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The Colony: The True Harrowing Story of the Exiles of Molokai
TAYMAN, John, The Colony: The True Harrowing Story of the Exiles of Molokai. New York: A Lisa Drew Book/Scribner, 2006. 421pp. ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-3300-2 (hc) $27.50. ISBN-10: 0743233018 (pa) $16.00. Index. Bib. Illus.
The beautiful and majestic 4,000-foot sea cliffs of Northern Molokai provide a dramatic yet ironic backdrop for the hideous saga of leprosy. Starting in 1866, the unabated exiling of lepers became Hawaii’s “dirty little secret” sending unsuspecting carriers of the bizarre disease to the picturesque Kalawao peninsula, (now Kalaupapa, U.S. National Historic Park) where quarantined patients were branded as monsters: a biological threat to civilized nineteenth-century Hawaiian society. A memorable history from the first patient displaced by the illness to the last one interred at the infamous leper settlement is chronicled in the book The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai.
For over three years, former Outside Magazine editor John Tayman poured over thousands of files, medical records and personal accounts detailing the wholesale expulsion following the discovery in Hawaii, of leprosy (known as Hansen’s disease.) Tayman, of New York City, introduces historical evidence of the ghastly physiological horror of the disease but, more significantly the gravity of human suffering after being banished from families, loved ones and friends to an isolated outpost without so much as committing a crime.
Drawing on numerous resources from esteemed writers Robert Louis Stevenson and Jack London (both were visitors,) to resident authors voluntarily living at the settlement, Tayman provides a glimpse of the mythology that perpetuated the disease for over 100 years. By carefully weaving historic accounts, public records and interviews with permanent residents he has written a flowing narrative that accurately describes on the plight of over 5,000 patients destined to live, work and die in silent isolation on the shores of the remote yet striking Molokai island peninsula.
In today’s media coverage where tales of exploitation, sensationalism and grotesque detail greatly seduce the general public, Tayman delivers comprehensive accounts of medical procedures, patient suffering and physical deformity with respect and humanity. In reliving the past he perpetuates the tremendous emotional torment patients suffered after being forcefully wrenched away from families. In this regard we can better understand misconceptions related to the corroding disease so that the discrimination is never repeated. The tone of the book, though deeply criticized in Hawaii, is done with compassion and sensitivity to the deceased and the survivors alike.
With leprosy a painfully sensitive issue touching many in “old” Hawaii, condemnation and detractors were plentiful as opponents of the book claim the author betrayed residents by dishonoring their words. In the January 22, 2006 Maui News article, Valerie Monson reported “(Makia) Malo and (Olivia) Breitha accuse (author) Tayman of exploiting their lives, taking things out of context and using their previously written words as his own. Both of them object to the title (The Colony,) which they feel is more tabloid than truth and feeds into old stereotypes (about leprosy.”)
In contrast to Molokai resident James H. Brocker’s lively account of leprosy in Father Damien, The Lands of: Kalaupapa, Molokai, Hawaii, (Booklines Hawaii, 1998) whose book was well-received and widely praised though not as extensively researched, Tayman was disturbed by the controversy. He is quoted in the March 27, 2006 New York Times; "I never saw it as a story that belonged to a specific culture, any more than I saw it as a Hawaiian story, I just sort of saw it as an American story more than anything else, or a human story. I never really encountered that - 'What's a mainlander doing here, telling this story?' - until the book was published."
Conversely, with an enviable New York Times Book Review critique the very same day as the Maui News report, Mary Roach wrote; "Tayman's narrative pulls the reader beyond the superficial, medical horrors of leprosy to the more devastating human horrors that lie beneath. In doing so, he has brought to light the profound dignity of his subjects."
Supported by an impressive bibliography, illustrated with numerous historical black and white photographs and furnished with an insightful reference index with over 300 footnotes throughout the manuscript, The Colony captures a fascinating and moving medical event in Hawaiian, as well as American history. It tells the story of scientific ignorance, social hysteria and human empathy with a misunderstood disease in the span of time between the end of the Civil War and Man’s first lunar landing. This book can be considered a worthy selection to any historic, medical or ethnic collection and warrants a lasting homage to the suffering laid to rest on the beautiful, yet tragic, Kalaupapa coast.
