When heard from afar, the voices of the group revealed origins from Hela, Galkope, Central, Erave and Enga.

But most of the boys had local names which made it easy to identify where they were from.

Then one day some disciples of Kenneth Copeland, David Oyedepo and Benny Hinn announced they had founded a branch of the Pentecostal sect in Port Moresby, naming it the Redeemed Heritage Church.

The Pentecostals swiftly erected a shed not far from our house and invited people to join them. The Matiabe family joined and the news spread that Howa and Tagali were to be baptised and given new names, ‘Christian names’ - Peter Steven and James Steven.

The boys’ parents, both unemployed, were told to accept the scourge on earth, to keep ploughing through life and maintain a vigil for the time they would be showered with riches in heaven.

Upon hearing this offer, the parents decided to donate their only pig to the Redeemed Heritage Church. It would be the highlight of the baptismal feast.

If sold on the open market, this pig would fetch up to K3,500 for the Matiabe family. It was the family’s most valuable asset and, had they sold it to meet their own needs, the money would certainly have eased their poverty and cushioned their plight in the settlement.

My argument here is that Christianity is destroying age-old cultures at an alarming rate throughout the world. And so far this dismantling of culture has not slowed down.

Papua New Guinea is a relatively small country with a population guessed at 10 or 11 million (the last census was held many years ago).

It has about 850 tribes, often rounded out as a thousand tribes, and it has a totem and often more than one dialect for disparate clans.

And I believe that it is right to say God created them.

People all over the world are salivating to come to PNG and see for themselves the flora, fauna and the superb islands, atolls and mountains lorded over by these thousand tribes.

Unfortunately, the people already here for perhaps 40,000 hears have been unwitting victims of the European culture of Christianity which has pretty much destroyed our own large, often complex and richly diverse cultural heritages.

People now run around with dirty faces, faded shorts and torn shirts in Moresby’s scorching sun or the Highlands’ drenching rain swinging machetes in a pathetic attempt to emulate Europeans.

It seems that the splendour and beauty promised by the Tourism Promotion Authority on its website and Air Niugini in its flight magazines have been photo-shopped in real life.

Yes, the reality on the ground is of improvised communities overwhelmed by socio-economic ills.

There are too many signs and symptoms of a sick society to ignore.  See PNG and you are witnessing cultures swinging unsteadily on the cliff-edge of life.

The few tourists who wander around listen as our male and female natives proudly introduce themselves as Judas, Steven, Teresa or Margaret. And the tourists are puzzled when the natives do not look like their names.

Mostly their appearance and their biblical names do not synchronize. But the tourists do not come to see an emulation of Western society. They seek exposure to the heart and soul of Melanesian culture.

Eventually the tourists will see natives adorned in traditional regalia and hear them sing traditional melodies supported by bamboo flute and garamut (log drum). That’s if our people arrive on time for the photographs.

I also imagine that most tourists want to see our people with welcoming smiles and friendly gestures that reflect the peace and harmony invoked by the name ‘Pacific’.

Christianity has destroyed much than it has made good through its indiscriminate disapproval of our indigenous cultural institutions that taught ethics, morality and an industrious way of life.

There was no moral or religious vacuum before the European Christians arrived.  The Melanesian people were neither an empty vessel nor the Devil’s playground.

We too had our God.

People should realise that a superior being, called God by Europeans, is an artist who drew the world’s diverse cultures, which are all beautiful and should all be kept.

God would not approve the dominance of Christianity over other cultures and religions.

Besides, culture, if kept alive and taught to younger generations, will be a diamond mine after all the natural resources have been ripped out and are pushed to depletion.

All that said, cultural diversity is the testament of God’s supremacy. Let them be.

The baptism and renaming of Howa and Tagali to Peter and James is cosmetic. It will not change their present status nor their future prospects.