Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BLACKBIRDING
Blackbirding
, the recruitment of slave labourers through trickery, flourished in Fiji during
the 1860s, driven by labour shortages in the cotton plantations. European merchants would
drop anchor at remote islands, particularly Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, and persuade
the illiterate locals into signing papers which legitimized a work contract to take them off
to far-away islands as labourers. The locals usually knew nothing of what they had signed
and were lured onto the merchant ships by trinkets and locked in the hold to prevent them
jumping overboard.
As trade in this “black ivory” flourished, merchants became more unscrupulous, suc-
cumbing to blatant kidnapping, rape and murder along the way before selling their human
cargo in Levuka for £10 per head. By 1872, when the trade was put to a stop by the pres-
ence of British warships, roughly four thousand overseas labourers were working in Fiji's
plantations, each man being paid £6 a year under a three-year contract. Most of the labour-
ers were eventually
freed
, some returning to their homelands, but many stayed on, estab-
lishing new settlements on Ovalau and Viti Levu, or being adopted into nearby Fijian vil-
lages.
The deed of cession, October 10, 1874
With the Americans off his back, Cakobau declared the formation of a
government
in
Levuka in 1871 with the backing of a few chiefs, and gained formal recognition of his claim
to be
king
. Of the many bills passed, most concerned regulations in the sale of land, alco-
hol and firearms, and a poll and land tax was introduced to raise funds. These laws didn't go
down well with some parts of the lawless society in Levuka, who immediately incited riots.
Meanwhile, the local Fijians, unable to pay their taxes, were coerced to work on plantations
as their penalty. After two years of government, Cakobau had lost the trust of his people, di-
vided the Levuka traders and accrued a
financial deficit
of £87,000. If that wasn't enough,
Ma'afu and his allies in the north had refused to pay their taxes and the wild Colo hill people
of Viti Levu had begun to attack Christian villages.
With the situation looking bleak, Cakobau once again offered to cede Fiji to Britain. This
time, the new consul, James Goodenough, reported favourably, and with other foreign powers
- notably the Americans, Prussians and French - keen to annex the islands, the British gov-
ernment agreed. On
October 10, 1874
, in a pompous ceremony in Levuka, Cakobau, Ma'afu,
other high chiefs and representatives of Queen Victoria signed the deed ceding sovereignty
to Britain.
One of the first and most significant acts to be passed by the first Governor General, Sir
Arthur Gordon, was the indefinite
suspension of land sales
in order to protect the Fijian sys-
tem of
vanua
or tribal land ownership. The British were keen to preserve the Fijian tribal
