2. The way the world should be: Vanua and taukei
Speight of Violence 4
'Fiji, the way the world should be' is an advertising slogan that has survived three coups. If you tell the rest of the world often enough that this place is a Pacific paradise, then it becomes hardly surprising when you start believing it, and developing the view that nothing much needs fixing. The nineteenth-century 'Cannibal Isles' label has deftly been turned to a point-of-difference for resort owners competing against other paradises and 'bula', a Fijian word of greeting, has little sincerity left in it. Slogans, myths and ideologies paint a romantic picture of Fiji, hiding from view the difficulties which, as a nation, it should be trying to resolve.
Fiji is on an ethnic and cultural fault line; its land shared by both Melanesians and Polynesians. The difference has always been debated but in Fiji, geography works the equation. The early Polynesian of Fiji settled on the eastern islands of Fiji, particularly the Lau group, around 3500 years before present. Recent contacts with Tonga compounded their influence on social and cultural life. Melanesians came by a different route, first settling on the Coral Coast in southwestern Viti Levu, perhaps 1 000 years after Polynesians were in Lau. Among archaeologists and anthropologists, this kind of thing causes bun-fights. What is important is that among what are called indigenous Fijians, there is a diversity of language, culture and politics which is at the core of a tragic cycle of conflict over power among relatively small groups of people who are either jealous of their rivals or anxious they are about to lose power to the pretenders. Critical to understanding this are two words: vanua and taukei.
Unaisi Nabobo-Baba explains their setting:
Pivotal to the Fijian's life is his vanua, an all encompassing word that is inclusive of land, people, air, seas, rivers, non living and all living things, spirits, religion, history and kinship ties within a defined tribe.
Everyone belongs to a piece of earth, a place they can call home, that they own with their relations and that they are guardians of so that their kawa (future generations of the same clan) can also have the same place to live. Conversely in the Fijian mind, everyone belongs somewhere. Among Fijians one hears: 'kai Jaina' (one from China, belonging to China), 'kai ldia' (India), 'kai Kilivati' (Kiribati) or 'kai Peritania' (Britain).
All Fijians belong to a clan and their lives are inextricably linked to that of their tribal grouping. Their ultimate value or worth depends on how their own clan members evaluate it. Besides all other groups one joins in life, the clan is the ultimate, the base that all Fijians belong to. No one can claim they are clan-less. The clan is their comfort zone. A person is protected within the group, but is expected as well to be responsible for the group's survival. All things that happen in life come in the context of vanua, its history, social structures, mana, strength and weaknesses. The individual takes responsibility for the group, is concerned about the reputation of the group and gains a lot ofsupport and pride from belonging to the clan-based group and vice versa.
Clans are given certain tasks in the village or in the vanua. A person is born into a clan and its customary roles. Though preparation for the different roles has waned among some Fijians, the fact remains that all articulate their belongingness while in the vanua. There is a strong belief among indigenous Fijians that God predestined their vanua. There is a direct connection between human belief and performances on earth and the blessings one's vanua gets from God. The vanua and humans in it can cause the right effects from God if both parties revere God and perform their roles as identified in the culture of the Fijian.
Fijians see the world in terms of a clear dichotomy between taukei, people who are of the land, own the land and therefore look after the land, and vulagi, visitors. Visitors are taukei elsewhere: everybody is taukei somewhere. Those who are vulagi are seen as not belonging, therefore may not necessarily feel responsible for the land and its resources. Taukei and vulagi discourses are a common occurrence in Fiji both in daily life and in ceremony.
'It is good to always remember that in Aotearoa, we are visitors and will remain so; Dr llaitia Tuwere, a Fijian theologian and academic, told Fijians in an Auckland sermon in 2004. 'It does not matter how long we have been here in New Zealand, whether it has been for 30, 40 or more years, we are and will always remain visitors here; we are however taukei of Fiji'.
The taukei to a vanua are expected to always have the best interests of their vanua at heart. The concept of vanua is all encompassing. It is inclusive of a people who belong together and are related because of blood. Most of them live in a defined area on land which has been passed down through generations. Land is communally owned and is a very important element of identification. It is the home and a heritage. It is very exclusive in nature. Belongingness is defined at birth and is therefore restrictive. This sense of belongingness is further emphasised when at birth children are recorded in the Fijian birth register, 'Vala ni Kawa Bula', which is kept by the Native Lands Commission.
Fiji is a former British colony, which became independent in 1970.
