Publisher's Synopsis
Oma: The Ghost Island is a postcolonial fantasy of liberation, equality, and return. Banished Jesuits are shipwrecked on a previously undiscovered island in Micronesia. They subjugate the Indigenous people with a system of oppression and dehumanization, including ritual cannibalism. Two hundred years later, a small group of young Jesuits inspired by the reforms of Second Vatican Council and the Civil Rights/Black Panther Movement in the 1960's and 1970's venture to the island to reconnect the past with the present. They bear witness to the island's transformation and are transformed themselves as they become part of the family of the indomitable Ammaria. This archetypal story weaves in the history of colonization in the Pacific, cultural dynamics of oppression and liberation, and insights into religion and spirituality. It is a love story of people, the land and water, the world, and the spirit. It is a spiritual journey into a joyful future rooted in ancient yet timeless wisdom of the past and the essential core goodness of our humanity. The story explores themes of racism, caste, misogyny, gender, hierarchy and anarchy, matriarchy, nonviolence, legacy of nuclear testing, materialism, egalitarianism, culture change, human rights, animal rights, mysticism, monasticism, syncretism, Indigenous rights, language preservation, healing, spirituality, colonialism in the Pacific, American imperialism, friendship, family, commitment, and love.
