Disturbing History: Resistance in Early Colonial Fiji

by Robert Nicole

Disturbing History focuses on Fiji’s people and their agency in responding to and engaging the multifarious forms of authority and power that were manifest in the colony from 1874 to 1914. By concentrating on the lives of ordinary Fijians, the book presents alternate ways of reconstructing the island’s past. Couched in the traditions of social, subaltern, and people’s histories, the study is an excavation of a large mass of material that tells the often moving stories of lives that have largely been overlooked by historians. These challenge conventional historical accounts that tend to celebrate the nation, represent Fiji’s colonial experience as ordered and peaceful, or British tutelage as benevolent. In its contribution to postcolonial theory, Disturbing History reveals resistance as a constant but partial and untidy mix of other constituents such as collaboration, consent, appropriation, and opportunism, which together form the colonial landscape. In turn, colonialism in Fiji is shown as a force shaped in struggle, fractured and often fragile, with a presence and application in the daily lives of people that was often chaotic, imperfect, and susceptible to subversion.

The book divides the period of study into two broad organized resistance and everyday forms of resistance. The first examines the Colo War (1876), the Tuka Movement (1878–1891), the Seaqaqa War (1894), the Movement for Federation with New Zealand (1901–1903), the Viti Kabani Movement (1913–1917), and the various organized labor protests. The second half of the book addresses resistance manifested in the villages and plantations, including tax and land boycotts, violence and retributive justice, avoidance protest, petitioning, and women’s resistance. In their entirety these forms reveal a complex web of relationships between powerful and subordinate groups and among subordinate groups themselves. The author concludes that resistance cannot be framed as a totality but as a multilayered and multidimensional reality. In the wake of Fiji’s present volatile climate, this book will aid readers in understanding the continuities and disjunctures in Fiji’s interethnic and intraethnic relations.

Genres: History

310 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2011

Reviews

[Talei · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite Pacific history books of all time. I love how Nicole thinks about power and examines the different modes of resistance in early colonial Fiji from the spectacular to the everyday "grumbling" by colonised peoples. Everytime it gives me so much to think about and reflect upon in terms of contemporary Fiji. Looking forward to using it more in my work.

[Naeemah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written ! A must read for all Fijian history buffs ,should be part of the Fijian school syllabus

[Bram · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating book about the many ways that Fijians resisted British rule. It’s a dense academic tone, but the stories and quotes make it worthwhile.