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Capital: Suva
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The deep problem opposing indigenous Melanesians to Indian immigrants remains unsolved in Fiji. The indigenous population has adopted various brands of Christianity which they practice fervently but they remain attached to their traditional values. The Melanesian communities own 90 percent of the land but the people are relatively lazy and easy-going and many are satisfied with subsitence farming. The Indians, (90% Hindu and 10% Muslim) are the descendants of farm workers imported from India more than a century ago. Thrifty and hard-working they do well in commerce and in growing sugarcane on communal lands rented for a pittance. The Indians have developed more rapidly than their Melanesian hosts which they now almost equal in number and dominate economically. The two communities coexist but do not mix. There have been riots and coups in 1997 and 2000. Fiji is however more civilised than the Solomon Islands, (where canibalism was still practiced in in the '30's) and the Fiji problem is presently quiescent even though it is more deep rooted than the Honiara conflict because it involves different ethnic groups and religions. |
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Nadi is a small place with only 30 000 people. I had just been here to change planes on my way to Honiara two weeks ago and I had spent some time here before to take a Padi scuba diving course in 1996.
This time, Nadi was going to be my base for a trip to the interior of the island, and for another side flight to Nauru and Tarawa, before moving on to the Cook Islands.
I first stayed at Sunseekers Hotel just north of town and later moved to the Nadi Hotel shown here which was more centrally located.
The corner of Main Street and Market Road is the center of Nadi.
Religious groups are very active here like everywhere else in the Pacific Islands. I have no idea of what denomination this group belonged to but if the enthusiasm they put into their singing and prancing is any indication, they will surely be going to where they think they're going.
The Hindu believers are just as convinced of their absolute truths but they are less noisy about it. They make up for their silence with the brightly colored grotesque figures most of their temples are decorated with.
Not all Hindu temples are as garish as the big one in Nadi, here is a modest one in the countryside on the road between Nadi and Sigatoka.
And here is another.
I took an overnight organized tour to the inland village of Bukuya to satisfy my curiosity about the Melanesian way of life.
I was not disappointed by the scenery which was superb but I felt that the other aspects of the tour were contrived and made-to-measure for tourists.
I'm sure that I would have learned more about today's reality of life in the interior if I had been able to roam these hills in a four-wheel-drive by myself or with two or three other curious souls to share the costs.
This is Bukuya. All the houses have galvanized iron roofs except the few huts that are reserved for tourists on the right in this picture and the ceremonial Chief's house.
This was the hut where I was supposed to experience something about Melanesian life. I did not mind sleeping on the floor and the lack of facilities but I felt it was a little expensive at 50 $US a night.
This was the chief's ceremonial house which we did not get to see because he received us in his every-day galvanised iron house.
Here is the hereditary chief of Bukuya. Being the chief is a full time job for he contributes nothing else to his community. He made a point to be arrogant about his privileges which include being rude to his wife who prepared the ceremonial kava for us.
The chief's wife bowed to his harsh command to prepare kava and a young boy about 10 years of age came in to carry coconut cups of the mild narcotic to the master and his 4 guests.
The chief's wife was a warm easy-going person and we had a few quality moments after he left us. I still don't know whether the chief was really the bastard he appeared to be or whether he was just putting on a show to impress us with power that the traditional chiefs used to wield in the past. Either way it was distasteful to me.
We then visited a nearby family where the wife was taking care of her children while the husband slept on the floor.
On the way back to our huts we came across this group washing clothes in a mountain stream.
My overall impression of Bukuya was not very positive but I must say that the family that hosted us made every effort to do it well. Dinner of fish, taro and greens was tasty and the company of Peter, Emma, Lucy, Amalia and Julia saved the day.
I generally have a positive bias in favor of the people and places I visit but I quickly lose that if I become aware that I am being manipulated or taken for a ride. I don't know exactly what it was that turned me off in Bukuya. The village of Bechiyal in Yap was also organized to cater to tourists and I had loved it. Maybe it was the chiefs arrogance, or maybe I did not like being served cheap grocery store kava after honoring the chief with a compulsory gift of natural kava roots worth 10 times more. Maybe it was something else, sometimes it takes very little to make a situation turn sour!
Anyway, I was glad to get back to the Nadi Hotel for a couple of days before my flight to Nauru.
