Kata Ragoso was one of the first Adventists to ever be baptised and ordained as a pastor in the Solomon Islands. His name bears testimony to the transformation experienced in the Solomon Islands during his lifetime in turning to God.
The Marovo Lagoon tribesmen of the Solomon Islands were once considered the most warlike and cannibalistic of tribes in their region. They worshipped the spirits of their ancestors whose skulls were kept after death, and there was a great deal of “devil-fear” which the tribe obsessively lived with. Their tribe constantly engaged in inter-tribal warfare and headhunting raids, where warriors brought back the severed heads of their vanquished enemies to display as signs of power and victory.
At the turn of the 19th century, Kata Ragoso was born. Prior to the birth, his father, Chief Tatagu, had gone on a fishing expedition where he intentionally did not attach a vine to the boat—this was supposed to placate the devil and ensure a good catch. The fishing expedition was a great success and as a result, Chief Tatagu named his newborn son Kata Ragoso, which means “no devil strings”. Kata Ragoso’s life would go on to reveal the power of God to transform his community and remove the strings and ties which the devil had over his people.
Kata Ragoso grew up in a time when unprincipled European traders enticed Solomon Islanders into their ships with trinkets and foreign goods to kidnap them as slave labourers. But in June 1914, when Kata Ragoso was about 12 years old, a small white boat arrived at Marovo Lagoon. It was called the Advent Herald. The men from this ship did not try to entice the people or take them away as slaves, but instead Captain Jones asked Chief Tatagu for a piece of land on which to build a school. In 1915, a school was built at Sasaghana, and Kata Ragoso was one of 23 students to first attend. As a result of attending this school, Kata Ragoso accepted Christianity and was among the first 10 Solomon Islanders to be baptised on January 1, 1918.1
Ragoso became a very earnest and efficient young man, learning to speak and understand English, as well as type and operate a printing press. He furthered his education at Batuna, and after completing his studies, he stayed on as a teacher and translator, helping to print school lessons, as well as portions of the Bible and song books in the local language. In 1935, Ragoso was ordained as an Adventist minister.
During World War II, between 1942 and 1945, Pastor Kata Ragoso was chosen to be the Mission superintendent to care for the Seventh-day Adventist work in the Solomon Islands. It was a time of great danger, and the danger did not come from the invading Imperial Japanese Army alone. In May 1943, at the height of the fighting in the Western Solomons, Ragoso was arrested by New Zealand-born Major Donald Gilbert Kennedy, the British colonial district officer, at Seghe, and held prisoner for ten days. Four times he was interrogated. He was beaten until he fell unconscious and flogged fifteen times as he lay across a fuel drum. Ragoso was determined to obey God rather than man, and there were four things he had refused: to translate at a large gathering held on the Sabbath, to instruct Seventh-day Adventists to work on the Sabbath, to leave the work of the mission for government service in the war and to sit on a court passing judgement on another man.
“I broke no law,” he wrote afterwards.
Major Kennedy had a strong disdain for the church and ordered that Ragoso be shot. Twice the rifle failed to fire. On the third attempt the soldier could not bring himself to complete the count, and the order was never given. “I hate to shoot him,” the officer said at last. “Take him down and put a guard on him.” Ragoso knew that God had stayed the hand raised against him. On the night of May 29, as an American ship appeared offshore and the prison camp scattered, Ragoso and his fellow prisoner Lodi got away.2 He recorded all of it in his diary, in his own hand and never set down a word of hatred against the man who beat him.
During the remainder of the war, Ragoso organised for watchmen to be positioned every five miles along the coast from Gatokae to Vella Lavella, watching for planes and warships which were shot down. Boats would be sent out to rescue the soldiers who were shot down, taking them to villages and mission stations to look after them until they could be moved to safety. Ragoso never expected anything in return from the soldiers he rescued, and only sought to serve with mercy, humility and kindness—no strings attached. Altogether, Ragoso rescued 27 American pilots and 187 Australian and New Zealand soldiers during the war. Among them were men from the very forces whose officer had flogged him.
Pastor Kata Ragoso saw his community transformed during his lifetime through God’s power from a warring, violent community into a merciful and God-fearing people active in service.
- Wilson Gia Liligeto, ’Ragoso, Kata’ Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists (ESDA) (January 29, 2020).
- The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, General Conference Report, No 4, 123(26) General Church Paper of the Seventh-Day Adventists (June 10, 1946) https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/RH/RH19460610-V123-26.pdf.
