Big On Micronesia

Big on Micronesia Puzzle

As the twentieth century opened, the people of Banaba were destined to become a social casualty. The British Phosphate Company, paid a pittance for the privilege of extracting the 20 metre guano crust that overlay their Ocean Island home. With their island devastated by 1945, most of the population of Banaba, moved to Rabi island in the Fiji Group, approximately 2,000 miles to the southwest. In Fiji, they have managed to maintain their culture down to their villages, which are namesakes of their old villages on Banaba: Tabwewa, Uma, Tabiang and Buakonikai. Since the loss of income from phosphate royalties in 1980, these transplanted Banabans have come to terms with their existence, without dominant British Phosphate Company influence. Today the people have returned to a basic way of life, living a very traditional lifestyle and relying on strong family ties and cultural roots from their past.

From the original 1,500 lush tropical acres that comprised Ocean Island, only 150 viable acres remain. As of 1996 the population on Banaba had reached 500, which also included some Kiribati civil servants and their families, for Banaba is now the only uplifted limestone island in the Republic of Kirbati, which is otherwise composed of coral atolls. Due to the effects of droughts in the early part of 2001, many of the Banabans have resettled on Rabi Island and others have moved to Tarawa or one of the other atolls of Kiribati, spread over an expanse as great as that between Los Angeles and New York. Today there are currently only about 200 Banabans currently living on their home island.

As painful as the economic exploitation of Banaba has been, military incursions during the Second World War were even more devastating. In the aftermath of the War, the people of neighbouring Tarawa, realizing that they would soon come under UN-mandated, American benevolence, stated that in the eventuality of a Third World War, they would appreciate it, if the United States could arrange to have the fighting take place somewhere else. In contrast, the First World War, had been literally a non-event, out of sight and out of mind.

The Banabans would like their independence back. However the government of Kiribati is not willing to consider the possibility. Why would the government be so concerned about a 1,500 acre island which has been rendered desolate? The answer is simple. In this age of global warming, atolls would be the first to suffer, if indeed some of the dire predictions of scientist were to come true. Even with the first 20 metres of the guano crust stripped off, Banaba still lies about thirty metres above sea level, offering a place of refuge should the atolls be inundated by rising sea levels.

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