Historical Overview of the Fiji Islands
Polynesian & Melanesian Inhabitation
From half a mile offshore, the Fiji Islands today look much the way they did to the first Polynesians to reach these shores 3,500 years ago. More than three hundred islands in the Fiji group are large enough to support human habitation, but even today fewer than one third of the islands are inhabited. The two largest islands -- Viti Levu and Vanua Levu -- together account for 87% of the land mass and 93% of the population. The first seafarers to land here came from a relatively crowded chain of islands stretching back toward Southeast Asia. These rich, empty islands must have been Nirvana to them.
The first Polynesians had Fiji to themselves for about 2,000 years before a second wave of immigrants arrived from Melanesia. Over 1,000 more years passed before Abel Tasman, the first European to discover Fiji, sailed past Taveuni in 1643. By then the Fiji Islands were well populated by a cohesive, but not entirely cooperative, mixed race.
Captain Cook's Era
One hundred and thirty years later, in 1774, Captain Cook (whose crew included young Lieutenant Bligh), sighted islands in the Lau group but declined to stop. The first detailed observations of Fiji were made fifteen years later by Bligh, now a full fledged Captain (but temporarily limited to command of a lifeboat following the Bounty mutiny in 1789). Considering his circumstances, he made remarkably accurate and detailed observations as his crew rowed and sailed through the channel between the two main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu (now known as Bligh Waters). Bligh didn't come ashore either, perhaps because he was chased out to sea by warriors from the Yasawa Islands.
European Traders, Greed & Disease
Not until the dawning of the new century, 1800, did Europeans venture ashore in Fiji, where they discovered lush stands of sandalwood, a cargo of which could be bought for fifty dollars and sold to the Chinese for twenty thousand dollars.
After 3,500 years of successful, if not necessarily peaceful, existence, the addition of European greed to an already unstable and barbarous mix of tribal rivalries ushered in a particularly disastrous period for Fijians. The islands were already divided among hundreds of warring factions, and the only white men able to survive in Fiji were escaped convicts from Australia or plucky raconteurs like Charles Savage and Martin Bushart, who quickly allied themselves with the strongest chiefs and earned their everlasting respect by introducing the wonders of powder and shot.
After the white men got to Fiji it took only ten years to denude the forests of sandalwood. And beche-de-mer, a shallow ocean sea slug considered an aphrodisiac in Asia, was fished out in just 25 years. The Fijian people did not fare much better. Disease introduced from the outside, including measles brought back by the paramount chief after a state visit to Australia, reduced the population by nearly half in eighty years. By 1921 the Fijian population stood at 84,000, only 42% of the prediscovery population.
The late 1800's were exciting but lawless times in Fiji. The paramount chief, Cakobau, having barely survived his bout with measles, watched the resulting epidemic wipe out one third of his people. At the same time, an American con man who had set fire to his own home and trading post during a particularly spirited Fourth of July celebration managed to convince the American government to back his demands for $44,000 in damages from Cakobau. And in Levuka, the 2,000 or so settlers were getting restless. With American warships hovering nearby and the possibility of a US takeover in the wind, Cakobau decided to cede his kingdom to Great Britain.
British Colonial Rule
When Britain took over Fiji in 1874, the United Kingdom was the world master of colonization. Partly by accident and partly by design, Fiji did well under the rule of the first two British governors, both of whom had experience in other British colonies. Sir Arthur Gordon realized that the chiefly system in Fiji worked well, so rather than try to lay down the law from above, he ruled the country through the existing chiefs, whose communal land he protected from ever being sold. To this day the chiefly system functions well in Fiji and the Fijian people remain in control of more than 80% of their land.
Arrival of Indentured Laborers from India: The Stage is Set
Sir Arthur Gordon also realized that it would be futile to try to make Fijians work the land of the foreign plantation owners. Using the tried-and-true colonial recipe of divide and conquer, he initiated the immigration of indentured workers from India. Over a period of 40 years ending in 1916, 63,000 Indian workers came to Fiji to work out a ten-year contract. More than half of them elected to stay behind when the contract expired. These Indian workers, without access to the communal land belonging to the Fijians, either continued farming small leased plots of land or went into business. Today the majority of Fiji businesses are Indian owned and managed.
World War I
Under the heavy wing of the British colonial powers, Fiji entered the 20th century: a peaceful, relatively prosperous little country mostly unaffected by the world beyond the surrounding seas. Fiji was hardly noticed during World War I except by Count Felix von Luckner, whose infamous raider the SEEADLER was wrecked in the Society Islands. Intent on finding a new schooner with which to continue the war, von Luckner and five men sailed to Fiji in an open boat. They found a suitable ship to commandeer in Wakaya, but their plans were foiled by the untimely arrival of a British officer and four Indian soldiers. Lacking the uniforms in which to fight chivalrously, they surrendered and were interned in Auckland for the remainder of the war.
World War II
While W.W.II narrowly bypassed Fiji, Fijian soldiers fought on behalf of their British masters in both the Pacific and European theaters. So skilled were the Fijian warriors in jungle warfare that the term "missing-in-action" was modified in their case to "not-yet-arrived".
Independence from Britain, 1970
During the 1960's, Fiji's Indian population began to bristle under the inequities of Colonial rule, which they blamed for their second-class position. In 1970 Fiji was granted independence from Britain while remaining within the Commonwealth. The new Constitution went part way toward granting equal rights to all Fiji citizens, regardless of race, but it still protected Fijian land and isolated the Indian population from full equality.
