The Fijian Colonial Experience: a study of the neotraditional order under British colonial rule prior to WWII

Abstract

This book analyses thematically much of the colonial experience of the Fijians earlier this century - their land rights, village and district politics, chiefly leadership, underground movements and various British efforts to 'improve' them. The major theme is the failure of vague policies fostering individualism and enterprise to interrupt the continuities of a vigorously autonomous social and political world maintaining eight of ten Fijians in a relatively affluent neotraditional order until World War II, despite the deep vein of discontent and material aspirations manifested most clearly in Apolosi R. Nawai's movement, the Viti Company. The epilogue briefly chronicles some of the recent changes in Fijian life which, it is argued, throw into sharper relief the accomplishments of the earlier partnership between Fijian leaders and British officials. Therein lie the historical antecedents of both the economic problems of the Fijian people and the irascendancy in national political life through the first decade of independence.