Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0379/03793.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 13KB | 245 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03793}
$Pretitle{294V}
$Title{Tuvalu
Chapter 1.    General Information}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Frederica M. Bunge}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{islands
tuvalu
ellice
funafuti
population
system
britain
islanders
vaitupu
based}
$Date{1984}
$Log{Tahitian Tiki*0379301.scf
Figure 20.*0379302.scf
}
Country:     Tuvalu
Book:        Oceania, An Area Study: Tuvalu
Author:      Frederica M. Bunge
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1984

Chapter 1.    General Information

[See Tahitian Tiki: Typical of traditional Polynesian sacred images in human
form, Artist's rendition.]

Previous Name         Ellice Islands
Political Status      Independent
                        state (1978)
Capital               Funafuti
Population            8,200 (1984)
                        midyear estimate)
Area                  26 square
                         kilometers
Currency              Australian
                        dollar ($A)
Major Islands         Funafuti, Vaitupu

     Tuvalu is among the newest, smallest, and poorest nations of the
world. In mid-1984 its sixth anniversary of independence was yet to come.
Although a 200-nautical-mile EEZ (see Glossary) around its nine coral
islands and atolls incorporated some 900,000 square kilometers of ocean
area, its land area totaled only 26 square kilometers. Labor skilled in
traditional agricultural, handicraft, and maritime occupations and
extensive stands of coconut palms were its significant resources.

     Weak external transportation and communications links left it even
more geographically isolated than many countries in Oceania. Among its
closest neighbors were Kiribati to the north and northeast, Western Samoa
to the southeast, and Fiji to the south. It had shared a colonial
experience under British rule with the Gilbert Islands, which later became
part of Kiribati, and it shared close cultural links with Western Samoa. A
majority of its people are Polynesians, and their language, Tuvalu, has
many Samoan loanwords.

Physical Environment

     Tuvalu, meaning "eight standing together," takes its name from its
eight inhabited coral islands and atolls, the ninth being uninhabited.
Formerly called the Ellice Islands, the group extends in a winding line
from about 5 degrees to 10 degrees south latitude and from 176 degrees
east longitude to the international dateline (see fig. 20). Few land areas
are more than four meters above sea level. Vaitupu is the largest island;
Funafuti, the site of government, is the most densely populated.

[See Figure 20.: Tuvalu, 1984]

     Life can be sustained on these physically unfavored coral formations-if
only by the exercise of consummate skill in conserving resources-because
of the presence of small patches of arable soil and shoreline vegetation.
Rainfall must be collected for drinking water. Before the coming of the
Europeans, 4,000 or more islanders may once have lived in the archipelago;
nevertheless, overpopulation was a constant threat, and emigration provided a
safety net. At times, however, the inhabitants probably resorted to
infanticide.

     The climate is hot, but prevailing easterly trade winds moderate the
high temperatures between March and October. November through February
bring westerly gales and considerable rain. The sandy, rubbled coral soils
are particularly suited to coconut palms, and some pandani (screw pine) are
found; other vegetation, however is limited. Vaitupu has a closed-off,
fish-filled lagoon.

     Estimates since the mid-twentieth century show a steady rise in the
population, from 4,700 in 1950 to 5,800 in 1970. A census taken in May
1979, soon after independence, indicated a total population of 7,300.
Official sources report an average annual growth rate for three five-year
intervals beginning with 1965-70 of 0.9, 1.3, and 3.9 percent,
respectively. A growth rate for 1980-85 of 1.6 percent is projected, based
on the recent census and average annual growth rate.

Historical Setting

     Island tradition has it that the inhabitants emigrated from the Samoa
Islands in the sixteenth century. Based on the physical and cultural
characteristics of Tuvaluans today, there is some reasons for subscribing
to this belief. Over the centuries the islands came in contact with traders
and navigators from other parts of the world.

     Europeans discovered some of the Gilbert and Ellice islands in 1568 and
had come across all of them by 1824. Other than a few copra traders, however,
Europeans did not become involved in local affairs as heavily as others
were to become on more richly endowed Pacific islands. Blackbirders, who
rounded up scores of islanders to work in mines and on plantations in Latin
America, and whalers, who visited the islands for rest and recreation,
provided the most significant contact with the outside world. The population
was decimated by the new diseases introduced by the visitors and by the
depredations of the blackbirders.

     In the final quarter of the eighteenth century, the Ellice Islands
became linked to Britain. In 1877 they were placed with other groups under
the British-administered Western Pacific High Commission. In 1892 a British
protectorate was declared over the Gilbert and Ellice islands, and in 1916
the protectorate was reorganized as the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony
(GEIC).

     The Gilberts were occupied by the Japanese in 1942, but the Ellice
Islands escaped occupation. The capital of the GEIC was moved temporarily
to Funafuti. Thousands of Americans were stationed on Funafuti and
elsewhere in the Ellice Islands during the war, and islanders working for
them gained new skills and earned valuable revenues. After World War II the
colony was slowly prepared for eventual self-rule through the evolution of
a series of advisory and legislative bodies. In October 1975 a popular
referendum brought about the severance of the Ellice Islands from the GEIC,
and they emerged as a separate dependency, renamed Tuvalu. Three years
later Tuvalu became an independent country. As such, it continued relations
with Britain as a "special member" of the Commonwealth of Nations, without
representation at the heads of government sessions of that body.

The Social System

     Traditionally, social organization was based on a system of clans,
whose chiefs held the positions of leadership in island society. The system
was supported by sanctions based on customary belief and practice. Much of
this changed rapidly in the second half of the nineteenth century, however,
owing to the influence of Congregationalist pastors from the Samoa Islands
aided after 1870 by the London Missionary Society. By 1900 the overwhelming
majority of the population had become Protestant. Within a short time the
Samoan missionaries fully usurped the authority of the clan elders and
undermined the traditional social order and belief system on which it was
based.

     In mid-1980 about 95 percent of the population professed Christianity;
the leading institution was the Tuvalu Church, founded in 1861. There were
about 200 Roman Catholic believers, but anti-Catholic sentiment prevented
the building of Catholic churches on some islands.

     In other aspects of education and culture, Tuvaluans showed a marked
degree of uniformity and homogeneity as well. The Micronesian inhabitants
of Nui speak a dialect of Gilbertese, which is a Micronesian language
spoken in Kiribati. On each of the other islands, however, the inhabitants
speak one or another of seven mutually intelligible Tuvalu dialects. Among
the various dialects, Vaitupu is the most widely spoken and most
prestigious, more widely disseminated than the others because of its use in
the local press and radiobroadcasts. English is also used throughout the
islands. Most Tuvaluans were literate, and by the early 1980s primary
schools existed on all the islands. Motufoua School on Vaitupu provided
secondary education to several hundred students. A few islanders attended
secondary schools, co