Something About That Mysterious Immigration

Effect Of War On Fijian Society

Something About That Mysterious Immigration A Condensation of an Address, by R. H. LESTER, to the Suva Rotary Club.

POLITICAL slogans, such as: “Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion and Freedom from Want,” and “For World Democracy,” have no appeal to the Fijian. He already possesses all three freedoms, and has never properly appreciated how close ha was to losing them.

As for democracy—to quote Ratu Sukuna, “democracy and democratic ideas are as little understood as they are antagonistic to private and public rela tions, born of kinship, the basis of all ancient law.”

This Fijian society, based on kinship, is worthy of serious study. Without a knowledge of it, or an appreciation of its implications, a sympathetic under standing of Fijian sociology is impossible.

Let us ponder for a few moments on the principles of a communal society based on kinship and see how it works.

Modern Fijian society is a diffusion of cultures belonging to at least three migrations. Two of these we know for a fact were racially different people, namely, Melanesians and Polynesians.

The “whence” of the third, which came to Fiji about 300 years ago, is a mystery, as the Fijian language spoken in the eastern half of the Group contains im portant grammatical constructions found neither in Melanesia nor Polynesia; but, from this migration, sprang the leading chiefs of to-day, who claim patrilineal descent from those ancestors.

THE Melanesian people, it is generally conceded, first occupied the Archi pelago and brought with them a culture founded upon matrilineal society'

(descent through the female line), to gether with a fairly elaborate totemic system and a philosophy of the most primitive type known, namely, as the snake-cult.

Those whose “whence” is unknown, brought a different language, a hierarchy of nobles tracing their descent through the male, ritual and ceremonial, and an ancestor-cult. The newcomers, though at first only a small storm-driven party, were permitted to settle in peace, and then duly multiplied in number. Mainly as a result of inter-tribal jealousies which arose from time to time, small parties of these people moved on to various places ,and islands in the Group, where they were apparently welcomed by the indigent people, possibly because of their light colour and fine physique.

The newcomers eventually assumed chiefly status and founded an autocracy in place of the existing gerontocracy.

The cultures clashed —just as our democ racy does with modern Fijian society— but time and evolution merged the two, discarding this and that, blending or absorbing others, until they became a composite whole, comprising a patrilineal, totemic, tribal community having for its chief a direct descendant from a legend ary ancestor considered to have founded the tribe. His autocracy is limited to an authority sanctioned by custom, and his people will have none of him if he endeavours to exceed that limitation.

To this day, in a large area of the Colony, the people implicitly believe that a magic power called dungua (or Mana ) descends upon their chief from the time of his ceremonial installation. It is an

inheritance from the spirit of the first ancestor handed down through the line of succession. Such is its influence that the remainder of any food from the chiefs table must be thrown away.

Neither his person nor his personal belongings, may be . touched, or used, indiscriminately. Any infringement of these prohibitions brings in its wake some form of disease.

IN administering the tribe, the chief was, prior to settled government, guided and advised by elders of the tribe. After Cession, the value of such a form of local administration was recog nised by the Governor, Sir Arthur Gor don, and was maintained as a legally constituted body called a District Coun cil. There are approximately 185 of these Councils operating in the Colony to-day.

Without the loyal -co-operation of the petty chiefs and elders the administra

tive organisation of government would break down.

Tribes are divided into social groups similar to clans, called matanggali. There may be only two or three of these divi sions, though to enjoy full political life a tribal organisation requires five. The matanggali controls land-ownership and marriage and, therefore, the continuity of the tribe. All members of this social group are close kin, their public and private relations are controlled by a strict code of behaviour.

Within the tribe there are to be found women relatives father’s sister’s daugh ter) who are regarded from infancy as persons whom their male cousins may eventually marry. Betrothal and marriage between this group of relatives is still fairly common and custom permits a cer tain degree of freedom of social and sexual relations between them, but it is important to note that, although the girl’s mother and her future husband belong to the same matanggali , the girl herself will normally belong to a different matanggali. It is quite proper for them, however, to belong to the one tribe.

BECAUSE marriage between members of a matanggali is contrary to cus tom. a child will find no group of female relatives classified to it as “mother” within the clan into which it has been born, unless it happens to be illegitimate. This is because, on mar riage, the woman is accepted socially as another economic unit of her husband’s matanggali, but she never loses member ship of the social unit into which she was born.

In most parts of Fiji her children — especially the first-born —should be born in her village. Soon after the fifth month of pregnancy she leaves her husband’s house for her own home, and stays/ there until the infant is born. Then feast«r and certain rites follow, when the husband’s social unit “claims” the child. The time when a male child becomes recognised as a full member of his father’s matanggali is after circumcision, which takes place when the lad is about 12 years old. From then on, social relations with Ms mother lessen.

When a man dies, members of widow’s matanggali take presents of food and articles to the head of her late hus band’s social, group. After these have been formally accepted she returns to her village (if both belonged to the one village, to her household). She is once more dependent until her death or re marriage upon members of her own matanggali. Her children, however, stay with their father’s group and are brought up by a surviving relative classified as “father.” ris hoped that the foregoing brief, and naturally incomplete, account of the social organisation of a Fijian tribal group is l sufficient to prove the statement that its members are individually and col lectively united by a bond of kinship. In this organisation the welfare of every member is assured: the necessity for “social scurity” to prevent destitution in old age does not and cannot arise.

With the exception of a comparatively small area on western Viti Levu, the ownership of land and village sites is vested in the social group—the matang gali. But what of service: who is respon sible for that?

