DAILY STAR
An adventurer journeyed to one of the most remote jungles on Earth to unearth the terrifying cannibal tribe.
Drew Binsky travelled alone to Papua New Guinea, where the reclusive Korowai people live much as our Stone Age ancestors would have done.
They wear little or no clothing, and hunt using bows and arrows.
Until 1974, when anthropologists ventured into the Indonesian provinces of South Papua and Highland Papua, the Korowai didn’t know there were any other people on Earth.
Drew spent a lot of time among the Momuna tribe, near-neighbours of the Korowai, who told him about their fearsome cousins.
“I learned that the Korowai don’t eat humans for enjoyment or nutritional value,” he explained. “It’s simply a form of punishment.”
“You steal something, you get burned over a fire and eaten.”
The Korowai also believe that an evil demon called a khakua can possess a human being and “eat” them from the inside, turning them into a witch.
To them, it’s just common sense that someone who is possessed should also be killed and eaten.
“The Korowai believe that mysterious deaths like diseases are attributed to the khakua or evil demons who take on the human form,” Drew says.
“Khakuas are said to disguise themselves as friends or family members in an attempt to gain the trust of the tribe so they can later kill them.
“It’s Korowai tradition to perform cannibalistic rituals on anyone believed to be a khakua so they can protect the tribe’s members… it’s part of a revenge-based justice system.”
The taste of human meat has been compared to that of wild boar or emu. Tribespeople eat every part of the body except the hair, nails, and the penis.
Children under 13 aren’t allowed to eat human meat, because the Korowai believe that eating a khakhua carries the risk of becoming possessed yourself.
One jungle guide, named Kornelius, told Vice how he gained the trust of the isolated tribe:
They explained: “One night they gave him a pack of meat and told him it was human. If he ate it, he could stay with them and if he didn’t, then they’d tell him to leave.
“He ate it and so he became very close to them.”
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN DAILY STAR
