The Death of John Allen Chau

Overview

The Death of John Allen Chau refers to the killing of 26-year-old American missionary John Allen Chau by the Sentinelese, also known as the Sentineli and the North Sentinel Islanders, an indigenous people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal in India.^[3][4]

Background

On November 15th, 2018, Chau illegally visited to North Sentinel Island in order to make contact with the Sentinelese people to convert them to Christianity. After being ferried offshore by local fisherman, Chau proceeded alone in a canoe where he was attacked by natives armed with bows. In his journal, Chau claims he continued to visit the islanders, who sometimes acted with hostility. Later

Developments

Online Reaction

On November 22nd, 2018, Redditor daves_not__here submitted a GIF from the 1995 comedy film Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls titled "U.S. missionary killed by isolated tribe (2018)" to /r/fakehistoryporn (shown below).

On November 23rd, Redditor DivingEagles submitted a screenshot of a priest encountering a tribe in the 1997 real-time strategy game Age of Empires titled "American missionary attempts to convert isolated Indian tribe (2018 colourised)" to /r/fakehistoryporn.^[1] The following day, the image was reposted to /r/gaming^[2] with the title "Rare pic of american missionary preaching Christianity to last known tribe." Within four days, the post gained over 9,600 points (93% upvoted) and 530 comments.

Pauline Hanson Statements

On November 27th, Australian politician Pauline Hanson put forth a motion for the Australian Senate to formally "support the desire of the Sentinelese people to protect their culture and way of life." In her support of the motion, Hanson declared "I for one will not be condemning the Sentinelese as racist for keeping their borders closed, nor will I condemn them for their lack of diversity."^[3] That day, an article about the statements reached the front page of /r/NotTheOnion.^[3]

Search Interest

External References