The unit of service is not the indi vidual. It is a division of the matanggali known by a number of terms, the most common being the tokatoka. A toka toka comprises a whole family group: grandparents, parents, own brothers and sisters, offspring and grandchildren. The matanggali elders are responsible to the tribe for executing communal tasks

allotted to them, and they divide these among the various tokatoka. Tasks are divided between the sexes, the men being responsible for some, the women for ot h ers Thus, the individual, as a unit, is only important when playing the part of “chief,” “herald” or other individual offices! all of which are hereditary. Fijian society, therefore, is an organised social and economic unit, and, as it exists, provision is made to ensure and control continuity, ownership, service and private and public relations.

Money, to Fijians dwelling in their villages, is not really essential for the purchase of necessities. His wants are supplied from the reefs, streams, land and forests. Destitution is, as yet, an un-

known factor, so that any money he may earn goes to purchase certain articles of foreign manufacture that have now come to be considered necessities (i.e., soap, kerosene, matches, cotton goods); but he may, on the other hand, squander it with out going hungry or causing grave hard ship to his dependents, It is fully realised that attention should be given to teach the Fijian the value of money for what it will purchase in the way of better health and social services, water supplies, higher education and better school buildings, churches and facilities for recreation, both physical and mental. By this means, the standard of living can be raised. And an improved standard of lining for the Fijian can be achieved and maintained more efficiently

under the existing tribal system than by endeavouring to anticipate the inevitable course of evolution by unduly hastening this transition to a democratic state. rE reaction by the Fijian community to the call to take part in the war effort was rather interesting. Dur ing the early years of the war, a num ber of men voluntarily joined the Forces as individual units, but the response was only moderate.

So long as recruiting called only for individual effort, the response could not be enthusiastic: the method adopted was not in sympathy with public opinion. The individual volunteer is no hero to his community. He is considered a tamata yasa (an absentee); no better than the man who leaves most of his dependants to fend for themselves in the village while he seeks paid employment.

But when, in November, 1942, at a meeting of the Great Council of Chiefs, the Governor called on Fijians to wage war, the response was electric. Thous ands of men flocked to hastily-constructed military and labour camps.

Many units were led personally by their chiefs; those not accompanied by the head of the social group were led by someone whose authority was mutually acknowledged by the party. Overnight, the war became the Fijians’ war because the Governor had, vakaturanga (in chief like manner), called upon them to share in .it- Thus it is that the hero to the Fijian community is the man who obeys his chief’s call to service: the man who. with other members of his social grohp, is despatched to take part in the war effort, rather than the individual volun teer. His dependants are cared for by those left behind, and the extra work is carried out ungrudgingly.

SOME people have expressed concern at the behaviour of certain Fijians quartered in Suva. The rowdy behaviour was due principally to the fact that young men and women were living in an artificial atmosphere away from their social organisations and from a discipline and authority which they understand. There is nothing in Suva to take the place of tribal authority, which is instinctively obeyed. This also applied to the young women, the sound of whose shrill voices and uncontrolled laughter in the streets mar the stillness of Suva nights. There is no thought in their minds that they might be disturbing a sleeping neighbourhood or that the slum berers might be Europeans, influential or otherwise —the average individual Euro pean (we must face facts!) does not carry an aura of authority and prestige.

Due respect is accorded to certain offices held by Europeans in the hierarchy

of Church and State, but as private citi zens, Europeans have no authoritative affinity with the Fijian and, where the latter is badly brought up spending most of his or her impressionable years in slums, or is suddenly thrust into a non- Fijian environment, what can be expected?

Hundreds of young people and children have been sent back to their villages in recent months. I think it will be gen erally agreed that their absence has made the night less hideous.' Other pessimists prophesy trouble when the troops return from the front “Wait until the Ist Battalion gets back.” some say. What we are to expect is left to the imagination, but it is soberly considered by those who should know, that these forebodings will be proved groundless.* One thing must be emphasised: the Fijian does not personally care what the European thinks about him. It is what his chiefs and elders and the community think that matters—Fijian public opinion, in other words. His outlook is inter racial not international. Press comments and world propaganda for good or ill leave him unmoved. Most of them are unread and unheard, anyway!

I believe that close contact with the fighting men of other races will not per manently affect Fijian society—except towards good. For every ne’er-do-well he has come up against, as a result of the war, he has met scores of fine, brave men. All types of foreigners have settled in Fiji during the past 150 years. But during this long period of Fiji’s history never has the influence of undesirable Europeans offset that of the great Ad ministrators of both Church and State,

* Since this was written, the Ist and 3rd Battalions have returned and their behaviour, as we knew it would be, is excellent.

or the many wise and kindly planters and traders. On the contrary, it is the lat ter whose deeds will never be forgotten and whose names are forever revered; the memory of the former live only for a brief moment in amusing and con temptuous anecdotes told oyer the even ing yaggona. Would the chiefs have ral lied to the call for service and loyalty to the Throne and Empire if the bond between them was nothing stronger than the example of a few undesirables?

WHAT the war has done to the Fijian is not likely to give us cause for concern; it has proved his loyalty; it has found for him his manhood. There is no need for us to worry unless, in our enthusiasm to try to demonstrate our gratitude, we start fiddling around with something of which we know nothing and attempt impatiently to foist our demo cratic ideals on the Fijian, and thereby ruthlessly break down his organised form of society without giving evolution a chance to complete its job.

Remember that this civilisation of ours has taken two thousand years of history to evolve and, on the whole, we have not evolved anything greatly to our credit.

Finally, it should be remembered, also, that what applies to the Fijian com munity applies also in principle to the peoples of the neighbouring Pacific groups, who have been actively engaged in this second global war.