Political Science Strand University of Papua New Guinea South Pacific Politics Semester 1/2012 This hand-out complements

s lecture presentations for the Political Science course, South Pacific Politics offered in the first semester of the academic year 2012. DO NOT QUOTE FROM THIS MATERIAL! Terminologies commonly used in colonial and decolonization discourse:
1]. Settler colonies colonies that were predominantly established for the purpose of European settlement. Invariably most settler colonies in the periods from 1750-1900 were predominantly comprised of white emigrants from Europe. Some examples include: British North America, Australia, New Zealand, French Algeria, New Caledonia and so forth. 2]. Protectorate a form or strategy of imposing influence over a territory (usually less powerful) by a dominant power. The latter pledges or guarantees the protection of the less powerful either from external threats or any perceived threats of internal disorder. In the Pacific Islands, two examples are relevant: firstly, the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (present-day Solomon Islands which was declared a British protectorate in 1893. Britain used the justification of establishing a protectorate in the Solomon Island with the ostensible aim of preventing unscrupulous labor recruiters from exploiting indigenous Solomon Islanders. Perhaps this was also a cover-up since Britain was also acting to pre-empt German interests through western Solomon Islands. The British unwillingly, on the behest of the Australian settler colonies declared British New Guinea later Papua a protectorate in 1884. The British declaration was a direct strategic move impelled by Germanys own declaration of its protectorate in German (northern) New Guinea in 1884 too. 3]. Resistance movement in the context of colonialism and decolonization in the Pacific Islands, resistance movements are vehicles through which islanders negotiate new social and political identities. Such political activism had anti-white and anti-colonial intentions. In recent decades since the 1970s resistance movements in Hawaii and New Zealand have addressed broader selfdetermination agendas. 4]. Syncretic movements are sometimes known as neo-traditional movements, who merged introduced (Western) values/belief systems with indigenous belief systems in an attempt to explain changes in their societies. Movements such as cargo cults mixed religious activities, rituals and ideological approaches in their quest to better understand Western materialism. 5]. Micro-nationalist movements a term first used by Ron May (1975, 1982) to describe movements that sought to contest, actively or passively, the political boundaries of the modern states. Examples of micro-nationalist movements include the Mataungan Association that was prevalent in the Gazelle Peninsular of East New Britain in the 1960s. Another example would be the Maasina Rulu, a localized movement asserting Malaitan cultural revitalization and anti-colonial sentiments. This movement started in the late 1940s after the Second World War experience in the Solomon Islands. 6]. Fatal impact the term first used by Alan Moorehead to show the destructive effects that was felt in Pacific Island communities who came into contact with Europeans. Some Pacific communities were depopulated as a result of venereal diseases. Robert Kiste (1994) summarized some of the elements of fatal impact where fatalities resulted in novel afflictions such as measles and influenza to which the islanders had no natural immunity. Violence was common. Alcohol ravaged people unaccustomed to drink, and firearms heightened the seriousness of indigenous conflicts. Depopulation became a serious problem throughout the region, and by the end of the nineteenth century. Most Europeans believed Pacific Islanders doomed to extinction (p.11). 1

7]. Pacification the act of pacifying. To pacify means to restore or impose law and order. In the colonial history of Pacific Island societies, there are: (i) direct forms of pacification e.g. where overwhelming use of force by the police (agents of the colonial state) served as pre-emptive acts against potential trouble-makers and, (ii) indirect forms of pacification e.g. through taxation laws, getting indigenous peoples to work on plantations so as to pay their head taxes to the colonial officers. Work became a strategy of pacification because it was argued that when Natives expended their time and energy on productive pursuits, they will naturally stay out of trouble such as engaging in tribal wars, sorcery, etc. The use of the Churches in preaching the message of Christian living was also considered as a pacification strategy since Natives were expected to disown practices that were deemed sinful and lawless (e.g. cannibalism, tribal feuds, human sacrifices, etc.). 8]. Black-birding exploitation of Pacific Islanders in plantation labour through outright trickery or kidnapping. Some labourers were well treated but many were not, and their rewards were not always as promised. Sometimes by choice, a minority never saw their homelands again. At its worst, blackbirding was akin to slavery. 9]. Indentured labour - -a system of indenture whereby islanders obligated their labour for a few years in exchange for subsistence, a small wage, and a bonus of cash or goods on their return home. 10]. Direct/Indirect rule the strategies used by colonial powers to impose order and colonial control over its subjects. Direct rule was the formal process of administering colonies where appointed/delegated officials from the colonial powers were stationed first-hand in the colonies either as managers, colonial officials, patrol officers, policemen, etc. Indirect rule was the use of mediatory officials, who operating on behalf of the colonial powers. Indirect rule meant that chiefs, tultuls, luluais, magistrates, bigmen, etc. are delegated powers to act for the interest of the colonial powers. This approach was most obvious where the colonial powers saw it in their interest to integrate preexisting structures of leadership into their introduced colonial order. For instance, the Great Council of Chiefs in the Fijian islands was created in the late 1890s with the view to maintain the traditional allegiance of the Fijian people to their chieftaincy system and also act as a mediator for British colonial interests. 11. Beachcombers from the 1790s to the 1890s, beachcombers is the terms used to describe the lifestyle of European men (crewmen from ships) who found themselves in local communities after deserting their ships and superiors. Beachcombers became free agents and lived out their lives in the Pacific communities they were adopted into. According to Robert Kiste (1994), the beachcombers were the first foreigners to establish residence in the islands and learn the indigenous languages. Many married or formed long-term liaisons with local women and left with numerous offspring. A few became attached to chiefs and served as advisers or intermediaries in relations with Europeans. Many became traders and facilitated the early involvement of the islands in the larger world economy (p.10). Some European males could have been castaways or victims of shipwrecks. Beachcombers became prominent in the local struggles of rival leaders. For instance, Ratu Cakobau of Fiji in the 1850s-60s employed the services of European beachcombers in an attempt to impose his rule and authority as the King of Fiji. King Kamehameha I also used beachcombers in his conquest of Oahu Island the seat of government in the Hawaiian islands ever since. Beachcombers knowledge in the use of guns proved advantageous in these instances. 12].Penal colonies sites where convicts were disposed off to serve their time. The convicts who settled in colonies in the Pacific were mostly from Europe. Examples of penal colonies were Port Arthur in Tasmania, Botany Bay in New South Wales and New Caledonia. In the latter it served as a penal colony for French nationals. The two former (Port Arthur and Botany Bay) were designated for British subjects who were part of the overcrowded mass in the Old Bailey in London and had to be sent to the Australian colony in the 1790s.