Pango is a community located on the southern coast of

Efate Efate (), also known as Île Vate (), is an island in the Pacific Ocean which is part of the Shefa Province in Vanuatu. Geography It is the most populous (approx. 66,000) island in Vanuatu. Efate's land area of makes it Vanuatu's third larg ...

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

. It is considered

peri-urban Peri-urbanisation relates to the processes of scattered and dispersive urban growth that create hybrid landscapes of fragmented and mixed urban and rural characteristics. Such areas may be referred to as the rural–urban fringe, the outskirts ...

and is located seven kilometers away from

Port Vila Port Vila ( ; ), or simply Vila (), is the capital of Vanuatu and its largest city. It is on the island of Efate, in Shefa Province. The population was 49,034 as of the 2020 census. In 2020, the population of Port Vila formed 16.3% of the ...

, the capital of Vanuatu. The name Pango was given by early Samoan missionaries who arrived in the 1840s.

History

Missionary activity in Pango started in May of 1845 with the arrival of the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...

ship ''

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (November 15, 2022)Classic Connection review, ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who w ...

''. By 1853, the majority of the population of the village had been converted to Christianity, far earlier than the rest of the island. The capital city of Port Vila is on land claimed by Pango and the nearby villages of Erakor and Ifira as their ''

kastom ''Kastom'' is a pidgin word (Bislama/Tok Pisin) used to refer to traditional culture, including religion, economics, art and magic in Melanesia. The term is the generally accepted term in anthropology to describe such phenomena as well as the ...

'' land. At independence, all land owned or controlled by foreign entities was legally returned to the control of the indigenous peoples of Vanuatu, but in practice this was not done in urban areas. Cities such as Port Vila were established and grew following European colonisation, and the official return of this land to indigenous claimants would cause further problems. Following protests by villagers, these three villages were granted compensation for the lost land in 1992, with Pango receiving VT 55 million.

Population

Pango village has a population of not more than 208 since 1867 which later increased to 2,000 as of 2011. It has 1600 Registered Voters. The traditional governance is governed by the paramount jif related to as the Marik Naot(chief) "Maseiman (Star bird)", The chiefs council are collectively made of 8 tribal chiefs(Masei-Laru) representing 8 tribes(8 Naflak); *Kram *Noai *Natongrau *Naniu *Mgal *Naptam *Mleo *Wit

References

{{reflist Populated places in Vanuatu Shefa Province