From stranger to nation’s father

The National Letters

ONE early morning in 1965 in Aitape, West Sepik, my mum woke up to find a stranger sitting in her canoe gazing into the waters.
She walked over to him and politely said: “Good morning brother”.
He calmly responded: “Good morning sister”.
“Are you looking for someone? “mum asked.
“I’ve come from Wewak to witness and report on a school opening at Yakamul,” he responded.
Mum excitedly said: “My husband is also invited. Why don’t you come have a cup of coffee in the meantime and later you and my husband can go together to the school?”
He agreed.
After coffee, the stranger left with my father and others for the school.
After the opening of the school, a friend of dad took a photo of the group, with the stranger carrying a bunch of bananas in the middle of the group.
Mum never saw the stranger again except for the one photo dad had taken, which the family had kept all these years.
Little did mum and dad know, that the stranger she had invited, whom dad had taken a photo with, would one day become the first prime minister of Papua New Guinea and father of a nation of a thousand tribes.
The family shares this story and the photograph as a small contribution to the larger narrative on the formative years of this great icon, beacon and legend.
Be kind and do not neglect strangers.
You do not know what they will become some day in the future.
I will treasure the original photograph which I have for the rest of my life.
Rest in peace Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare.

Paul Harry

One thought on “From stranger to nation’s father”

  • My grandmother (NOW DECEASED) would ask my Father and his siblings, “IS SOMARE THAT BABY WE USED TO FEED HIM RIPE BANANA’S AT BITAPABEKE?” According to her, his parents took him and ran away from the war to a village in Kokopo called Bitapabeke where the villagers assisted them to take shelter. Amazing how every place has a piece of memory of his life. Later that baby grew into a MAN and then my people formed the MATAUNGAN MOVEMENT and PNG formally gained independence with the leadership of this wonderful MAN.

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