Kesoko

Kesoko is the dreaded sea-spirit of the New Georgia Group, held to lurk in the passages and open water of the Roviana and Marovo lagoons. Fishermen and the crews of raiding canoes feared that it would rise beneath a hull, capsize the vessel and drown those aboard, or spoil a catch and ruin a voyage. Kesoko belongs to the malevolent, non-ancestral order of spirits rather than to the venerated tomate of the dead, and sources describe it as broadly marine and impersonal, without fixed genealogy or shrine. Its danger shaped the carving of the nguzunguzu figurehead lashed at the waterline of the tomoko war-canoe, set to bar the spirit from crossing the bow.

Domains

• sea
• drowning and shipwreck

Powers

• rises beneath vessels to capsize and drown crews
• spoils and jinxes a voyage if it crosses the bow

Relations

• enemy: NguzunguzuWarded against by the tomoko prow-guardian, which is placed to keep Kesoko from crossing the bow.Waite, D. (1990). 'Mon Canoes of the Western Solomon Islands,' in Art and Identity in Oceania, Crawford House. (secondary)

Sources

• Kesoko is a malevolent sea-spirit of the New Georgia Group believed to endanger canoe voyages, fishing, and headhunting expeditions.: Hviding, E. (1996). Guardians of Marovo Lagoon: Practice, Place, and Politics in Maritime Melanesia. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. (secondary)
• The nguzunguzu prow figurehead of the tomoko was carved to prevent the Kesoko spirit from traversing the bow and wrecking an expedition.: Waite, D. (1990). 'Mon Canoes of the Western Solomon Islands,' in A. & L. Hanson (eds.), Art and Identity in Oceania. Bathurst: Crawford House. (secondary)