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Thursday, November 7, 2013

Kwaio man launched book about his people

Benjamin Afuga
A KWAIO MAN LAUNCH A BOOK AT THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

At an exceptional occasion Tuesday this week at the Australian National University’s (ANU) University House, coinciding with the Solomon Islands Transition Workshop, a little known Esau Kekeubata of the interior of East Kwaio was given a rare honor to launch Doctor David Akin’s book: “Colonialism, Maasina Rule, and the Origins of Malaitan Kastom”.

Mr. Kekeubata was the star of the show and received a standing ovation from professors, Academics, scholars and other distinguished invitees. Esau began the ritual by acknowledging the original owners of the land where he is now standing and where ANU is built on. ...Continue Reading

A KWAIO LAUNCH A BOOK AT THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY At an exceptional occasion Tuesday this week at the Australian National University’s (ANU) University House, coinciding with the Solomon Islands Transition Workshop, a little known Esau Kekeubata of the interior of East Kwaio was given a rare honor to launch Doctor David Akin’s book: “Colonialism, Maasina Rule, and the Origins of Malaitan Kastom”. Mr. Kekeubata was the star of the show and received a standing ovation from professors, Academics, scholars and other distinguished invitees. Esau began the ritual by acknowledging the original owners of the land where he is now standing and where ANU is built on. “I wish to begin by acknowledging the owners of this land which I stand today to launch this book”. He then stunned the audience when he admitted that he only attended school for only 1 and half years and humbled to be given the rare opportunity to launch Dr Akin’s book. This book is a political history of the island of Malaita in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate from 1927, when the last violent resistance to colonial rule was crushed, to 1953 and the inauguration of the island’s first representative political body, the Malaita Council. At the book’s heart is a political movement known as Maasina Rule, which dominated political affairs in the southeastern Solomons for many years after World War II. The movement’s ideology, kastom, was grounded in the determination that only Malaitans themselves could properly chart their future through application of Malaitan sensibilities and methods, free from British interference. Kastom promoted a radical transformation of Malaitan lives by sweeping social engineering projects and alternative governing and legal structures. When the government tried to suppress Maasina Rule through force, its followers brought colonial administration on the island to a halt for several years through a labor strike and massive civil resistance actions that overflowed government prison camps. David Akin draws on extensive archival and field research to present a practice-based analysis of colonial officers’ interactions with Malaitans in the years leading up to and during Maasina Rule. A primary focus is the place of knowledge in the colonial administration. Many scholars have explored how various regimes deployed “colonial knowledge” of subject populations in Asia and Africa to reorder and rule them. The British imported to the Solomons models for “native administration” based on such an approach, particularly schemes of indirect rule developed in Africa. The concept of “custom” was basic to these schemes and to European understandings of Melanesians, and it was made the lynchpin of government policies that granted limited political roles to local ideas and practices. Officers knew very little about Malaitan cultures, however, and Malaitans seized the opportunity to transform custom intokastom, as the foundation for a new society. The book’s overarching topic is the dangerous road that colonial ignorance paved for policy makers, from young cadets in the field to high officials in distant Fiji and London. Today kastom remains a powerful concept on Malaita, but continued confusion regarding its origins, history, and meanings hampers understandings of contemporary Malaitan politics and of Malaitan people’s ongoing, problematic relations with the state. Read more in the local Newspapers tomorrow. Picture: Dr. Akin and Esau after the book launching.

Unlike ·  · Follow Post · 14 hours ago · Edited
  • Li Kris not sure if the term Ma'asina "rule" is the correct one.
    14 hours ago · Like · 1
  • Li Kris Im hoping to read the book one day
    14 hours ago · Like
  • Rebecca Monson Li Kris, Joe D Foukona actually raised the issue of name/terminology in a seminar Dr Akin gave this afternoon.
    14 hours ago via mobile · Like · 2
  • Benjamin Afuga Oh how was the Seminar this afternoon Rebecca Monson? I missed it. It's a pleasure meeting you in person RM. 

    What was answer from David Akin Rebecca?
    14 hours ago · Like · 1
  • Rebecca Monson The seminar was good but I think I'm too tired to think about anything today!! It was lovely meeting you, too, I'm sorry we didn't get to chat more. 

