Fiji Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==== Tuka rebellions ==== With almost all aspects of indigenous Fijian social life being controlled by the British colonial authorities, a number of charismatic individuals preaching dissent and return to pre-colonial culture were able to forge a following amongst the disenfranchised. These movements were called Tuka, which roughly translates as "those who stand up". The first Tuka movement was led by Ndoongumoy, better known as Navosavakandua, which means "he who speaks only once". He told his followers that if they returned to traditional ways and worshipped traditional deities such as Degei and Rokola, their current condition would be transformed, with the whites and their puppet Fijian chiefs being subservient to them. Navosavakandua was previously exiled from the Viti Levu highlands in 1878 for disturbing the peace, and the British quickly arrested him and his followers after this open display of rebellion. He was again exiled, this time to [[Rotuma]] where he died soon after his 10-year sentence ended.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Brewster|first1=Adolph|title=Hill tribes of Fiji|date=1922|page=[https://archive.org/details/hilltribesoffiji00brew/page/236 236]|url=https://archive.org/details/hilltribesoffiji00brew|publisher=London Seeley, Service}}</ref> Other Tuka organisations, however, soon appeared. The British colonial administration ruthlessly suppressed both the leaders and followers, with figureheads such as Sailose being banished to an asylum for 12 years. In 1891, entire populations of villages who were sympathetic to the Tuka ideology were deported as punishment.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kaplan|first1=Martha|title=Neither Cargo nor Cult|date=1995|publisher=Duke University Press|pages=100β118|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ey0ms3khaAC|isbn=978-0822315933}}</ref> Three years later in the highlands of Vanua Levu, where locals had re-engaged in traditional religion, Governor Thurston ordered in the Armed Native Constabulary to destroy the towns and the religious relics. Leaders were jailed and villagers exiled or forced to amalgamate into government-run communities.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Nicole|first1=Robert|title=Disturbing History|date=2011|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/1607|isbn=9780824860981|access-date=16 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180416134822/https://muse.jhu.edu/book/1607|archive-date=16 April 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Later, in 1914, [[Apolosi Nawai]] came to the forefront of Fijian Tuka resistance by founding Viti Kabani, a co-operative company that would legally monopolise the agricultural sector and boycott European planters. The British and their proxy Council of Chiefs were not able to prevent the Viti Kabani's rise, and again the colonists were forced to send in the Armed Native Constabulary. Apolosi and his followers were arrested in 1915, and the company collapsed in 1917. Over the next 30 years, Apolosi was re-arrested, jailed and exiled, with the British viewing him as a threat right up to his death in 1946.<ref>[[#Gravelle|Gravelle]], pp. 179β183</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page