Rot Bilong Mipela: the politics of logging in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea

-

Logging

Rot bilong mipela. “Our road” in Neomelanesian Pidgin, or Tok Pisin. When starting my fieldwork in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on the politics of logging, I was aware of the political significance of roads that connect places – another interesting theme – with each other. Having read accounts of the political aspects of roads both in PNG and elsewhere (see Fajans 1998, Ferguson 1996, West 2006), I was still surprised how central a question roads really were. On my way to my field site located in the Wide Bay area of the Pomio district on the east coast of New Britain island (see 8.1 Maps), I reached the end of the road in Kokopo, the provincial capital of East New Britain. The road network covers the capital area of Kokopo and Rabaul, but after that it just stops. A few branches reach out into the inland, but not very far. Turning away from the main road running through seemingly endless copra plantations between Tokua airport and
Kokopo, quite near the Vunapope mission station, is a transit haus. This abandoned plantation building has been turned into a “boat station” by the inhabitants of Wide Bay, who sleep there and wait for boats on their trips to Kokopo. The road literally ends, from there on the Wide Bay area can be reached only by boat.