    I'll leave Joe D Foukona to tell you about his question and the answer/discussion that followed!
    14 hours ago via mobile · Like · 1
  • Geoff Asipara Rahari If only one can turn back time and ask the very leaders that came up with the name "ma'asina ruru" (which is the term used), this term will have an open quote to it. From an Are'are speaking language, "ma'asina ruru" literally means "rule (ruru) of brotherhood (ma'asina)." My understanding (having grown up at one point with my grandad who is Alick Nono'ohimae's first cousin), he mentioned that the name originated from the ma'asina ruru movement at a time when the leaders of the movement were counteracting British admin rules by forming their own rules of engagement within the village clusters built around Malaita in that period. These villages were looked after by "headman" and each headman represents that village to form the Ma'asina ruru council. Again, this is an anecdotal quote from my grandad.
    14 hours ago via mobile · Edited · Like · 3
  • Rebecca Monson I should add for those interested that David mentioned to me that he wanted to bring copies of his book with him to send to Solo, but he couldn't fit them in his baggage (a problem we can all relate to!)
    14 hours ago via mobile · Like · 3
  • David Houpere This is an island-center approach, which our own history is present to us. I'm proud of this book and the challenge is, lets make this book in to an endless conversation means different way our history is present....can be in a counter narrative films(movie),historical novels(fiction), etc...and we all can benefit, as it will attracts scholars,movie stars and tourists..
    14 hours ago · Like · 1
  • Malaii P Maesilia Seen here another pic of David Akin, enjoying a few jokes with Tony Koraua and Esau Kekeubata.
    13 hours ago · Like · 7
  • Cggn Kr Quote: "he only attended school for only 1 and half years and humbled to be given the rare opportunity to launch Dr Akin’s book". My greatest honor & the highest respect to you Esau Kekeubata...your knowledge & education is still greater than Harvard, Cambridge & Oxford to me; cos to me its pure!! Salute you sir, plus my admiration!!!
    11 hours ago · Edited · Like · 7
  • Garruda Wantime Esau hats off, but why does someone else have to write our history, why can we write our own history, through our own perspective and interpret it the way we see it, nw someone else is an expert in our history bcos he wrote something about it? he researched it, nomoa ba, its us who live the history, we shud be the expert, hem tingting nomoa
    8 hours ago · Like · 3
  • Benjamin Afuga A very valid argument GW. This is a challenge indeed.
    6 hours ago via mobile · Like · 1
  • Cggn Kr GW- first of all (as we all know) writing was not part of our culture, instead thru oral tradition!!! It's funny we ask that same question every time a foreigner does that; I mean we should be thankful for their dispensation (which is ahead of ours), in that they see the necessity to page our tradition, culture & history; we are lucky & should be thankful for that - to me, it's free of charge or a charity to our progress. Now the story is on the table, a bundle of reference, that in our prerogatives, we can easily diagnose the authenticity of concepts, perspectives & interpretation written by the outsider. It's just a matter of making an academic review & argument of the book by the respective place or people of concern, & it's done/game over!! In fact, that book is not a fixed history (as culture changes with time & knowledge) rather, it provides one to formulate additional views or more research on the subject!!! The onus is on us now - to add, approve or disprove Dr. Akins literature (or any foreign writers). Simple, just to rewrite another/better version of the same material - which falls on you & I (Solomon Islanders). Thank you Dr. David Akin.
    4 hours ago via mobile · Like · 7
  • Celsus Talifilu CK I agree, if only we(SIder) are practically able to take on the challenge something to think about SIders.
    3 hours ago · Edited · Like · 1
  • Ronnie Butala Congratulation uncle Kekeubata, you have done it again! you spent your endless time sucrificing and involve with the research and help Dr. Atkin in the book . Uncle absolutely, i salute you! you have done not only kwaio but the entire solomon island pride, and especially your little or limited educational history. Baolea Baita, Iniini agu.
    2 hours ago via mobile · Like · 2
  • Caroline Laore Admire this nurse for his work on Kwaio. Privileged to witness the launching of his book at ANU. Was great to meet them too. Inspired by his dedication in community work.
    about an hour ago · Like · 2
  • James Callender "but why does someone else have to write our history"
    I think the word have is the problematic one here. It is hard to prove this is actually the case universally, in other words, there is nothing really stopping Solomon Islanders writing about their own history and it seems shallow to criticise others as long as they do it in a honest and faithful way....As others have mentioned, oral tradition rather than written tradition was the Pacific way in general, in the past.....