For fifteen years after independence Fiji was governed by an Alliance government which appeared on the surface to be a model of social compromise. However, by 1985, a new Coalition party was formed which claimed to better represent the working people in Fiji, the majority of whom are Indian. The Coalition party, dedicated to eliminating the prerogatives of the chiefly oligarchy, won the elections in 1987 and threatened to turn Fijian politics on its ear. This proved to be too much for the extremist taukei (landowners).
Bloodless Coup, 1987
In May, 1987, Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka led a bloodless coup to take over government on behalf of the Fijian people. Many of the hard-line old-timers were invited back into government, but when the new Government of National Unity threatened to sack Rabuka, he held another coup and pronounced himself head of state of the new Republic of Fiji. With the support of the traditional Great Council of Chiefs, Rabuka pressed for a government of customary rule unthreatened by the Indian presence, dedicated to Christianity as the official religion, and guided by cultural fundamentalism.
The coups had a devastating effect on the Fijian economy. Fiji was thrown out of the Commonwealth, suffered an 11% decline in the gross domestic product, and lost thousands of Indian professionals and their families to overseas emigration: nearly 30,000 all told. But, like all predominantly agrarian peoples whose chiefs and politicians are constantly bickering, the people of Fiji, both Fijian and Indian, continued their normal lives with little attention paid to government. These people, with next to no help from above, put the country back on its feet.
Constitutional Change & Free Elections, 1992
During free elections in 1992, (now Major-General) Rabuka was elected Prime Minister. A new Constitution was promulgated which permanently guaranteed government control by Fijians, a blatantly racist document but one which worked for awhile. Fiji's economy rebounded to previously unmatched levels, and government once again earned the trust of outside investors.
While the Indian population in Fiji was specifically isolated from full representation in government, an argument was made in support of the new Constitution: there are very few countries left in the world which are unambiguously ruled by their endemic people.
Bloodier coup, 2000
Peace and harmony didn’t last long in Fiji politics. In 2000 a part-Fijian insurance salesman from Queensland returned to Fiji to front a coup against the predominately Indian labour government that had been recently elected. A renegade group of well-trained soldiers took Parliament at gunpoint (although with polite apologies) and held the elected government hostage for nearly two months while negotiations ebbed and flowed. One person was killed. Eventually the head of the military managed to wrestle control of Fiji away from the coup frontman and his mysterious backers.
The 2000 coup was successfully marketed as an indigenous revolt against the threat of Indian control over the country, but it had much more to do with money than anything else. The Indian minority, while economically powerful, are still restricted to owning the same 8% of Fijian land that anyone else can purchase freehold. The Fijians own and control most of the rest (the Government owns a few percent) and they can lease it but cannot sell it. So there is no danger of the Fijians losing their land.
While the 2000 coup made great media fodder, with images of renegade soldiers in muscle-Ts holding assault rifles in front of Parliament and grim uniformed soldiers holding assault rifles at sandbagged highway checkpoints, the reality on the ground was much different. While I can’t speak for the unfortunate politicians help hostage in the Parliament building, life for everyone else didn’t change much. Those scary looking soldiers at the checkpoints smiled and said “Bula!” as they waved you through. Government functioned no worse than usual.
One memory stands out especially from the 2000 coup. By late 2001 it was all over and a new caretaker government was appointed. On the morning of September 11, while all of Fiji turned on their radios and TVs to try to understand what had just happened in America, our news was dominated by the swearing-in procedure of one old Fijian politician after another. Little did we understand how insignificant to its own economic future was Fiji’s successful transition away from anarchy compared to the greater global upheaval born on 9/11.
coup redux, 2007
By 2007 the political situation in Fiji was once again volatile. The head of the military had ended the 2000 coup and arranged for a caretaker government but that government went on to win free elections (despite that they weren’t supposed to be allowed to run). Armed with an election mandate and keenly aware of growing nationalism worldwide, Fiji’s elected government proposed a series of laws that further divided the races living and working in Fiji. The military commander realized that he was the only nonpolitician with enough power to effect change, so he began threatening the government to change its ways, “or else”. The government called his bluff, and the commander pointed out that he wasn’t bluffing. In late 2007, after waiting until school got back in session, Commodore Bainimarama took over government with the backing of the nation’s President. While Fiji’s closest neighbours, New Zealand and Australia, huffed and puffed about the immediate necessity to return to democracy, many people quietly supported the coup on the basis that Fiji’s democratic system was never truly democratic since it blatantly discriminated against a huge minority of the country’s citizens. As I write (in early 2010), Fiji is still under control of the military and the light at the end of the tunnel is dimmer. But world economic meltdown is probably more responsible than anything else for Fiji’s failure to rebound. The Commodore was dealt a particularly poor hand of cards.
In comparison to surrounding Pacific nations, Fiji is well-run and prosperous. No one starves here and not too many of the powerful leaders are able to profit at the expense of their country. The people who live in Fiji are happy, despite the overtones of political unrest, and the visitor to the islands would never guess at the tumultuous history that has shaped the country.
It seems odd that a culture which was renown for their savage cannibalism only one hundred years ago should be so peaceful and friendly now, but the overwhelming impression that is left on the foreign visitor or resident in Fiji is that these are the nicest people anywhere. Part of the reason, at least in respect to the Fijian people, is that they control their own destiny. Whereas many of the native peoples in the world are little more than guests in their own lands, powerless to express themselves against the press of outside forces, Fijians own their own land and have every reason to believe that it will always be thus. They welcome visitors to these islands openly and warmly, with none of the subsurface hostility which is so common in Micronesia and in the Caribbean.