Disturbing History: Resistance in Early Colonial Fiji

Chapter One: The Colo War of 1876

14 &+$37(521( 7KH&ROR:DURI The Colo War has its origins in the twenty-year period that preceded the signing of the Deed of Cession, the document that formalised the British takeover of the Fiji Islands in October 1874. In piecing together the complexities of the war, the chapter begins with a reconstruction of the nineteenthcentury Colo world.1 This first section is important because it sketches the context from which important historical, political, geographical, and thematic issues emerge in subsequent chapters.The discussion then moves to a detailed reconstruction of this little-known war with a view toward challenging the popular perception that Fiji’s transition to colonial rule was ordered and peaceful. $&RXUVHIRU&ROOLVLRQ Many Fiji historians2 identify the Battle of Kaba of 1855 as a watershed in post-European-contact Fijian history mainly because it established the island of Bau and its Vunivalu, Ratu Seru Cakobau, as the most powerful political forces in Fiji. Yet the large number of upheavals sustained in the next two decades suggests that, far from being monopolised by Bau, power in the islands was still in considerable flux. The Battle of Kaba effectively settled long-standing quarrels between Bauan chiefs and their rival Rewan counterparts , but these districts constituted only a fraction of the population and land of Fiji. Although several other regions were sympathetic or loosely allied with one camp or the other and would have felt some repercussions, most people remained relatively untouched by this event. Even if Bau was the clear victor, the war is striking for the number of problems that were left unresolved. Map 1.1. Southeastern Viti Levu before Cession (1874). Sawakasa Wainibuka Verata TAILEVU BAU NAITASIRI Suva REWA Vugalei Bau I. Viwa Ucunivanua Kaba Navuloa Wesleyan Training Centre -1870 Davuilevu Wesleyan Mission - 1868 * * * * Viria Lomaivuna Kilometers 0 4 8 N 16 chapter 1 The war had barely finished when coastal and inland chiefdoms (Nakorotubu, Vugalei, Viria, Lomaivuna, Soloira, among others) proclaimed themselves free of tributary obligations to Bau. In the interior, the tribes of Colo continued to assert their independence and to resist Bauan expansion. This was reflected most dramatically in the killing of Reverend Thomas Baker and seven of his Wesleyan vuli (students) in Nabutautau (district of Navatusila ) in July 1867. It is tempting to read Baker’s death as a statement against Christianity and foreign intrusion into Colo territory. Yet the British consul had passed through Nabutautau two years before Baker’s murder. Consul Jones had been welcomed in the village because Britain did not then pose an immediate threat to the autonomy of the area. Katakataisomo, the same Nabutautau chief who ordered Baker’s execution, had accompanied Jones back to the northern coast where they encountered several refugees fleeing Bauan soldiers led by Ratu Cakobau’s son, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau. The air was full of smoke from the burning villages plundered by the Bauan army.3 Fearing an attack on the village , Katakataisomo returned to fortify the area. The attack on Baker is closely linked to the association that Kai Colo (inhabitants of the interior) made between him and their Bauan enemies. Of Bau’s allies, the Wesleyan mission was singled out as the most dangerous. After the Battle of Kaba and Cakobau’s conversion to Christianity, missionaries began to acquire considerable influence in Fijian politics, and Bau became the centre of Wesleyanism in Fiji.4 The missionaries never concealed their support for Cakobau. His ascendancy in Fiji politics suited them because it provided a strong platform from which to conduct evangelical campaigns in the rest of the archipelago.5 On the flip side however, Wesleyanism became widely recognised as being partisan in all matters relating to Bau. The killing of seven vuli in Baker’s party is also significant because they represented the same threat that Baker did.6 Christian evangelism, whether it wore white skin or black, was linked in the minds of the hillmen of Colo with subservience to Bau.They saw the lotu (Christianity or the Christian Church) as the instrument by which Bau sought to extend its influence over their land. Although the mission did not participate in any war, its moral credibility was undermined by the mercenary methods adopted by Christian warlords such as Cakobau. As such, the lotu was understood in Colo principally as an agent of destruction,7 and Baker’s death with that of the seven vuli was Colo’s unequivocal...