This article relates the political history of the Nagriamel movement on Santo, Vanuatu and tries to account for its traditionalist excesses by reference to biographical aspects of its charismatic leader Jimmy Stevens. Stevens was the main architect in the unification of the ‘dark bush people' (communities living in the island's remote interior) under a form of custom (kastom) he himself devised. This review of the life of this unusual character, who started as a ‘boy' serving his colonial masters and became an ‘island king', a self-proclaimed ‘Prince' of ‘Santo Custom', and of the way he exploited the nativist assertions of his indigenous supporters, will also provide an opportunity to take a fresh look at the troubled period surrounding Independence in the Republic of Vanuatu.