Fiji has about 320 islands, of these about 150 are inhabited. These islands are scattered over an area of 650,000 square kilometres. The two biggest islands, Vanua Levu and Viti Levu, have a combined land area of some 1 6,000 square kilometres.
Indigenous Fijians comprise a little over half of Fiji's population of 800,000. About half of these Fijians live in rural Fiji in some 1040 villages and surrounding areas, while the other half live in urban areas. Fijian villages belong to colonially created districts which were based, in part, on the traditional Fijian vanua set-up, but in some cases broke up people of the same vanua into different districts. Districts combine to form the 14 provinces of Fiji. The provinces are a later introduction. Similar to this were the creation of confederacies and the institution of the Great Council of Chiefs (GCC or Bose Levu Vakaturaga). All were put in place to facilitate the administration of the colonies and to make life easier for the colonial administrators. These organisations forcibly united the otherwise multiple groupings of Fijians. It was easier to administer Fijians if the colonial administration had to deal only with three heads of confederacies instead of the 140 or so vanua chiefs who, during the coup and while the hostages were still being held, had a meeting in Parliament, attended by Speight. Vanua chiefs rule over one or more villages in a district. They have a defined territory under their jurisdiction and tend to be the most influential chiefs in the daily lives of Fijians.
While it is common to hear Fijians speak of belonging to their provinces, a closer reading shows that the Fijian first and foremost regards his vanua as the entity that he identifies with, in terms of land ownership, language, relationships and all related customary obligations.
While most are of Melanesian stock, there are those to the east, especially, who are Polynesian, who have Tongan and, to some extent, Samoan physical and cultural characteristics. Among Fijians, there are therefore a lot of variations in terms of language, religion and colour (Fijians in the east are referred to as the fairer lot). There are, however, general ideological and cultural values that define them as a people.
Many of the events around the coup that overwhelmed the government of Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry were linked, not necessarily to Indians themselves, but to the older blood and soil of Fiji itself. Abel Tasman, James Cook and the Bounty's William Bligh all visited Fiji but had little impact. Significant contact followed when, in 1800, crew of the American schooner Argo, shipwrecked on Vanua Levu, discovered sandalwood, which was then fetching gold-like prices in China. Small settlements built up around traders, who eventually married local women and began creating a community of part-Fijians. The arrival of the Europeans led to pressure for a centralised political system around a 'king'. How the chips fell in the wake of the arrival of commerce and muskets has been well explored by historians. The essence of it all is that in the late eighteenth century there were seven vanua: Rewa, Verata and Bau in southeastern Viti Levu, Lakeba in Lau and Cakaudrove, Macuata and Bua on Vanua Levu. Lau was under Tongan suzerainty while Bau was a small fishing island just off the Viti Levu coast. Its power grew as a result of a policy by its chiefs to marry into the chiefly families of Rewa and Cakaudrove. Bau's ultimate power was exercised by the Vunivalu or high chief, Ratu Seru Cakobau, one of Fiji's foremost chiefs over 50 years. European observers were often shocked by his war-making, cruelty, cannibalism and cunning ability to dominate the islands during the 1 840s.
Tongan missionaries had arrived in Lakeba in Lau in 1830, where the chief, the Tui Nayau, refused to have anything to do with them. When Wesleyan missionaries arrived in 1835, they came with the approval of the newly Christianised Tongan paramount chief Taufa'ahau. The Tui Nayau was obliged to accept the Wesleyans but was slow in becoming a Christian himself. Tongan dominance increased in Lau when Henele Ma'afu, cousin to Taufa'ahau, joined with the Tui Nayau to expand Lau's interests into Cakaudrove. By the 1 850s he was in control of the eastern half of Fiji.
The war diet saw Cakobau's power diminish. The US comÂmercial agent John Williams claimed to have purchased the small island of Nukulau for $30 in 1846. In 1849 his house on the island was accidentally burnt down and then looted by local Fijians. He tried billing Cakobau for the lost property and the claim, backed up with imperial American power, was a constant threat to Cakobau. He found it useful to become a Christian and formed a new alliance with Taufa'ahau and in 1855 they crushed Rewa. Cakobau found himself restored to his self-proclaimed position as Tui Viti or king of Fiji, but the position was by grace and favour of Tongans.
