"Forget who we are and let the people free"

Abstract

In September 2009, the south coast of Samoa was hit by a tsunami causing severe material damage and 143 casualties. Based on empirical data from two tsunami affected villages, this thesis explores how members of the affected communities made sense of the tsunami and engaged in post disaster processes of social change. As will be illustrated, religious interpretations of the tsunami were articulated and emphasised by the affected population and the disaster incorporated into existing categories and Christian cosmologies of divine agency, the Second Coming of Christ, morality and tradition.

Making sense of novel events from already existing categories and cosmologies did not, however, result in reproduction and continuity. Rather, the tsunami seemed to have brought about significant religious change in the villages with new churches establishing and individuals and families changing affiliation from mainline to new churches. I will analyse how local actors make sense of the tsunami according to their religious affiliations and make use of these interpretations in bringing about or opposing religious change in the disaster aftermath. Understanding local interpretations is thus of vital importance in understanding post disaster response and behaviour.

Exploring the implications of religious change on social, economic and traditional life of the population in the two tsunami affected villages, this thesis will be illustrate how processes of religious change is by no means limited to clearly defined "religious spheres". Members of new churches were explicitly critical of practices and values considered key and defining elements of culture, tradition and social organisation, and I will argue that changing religious affiliation functioned as a language for expressing dissatisfactions and facilitating change with biblical interpretations and pastoral authority as legitimising foundation.

The overall approach of this thesis is to analyse not only what a disaster do to people, but also what people do with disasters in a processual and creative perspective. As will be argued, post disaster response and social change should be analysed in relation to ongoing processes of change, conditions and priorities on the local, national and global level, thus analysing disaster in the context of everyday life.