Clichés often die hard. Last week, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, told a story that caused much astonishment. According to him, his uncle had been devoured by cannibals in Papua New Guinea during the Second World War.
“A moment of vagueness”, for the Prime Minister of the country concerned by the anecdote who insisted on minimizing Joe Biden’s comments. Cases of cannibalism have historically been documented among a small number of tribes in remote areas of Papua. This means that the country is subject to clichés that are as obsolete as they are stubborn, which it has been trying to get rid of for decades.
The official version of Uncle Biden’s death
Joe Biden’s story has obviously made some deviations from reality. Referring to this family story, the president said that the body of his uncle Ambrose Finnegan, killed in New Guinea during World War II, had never been found “because there were a lot of cannibals” in this area. region.
However, official military documents indicate that Ambrose Finnegan died at the same time as two other soldiers when his plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean for unknown reasons. A fourth occupant was rescued, but the other three were never found.
Nothing to do with a possible and unlikely act of anthropophagy. “There are sometimes moments of confusion,” said James Marape, Prime Minister of Papua, reaffirming the good relations between the two countries.
The appeasement of Papua New Guinea
“I met him four times, and he always had warm feelings for Papua New Guinea,” stressed the leader, specifying that Joe Biden had “never talked about Papua New Guinea to discuss cannibals.”
Judging that “there are much deeper values in our relationship than a declaration, a word, a headline”, James Marape took the opportunity to ask Joe Biden to focus instead on the elimination of unexploded ordnance , inherited from the Second World War, which still litter the archipelago. During a mine clearance operation carried out in 2014 on the island of Bougainville by Australian and American troops, 16 tonnes of war munitions were destroyed. “I urge President Biden to ensure that the White House focuses on cleaning up these remains (…) so that the truth about missing service members like Ambrose Finnegan can be restored,” the Prime Minister wrote, in a press release published on Sunday.
Joe Biden, serial blunderer
These comments from the American president on his family history follow a series of gaffes that he has recently made. In February, he spoke, during a campaign event, of a conversation he had in 2021 with former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017.
Our file on Joe Biden
A few days earlier, he had already recalled an exchange, supposedly in 2021, with former French President François Mitterrand, whom he allegedly confused with Emmanuel Macron. Joe Biden’s detractors, first and foremost Donald Trump, himself aged 77, have repeatedly expressed doubts about the senility of the American president, aged 81, and his ability to lead a second term.