Taufa'ahau's governor in Lau, Ma'afu, was the most powerful person in Fiji. A kind of national government with Cakobau at its head and including white planter John Thurston was formed in 1 871, with Levuka as the capital. But Cakobau lacked authority over the country and won little cooperation from Ma'afu. With a civil war threatening between Fijians and the growing white population, and Cakobau unable to contain the growing Lauan power, he appealed to London and, with the signing of the Deed of Cession on 1 0 October 1 874, Fiji became a British colony.
Unaisi Nabobo-Baba notes that under colonialism Fijian life was bound by the Fijian administration system:
Indigenous Fijians were 'supervised' by the Native Land Trust Board (NLTB) and the Fijian Affairs Board (FAB), which included the GCC. In 1944, Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, a Bau paramount chief, spoke strongly of the need to retain chiefs in the ruling of the country; Sukuna was not keen on the idea of democracy.
All matters regarding land leases were and still are looked after by the NLTB, while the FAB looks after all other indigenous interests. Increasingly the NLTB has come under scrutiny and in some cases has been taken to court by groups of Fijians who proclaim they do not need an in-between bureaucracy to make decisions for them.
All Fijians identify with a village (usually that of their father or, in cases of children born out of wedlock, their mother). This means that with most Fijians it is obligatory to contribute to village developments even though they may not be resident. It's a norm that Fijians return to their villages for various events. Village elders call on their kinsmen in the urban centres when there are fundraising drives in the villages, districts or provinces. This means that in the case of a couple there are two places that they are obliged to contribute towards or, as Fijian say, mate vakarua (to die twice). It is not unusual therefore, to fork out hundreds or even thousands of dollars towards such obligations. For instance, a huge aspect of the Methodist Church in Fiji's yearly conference is the provincial donation that opens the soli or fundraising event; each province takes it in turn to open and close the event. In 2003, the Lau Islanders, where Prime Minister Laisenia Oarase and the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara hailed from, were strongly 'reminded' of their contributions.
Fijians subscribe heavily to such notions of provincial, island and vanua 'belongingness' and will give their all to honour the name of their respective vanua or provinces. For other ethnic groups in Fiji, such notions are not easy to understand, and may even appear illogical. To try and explain this in economic terms is futile. Indigenous Fijians of different vanua and provinces bond together and there is stubbornness to keep up with one's vanua and province-related obligations against the very dictates of modern-day economics.
The first colonial governor of Fiji, Sir Arthur Gordon, and Thurston, who was his successor, decided the easiest way to run Fiji was through the existing chiefly system, thus cementing in place and institutionalising the tensions that had existed between Ma'afu and Cakobau. The tensions were passed down through the generations and reemerged with a vengeance around Speight's coup. He wanted to install a Cakobau as president, replacing a descendant of Ma'afu, the modern Tui Nayau, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. Cakobau's Bau was part of the Kubuna confederacy, which included Tailevu where Speight had roots. The modern Cakobau title, the Vunivalu, has been vacant since 1989, leaving the clan leaderless. A lawyer and judge, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi (in 2004 he was named vice-president) is, as the Roko Tui Bau, the kingmaker of the clan but his inaction suggests he has seen no worthy candidate. Among the pretenders who would feature in the coup was Litia Cakobau who in 2000 was the GCC deputy head. These connections over time between the 2000 coup and events in Fiji's past were not just interesting coincidences; they were integral to what happened.
Mara's marriage to Lala, the highest chief of the third confederacy, Burebasaga, was seen as part of the strategy of domination, giving the couple control over two thirds of the country. Mara described it as 'a dynastic marriage' ordained by his grandmother when Lala was a girl. The desire for more power continued too, and Mara's people were pushing for former army commander Epeli Nailatikau to be the new Vunivalu. Such an arrangement would be useful as his wife was Koila, Mara's daughter.
The GCC's membership has always been a question of debate and today the council is made up of several ex officio members, including the president, the minister of Fijian affairs and the heads of the Kubuna, Burebasaga and Tovata confederacies. It included 20 members selected by the heads of the confederacies jointly plus five members nominated from business and the professions and 14 members elected by provincial councils and one each from Rotuma and Rabi. That gave it a maximum membership of 46, although there were and always will be cases of members meeting more than one appointment category. Although limited to simply advising the government on any matter relating to the wellbeing of the Fijian people and matters affecting the nation as a whole, and nominating a president, the GCC exercises influence beyond its constitutional definition. It tends to duplicate the work of the unelected senate. When the GCC fails to perform or to recognise its higher calling, then the whole of Fiji is in serious trouble, as was proved in 2000.
©Michael J Field
first class