The beautiful and majestic 4,000-foot sea cliffs of Northern Molokai provide a dramatic yet ironic backdrop for the hideous saga of leprosy. Starting in 1866, the unabated exiling of lepers became Hawaii’s “dirty little secret” sending unsuspecting carriers of the bizarre disease to the picturesque Kalawao peninsula, (now Kalaupapa, U.S. National Historic Park) where quarantined patients were branded as monsters: a biological threat to civilized nineteenth-century Hawaiian society. A memorable history from the first patient displaced by the illness to the last one interred at the infamous leper settlement is chronicled in the book The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai.
For over three years, former Outside Magazine editor John Tayman poured over thousands of files, medical records and personal accounts detailing the wholesale expulsion following the discovery in Hawaii, of leprosy (known as Hansen’s disease.) Tayman, of New York City, introduces historical evidence of the ghastly physiological horror of the disease but, more significantly the gravity of human suffering after being banished from families, loved ones and friends to an isolated outpost without so much as committing a crime.
Drawing on numerous resources from esteemed writers Robert Louis Stevenson and Jack London (both were visitors,) to resident authors voluntarily living at the settlement, Tayman provides a glimpse of the mythology that perpetuated the disease for over 100 years. By carefully weaving historic accounts, public records and interviews with permanent residents he has written a flowing narrative that accurately describes on the plight of over 5,000 patients destined to live, work and die in silent isolation on the shores of the remote yet striking Molokai island peninsula.
In today’s media coverage where tales of exploitation, sensationalism and grotesque detail greatly seduce the general public, Tayman delivers comprehensive accounts of medical procedures, patient suffering and physical deformity with respect and humanity. In reliving the past he perpetuates the tremendous emotional torment patients suffered after being forcefully wrenched away from families. In this regard we can better understand misconceptions related to the corroding disease so that the discrimination is never repeated. The tone of the book, though deeply criticized in Hawaii, is done with compassion and sensitivity to the deceased and the survivors alike.
With leprosy a painfully sensitive issue touching many in “old” Hawaii, condemnation and detractors were plentiful as opponents of the book claim the author betrayed residents by dishonoring their words. In the January 22, 2006 Maui News article, Valerie Monson reported “(Makia) Malo and (Olivia) Breitha accuse (author) Tayman of exploiting their lives, taking things out of context and using their previously written words as his own. Both of them object to the title (The Colony,) which they feel is more tabloid than truth and feeds into old stereotypes (about leprosy.”)
In contrast to Molokai resident James H. Brocker’s lively account of leprosy in Father Damien, The Lands of: Kalaupapa, Molokai, Hawaii, (Booklines Hawaii, 1998) whose book was well-received and widely praised though not as extensively researched, Tayman was disturbed by the controversy. He is quoted in the March 27, 2006 New York Times; "I never saw it as a story that belonged to a specific culture, any more than I saw it as a Hawaiian story, I just sort of saw it as an American story more than anything else, or a human story. I never really encountered that - 'What's a mainlander doing here, telling this story?' - until the book was published."
Conversely, with an enviable New York Times Book Review critique the very same day as the Maui News report, Mary Roach wrote; "Tayman's narrative pulls the reader beyond the superficial, medical horrors of leprosy to the more devastating human horrors that lie beneath. In doing so, he has brought to light the profound dignity of his subjects."
Supported by an impressive bibliography, illustrated with numerous historical black and white photographs and furnished with an insightful reference index with over 300 footnotes throughout the manuscript, The Colony captures a fascinating and moving medical event in Hawaiian, as well as American history. It tells the story of scientific ignorance, social hysteria and human empathy with a misunderstood disease in the span of time between the end of the Civil War and Man’s first lunar landing. This book can be considered a worthy selection to any historic, medical or ethnic collection and warrants a lasting homage to the suffering laid to rest on the beautiful, yet tragic, Kalaupapa coast.
Submitted March 28, 2007 by Dean Louie, LIS Student, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
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