Like Native Americans, the Andamanese had very little contact with people from the outside and lacked immunity to diseases such as the flu, smallpox and measles. When the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were first fully colonised in the 18th century, not only could no one figure out the many languages spoken there-or connect their culture to other cultures-thousands of them died of disease within just a few years. That’s just as well because the islanders’ very survival might depend on it. India has stayed out of the islanders’ affairs for decades, in effect making the islanders almost a sovereign nation. We don’t know very much about them really except that they use bows and arrows and have lived on the island since time immemorial. We don’t know what language they speak or how they live. That’s because we don’t know what they call themselves. While we call the inhabitants Sentinelese, that’s just a cop-out as we don’t know what else to call them. However, the island’s importance stems not from the land, but the people who inhabit it, numbering just a few dozen. While politically it belongs to India, the Indian government wants nothing to do with it, and no Indian has set foot on it in years. It’s covered in forest, surrounded by treacherous coral reefs with no natural harbour and worse, no natural resources. With an area of just 43 square miles or two thirds the size of Manhattan, the island is small and part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands territory of India. Like the mysterious island itself, there is more to this story that when revealed is enough to anger the calmest of individuals.Īs islands go, you’d think a tiny speck of earth like North Sentinel Island-nestled hundreds of miles from any large landmass-would not hold any significance to anyone. Articles were written that resembled hagiographies more than news stories, recounting Chau’s many humanitarian works and the coldness of his death. Headlines across major newspapers in the US, where Chau is from, portrayed it as much. On the face of it, this seems like a brutal murder, committed against a man with peaceful intentions by a violent people who seem to be as far removed from civilisation morally, as they are geographically. His crime? Wanting to meet the islanders and possibly convert them to Christianity. Last week, when he was killed on the shores of North Sentinel Island in the middle of the Bay of Bengal, few had heard of the place, and even fewer knew where it was.
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