, of the Gounaile area of the Kwaio highlands who on 4 October 1927 led the killing of the British District Officer William R. Bell, his cadet, and their tax-collecting party at Sinalagu harbour, an act provoked by the imposition of the colonial head tax and the confiscation of guns. He was taken in the punitive expedition that followed and executed. In Kwaio understanding the dead become adalo, and Basiana became a feared and powerful ancestral spirit invoked in sacrifice by his descendants. The desecration of Kwaio shrines during the government reprisals made his memory a touchstone of the later Kwaio struggle for religious and cultural autonomy.

Children

• Aruna'eramo

Domains

• warfare and vengeance
• ancestral power

Powers

• avenge killings and injuries
• receive sacrifice as an ancestral spirit

Relations

• parent: Aruna'eramoBasiana's line is remembered in Kwaio accounts of the 1927 uprising; published detail on individual descendants is limited.Keesing, Roger M. and Peter Corris. 1980. Lightning Meets the West Wind. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. (primary)

Sources

• Basiana, a ramo of the Gounaile area of the Kwaio highlands, led the killing of District Officer William R. Bell, his cadet and their party at Sinalagu on 4 October 1927, and was captured and executed in the ensuing punitive expedition.: Keesing, Roger M. and Peter Corris. 1980. Lightning Meets the West Wind: The Malaita Massacre. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. (primary)
• The dead become adalo in Kwaio belief, and Basiana became a feared and powerful ancestral spirit invoked by his descendants; the desecration of Kwaio shrines in the reprisals became central to the later struggle for cultural autonomy.: Keesing, Roger M. 1992. Custom and Confrontation: The Kwaio Struggle for Cultural Autonomy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (primary)