Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0138/01387.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 33KB | 533 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01387}
$Pretitle{294E}
$Title{French Polynesia
Chapter 2.    The Postwar Period}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Donald M. Seekins}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{french
government
percent
territory
territorial
local
islands
france
polynesia
assembly}
$Date{1984}
$Log{Town of Papeete*0138701.scf
}
Country:     French Polynesia
Book:        Oceania, An Area Study: French Polynesia
Author:      Donald M. Seekins
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1984

Chapter 2.    The Postwar Period

     French colonial domination of the political system and the general
breakdown of traditional Polynesian institutions precluded the development of
strong political movements among Polynesians before World War II. Popular
affection for the memory of the independent Tahitian kingdom under the
Pomares and discontent with French rule, however, were strong. In 1947 Marcel
Pouvanaa a Oopa, a World War I veteran who had led national revival movements
between the wars, established the Pouvanaa Committee, later known as the
Tahitian People's Democratic Party, to demand a greater measure of
self-government for the indigenous people. In April 1958, on the eve of
elections held in all French overseas possessions to determine whether they
would remain in association with France, Pouvanaa a Oopa campaigned for full
independence. Sixty-four percent of the electorate, however, chose to retain
the islands' status as a French overseas territory in which a measure of local
power was vested in a popularly elected legislature. Shortly after the
referendum Pouvanaa a Oopa and some of his followers were arrested on charges
of attempted murder and arson, and he was exiled to France.

     Pouvanaa a Oopa's associates, Francis Sanford and John Teariki, carried
on the struggle for greater political rights, and in 1977 the French
government granted a new statute giving the overseas territory a larger
measure of autonomy. Pouvanaa a Oopa had returned to the islands in 1968 and
served as French Polynesia's representative to the French Senate between 1971
and his death in 1977.

     One development of importance for society in French Polynesia in the
postwar period was the promotion of tourism. In 1960 an international airport
capable of handling jet airliners was built at Faaa, near Papeete, and during
the following two decades a system of international hotels and resorts was
established. By the late 1970s more than 90,000 tourists a year on average
were visiting Tahiti and the outer islands, providing considerable employment
in the service sector of the local economy.

[See Town of Papeete: Town of Papeete. Courtesy Tahiti Tourist Promotion Board
Tini Colombel]

     A development of even greater significance was the French government's
decision to establish the Pacific Test Center on the atolls of Mururoa and
Fangataufa in the Tuamotu group. In the period between 1966, when the
facility was opened, and 1974, when atmospheric testing was halted, France
exploded 41 nuclear bombs at the site. Because of strong protests from
countries in the Pacific region, such as New Zealand, Fiji, and Australia,
nuclear tests were limited to underground explosions after 1974. Critics have
charged that nuclear fallout and seepage from the underground test site have
contaminated the environment and caused an increased incidence of cancer and
other illnesses among French Polynesia's inhabitants (see The Nuclear Issue,
ch. 5). For most Polynesians, however, the most visible effects of the test
center have been economic, stimulating further rapid expansion of the service
sector-largely at the expense of agriculture-and leading to increased salaries
and changed living standards.

The Social System

     The population of French Polynesia experienced an average annual growth
rate of 2.1 percent in the 1975-80 period. The rate of growth has been slowing
since the 1965-70 period, when it attained a post-World War II high of 4.1
percent average annual increase. The 1977 census revealed that 53 percent of
the population was below 20 years of age.

     The population is concentrated in and around the territorial capital of
Papeete on the island of Tahiti. Papeete and environs (including the townships
of Faaa and Pirae) had a population of approximately 85,000 in 1983, or 54
percent of the total. In 1981 the population of the Windward group, including
Tahiti, was 101,401 (68.1 percent of the total). The Leeward group had 25,042
(16.8 percent of the total), the Marquesas 6,116 (4.1 percent), the Austral
Islands 5,628 (3.8 percent), and the Tuamotu Archipelago and the Mangareva
Islands 10,768 (7.2 percent). At that time the average number of persons per
square kilometer in the territory was 37, ranging from 84 per square kilometer
in the Windwards to eight persons per square kilometer in the Marquesas.

Ethnic Differentiation and Social Structure

     At the time of the 1977 census, there were 15,338 Europeans resident in
French Polynesia, or 11.2 percent of the total population. Estimates for 1983
place the number at approximately 25,000. Europeans lived primarily in urban
areas, although a small number could be found in almost every outlying
community. Many were men married to Polynesian women. A substantial number of
the Europeans were French civil servants or military personnel sent to the
territory for specified tours of duty. Others were permanent residents,
including families who have lived in the islands for two or more generations.
Most Europeans, however, came to the islands during the 1960s and 1970s.

     The Asian community, practically all Chinese, numbered 7,356 in 1977, or
5.4 percent of the total population. They were estimated to number 12,000 in
1983. The Chinese have retained a virtual monopoly on retail trade. Although
the large majority lived in Papeete, most rural communities had a general
store run by a Chinese family. A few Chinese continued to cultivate cash
crops, such as vanilla or garden vegetables, owning as much as 15 percent of
the territory's arable land. Often they leased plots to other cultivators.

     The degree of Westernization of the indigenous Polynesians of the
territory varied, a phenomenon that was explicitly recognized by the people
themselves and was reflected in census statistics. In 1977 about 23,700 people
(17.2 percent of the population) classified themselves as demis, meaning
persons of half-European extraction. The remainder of the indigenous
population regarded themselves as maohi, or traditional Polynesians. In 1977
they numbered 90,160 persons (65.6 percent of the population).

     The distinction between demis and maohi is to some extent an ethnic
classification in that the demis are assumed to be of part European descent.
Multiethnic ancestry, however, has been highly prevalent in French Polynesia
for almost two centuries, and many persons regarded by themselves and others
as unambiguously Polynesian have some European ancestry. Differentiation
between demi and maohi categories is not clear-cut, and French government
officials in charge of compiling the 1977 census confessed that in many cases
the people themselves could not make a clear distinction. In general, however,
compared with maohi, demis have more modern skills, more years of schooling,
and higher incomes. They are also more comfortable speaking French and have
pursued a standard of living that more closely approximates that of Europeans.

     The cutoff point along the scale of Westernization that determines
whether a person is demi or maohi is a matter of individual judgment, and the
criteria keep changing as the entire indigenous population becomes
progressively Westernized. As of mid-1984 the demis filled the lesser
administration posts, were well represented in the Territorial Assembly,
operated business enterprises and plantations, and filled some professional
and many clerical and skilled labor jobs. The maohis were characteristically
wage earners or cash croppers who supplemented their livelihood by sub