Ko i au Beka

The Lovoni were and still are some of the proudest of Fijians. They were reknown throughout the Fiji Islands and during the period of contact with the first Europeans as the overlords of Ovalau, burning and setting fire to Levuka town several times which eventually saw the departure of the first European settlers to Savusavu. They were traditional allies and had close family links to the Roko Tui Bau, succesfully holding off his rival to power, the Vunivalu Cakobau, warlord of Bau. They also aided greatly in the revolt of Kaba and resisiting the total subjugation of the Lomaiviti islands to the Vunivalu of Bau.

After the assasination of RAtu VArani of Viwa by the Lovoni in Lovoni Lomanikoro and the constant defeat of the forces of the Vunivalu, what has often been described in the annals of Fijian history by outside and independant sources, as one of the the most Machiavellian moves of CAkobau took place. Which also showed his military and political genius. He used the church, as he had used the European traders earlier for their superior technology and arms to consolidate his power.

He summoned one of the most charismatic Wesleyan missionaries and charged him, Mr Langham, with the mission to go up and offer peace to the mountain tribes, and to persuade them to lay down their weapons for the sake of peace and reconciliation and allegiance to Christ the King of all men.

My paternal great great great grandfather fell for the holy book, and the man 'from the sky' who told such fantastic and promising stories of salvation. He ordered his people to lay down their arms and accept the Vunivalu's offer. Times are now changing. The Lord of Mataiwelagi could only have the good of his extended family and the region at heart.

So they assembled for a great feast of reconciliation in Nasova, just out of Levuka, where the deed of cession would be signed a few years later marking the cession of Fiji as a united country to Great Britian.

At the onset of the feast, when all seemed well on its way and loyalties had been re-established, the Vunivalu struck.

The arrestation and confiscation of the Lovoni began that night. LAnds were confiscated, and the people of Lovoni and its tributaries arrested and assembled in Nasova and Levuka for what would be one of the most shameful episodes of Fiji's history. The sale of its own peoples by its own leaders into slavery. The Lovoni were sold to all the European and American planters in Fiji at the time. All monies from this sale were supposedly used to establish the Cakobau government in Fiji.

The government was a failure. He indebted himself, en plus, to the Americans.And the rest is, well, History. He ceded Fiji to Queen Victoria to stave off the other competing powers, and to avoid American confiscation and confiscation of the islands.

Now, the point of all this 'histoire', is the picture.

Those pictured here in the postcard are some of the Lovoni sold off to slavery. Their fate was to be sealed in part, in photography. They were sold to the American Barnum circus and toured the length and width of America as curiosity items 'Figi Cannibals'. They belonged to the mataqali or clan of the Kai Nakoro of Lovoni Lomani Koro, the very seat of Lovoni's power, and issuing from its leading ruling families, the Bete Turaga Ra Biau (the shortest of the four) whose lineage can be found in Bua to this day, and the others from the yavusa Wailevu, notably the Kai NAkoro and the Vunivalu family of Lovoni...

As a proud grandson of these proud, dignified, undefeated people, I cannot post these pictures here without paying these ancestors of mine the particular tribute that is owed to them and their tragedy....which is not theirs alone, but that of millions of others around the world, the manifestation of a darker side of humankind.

It should not happen again. To anyone. Anywhere. In the world. And I pay tribute to them and their memory here, for those of you who may wish to care...

Ko i au Beka.

...for Ratu Kulati Koli Rakavono.