Kondom Agaundo

Kondom Agaundo (c. 1917 – 28 August 1966) was a Papua New Guinean tribal leader and politician. He served as a member of the Legislative Council between 1961 and 1964.

Biography[]

Agaundo was born in , a village near Kundiawa, around 1917.^[1][2] His father was a war leader, but he was orphaned as a child. He subsequently grew up in and developed a close relationship with the Australian authorities, carrying milk from the Catholic mission at Mingende to the government compound at Kundiawa.^[1][2] In the 1940s he became luluai of his tribe. Encouraged by Australian officials, he built the first house in the area in 1959,^[1] as well as building a community hall and overseeing the development of coffee farming.^[2] Despite being illiterate, when Waiye Rural LLG was formed in 1959, Agaundo became its first president.^[2][1]

He contested the Highlands seat in the 1961 elections, and was elected to the Legislative Council, where he demanded more development of the Highlands. A documentary, Kondom Agaundo, M.L.C., was made about him in 1962. In the first elections with universal suffrage in 1964 he contested the Chimbu seat, but finished third, losing to . However, he continued as a member of the Eastern Highlands District Advisory Council,^[2] and became chairman of the Kundiawa Coffee Society, the largest co-operative society in the territory.^[3]

Aguando had at least eight wives.^[2] He was killed in a road accident on the Daulo Pass in the Eastern Highlands in August 1966,^[3] and was buried at .^[2] The headquarters of Chimbu Province were named after him in 1982, with a high school in Wandi named after him in 2012.^[1]

References[]