    I hope that Dr. Akin actually spoke to the right people on the ground, noting that Ma'asina Ruru began in West 'Are'Are....Alick Nono'ohimae's daughter and others are knowledgable about the origins of Ma'asina Ruru.
    about an hour ago · Like · 4
  • Rebecca Monson Lack of access to basic things like pens and notebooks (let alone tape recorders and transcribers!), a perception amongst young people that their own history is not interesting or important, a perception amongst elders that nobody is interested, a need to earn a living (whether by working in gardens or working in town) rather that write books...I could go on and on, but all these things may make it difficult for Solomon Islanders to write their own histories. Dr Akin is lucky enough to have a job that enables him to do it (as am I). These issues aren't unique to the Solomons - I know more about the histories of many families in the Solomons than I do about my own, partly because I spent many years being disinterested in my own history, and because it's actually been harder for me to visit and interview my own elders in the UK than to spend time in SI. These issues are incredibly complex...
    41 minutes ago via mobile · Like · 1
  • Garruda Wantime Ohh sure theres no issue about Dr Atkins writing his book about our history, my statement goes to the long list of Solomon Islanders who fills the academic institution around the country, to challenge us, to document with indept research and publish our story, and we ourselves being the expert. when ppl write their thesis in the future, they will refer to Dr Atkins writings and quote him, as the expert, he will be invited to sit on the "expert" panels when it comes to discussing our history issues. But he doesnt live it like we do, yes Cggn Kr, our history is passed orally down the time, but we nw live in a time, were we type to discuss in the forum from our own comfort zones, so hell yeah, we should write our own history. Yes am hapi someone write about my country's history but i will be a proud solomon Islander when one of my own writes about our history. the merits of the particular book goes to the Dr Atkins, and yes Essau hats off to u for launching Dr Atkins book, wud look to see in the book, that a chapter is co-authored by him, not only in the acknowledgemnts only.
    36 minutes ago · Like · 2
  • Rebecca Monson GW my comment wasn't directed at you, more at JC's comments!
    35 minutes ago via mobile · Like · 1
  • Rebecca Monson I love your ideas above, and this is a conversation I would love to see more: what can Solomon Islanders AND foreign researchers do to shift the existing patterns? I would add that things look particularly bad once we throw gender into the mix - for a variety of reasons, most published work on Solomon Islands is by white men, white women, and Solomon Islander men. Of course there is some amazing work by Solomon Islander women such as Dr Alice Pollard, but I would love to see more!!
    2 minutes ago via mobile · Edited · Like · 2
  • Baddy Holly I hope the new book will not create some controversy amonst Kwaio people who still demand an apology or more so compensation from the colonial masters for the 1927 incident...
    25 minutes ago · Like · 1
  • Garruda Wantime Rebecca Monson, yes throw in the gender into the mix, infact, there is a book on poems and short stories, that is put together, and alot of women including Afu Billy, contributed to it, where a story is actually accredited to her name. Yes the shift is happening, its just getting Academia Solomon Islanders to be more proactive in our country more than before. Hw many of the literature written and publish is authored by a solomon Islander? Bulk of it is written by non Solomon islanders, hey but at least they have written something about Solomon Islands, yes look some of the documents written about solomons, ended up labelleing Solomon islands " failed state", nw its a labeled that will stick in history whether we like it or not.
    20 minutes ago · Like · 1
  • James Callender "that things looke particularly bad once we throw gender into the mix" Why does it matter who is doing the writing?
    17 minutes ago · Like · 2
  • James Callender Rebecca, I'm not quite sure what interpretation you have put onto my previous comment about Solomon Islanders writing about their own history. Of course there are practical barriers to people writing about history but are you saying that none of these can be overcome?
    Pens have been around in Solomon for a while, maybe you visited back in the colonial days did you?
    12 minutes ago · Like · 1
  • Garruda Wantime JC, it doesnt really matter for those of us discussing in this forum, but when u go and sit down with the elders and chiefs of a Malaitan community, it does matters, bcos there are unwritten codes that makes it matters more, some of our islands are more open when it comes to gender some hopefully will be sooner or later. But such is our islands history, we just have to toil on, both genders, write our own history, whatever the perspective.
    10 minutes ago · Like · 1
  • James Callender Malaita was and remains a patrilineal society, just like all European countries. I do not know what the term "open when it comes to gender" means..
    a few seconds ago · Like · 1
  • Sione Tuhaika
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