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| Fiji | Introduction | Back to Top |
Fiji, archipelago and independent republic in the South Pacific Ocean, part of Melanesia, and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Lying about 1,800 km (1,100 mi) north of New Zealand it comprises more than 300 islands and islets, 100 of which are inhabited. Fiji has a total area of 18,272 sq km (7,055 sq mi). The capital and largest city is Suva.
Official Name- Republic of Fiji| Fiji | Provinces | Back to Top |
4 divisions and 1 dependency*; Central, Eastern, Northern, Rotuma*, Western
| Fiji | People | Back to Top |
The population of Fiji (2001 estimate) is 844,330, giving the country an overall population density of 46 persons per sq km (119 per sq mi). About 20 percent of the people live in Suva (population, 2000, 77,366). The second and third largest urban areas are Lautoka (36,083) and Nadi (9,170), also located on Viti Levu. Some 58 percent of Fiji’s population is rural, with most people living in fishing or farming villages of less than 600 people.
the indigenous Fijian people are usually classified as Melanesian, they are larger in stature than Melanesians from Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, or New Guinea; their social and political organization is closer to that of Polynesia; and there has been a high level of intermarriage between Fijians from the Lau Islands of eastern Fiji and the neighbouring Polynesian islands of Tonga. Almost all indigenous Fijians are Christian, mostly Methodist and Roman Catholic. Since World War II, indigenous Fijians have been outnumbered by Indians, most of whom are descendants of indentured labourers brought to work in the sugar industry. A few, particularly in commerce and the professions, are descended from free migrants. Most of the Indians are Hindus, though a significant number are Muslims.
| Fiji | History | Back to Top |
Fiji suggest the islands were settled in the west from Melanesia at least 3,500 years ago. These settlers farmed and fished and brought pigs and poultry to the islands. There was extensive contact with Polynesia, particularly Tonga, and culturally, Fijians became more Polynesian than Melanesian. Fijian society was highly stratified. Allegiances to clans and chiefs were complicated, and warfare, including cannibalism, was common as leaders competed for control of the islands.
Fiji's first settlers arrived from island Melanesia at least 3,500 years ago, they carried with them a wide range of food plants, the pig, and a style of pottery known as Lapita ware. This pottery is generally associated with peoples who had well-developed skills in navigation and canoe building and were horticulturists. From Fiji the Lapita culture was carried to Tonga and Samoa, where the first distinctively Polynesian cultures evolved. Archaeological evidence suggests that two other pottery styles were subsequently introduced into Fiji, though it is not clear whether these represent major migrations or simply cultural innovations brought by small groups of migrants. In most areas of Fiji, the settlers lived in small communities near ridge forts and practiced a slash-and-burn type of agriculture. In the fertile delta regions of southeast Viti Levu, however, there were large concentrations of population. These settlements, which were based on intensive taro cultivation using complex irrigation systems, were protected by massive ring-ditch fortifications.
1643 Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to sight the islands. Regular European contact did not begin until the early 19th century, however. Groves of the valuable sandalwood tree were found by a shipwrecked American on Vanua Levu. His finding led to a vigorous trade that nearly stripped the island of its sandalwood trees. A European settlement developed at Levuka on the island of Ovalau in the 1820s and the London Missionary Society began converting the islanders in the Lau Group to Christianity in the 1830s. In the 1840s the first reliable maps of Fiji were made by the American explorer Charles Wilkes.
| Fiji | Culture | Back to Top |
Fiji's mixed racial background contributes to a rich cultural heritage. Many features of traditional Fijian life survive; they are most evident in the elaborate investiture, marriage, and other ceremonies for high-ranking chiefs. These ceremonies provide a focus for the practicing of traditional crafts, such as the manufacture of masi, or tapa cloth, made from the bark of the paper mulberry; mat weaving; wood carving; and canoe making. Drinking of yanggona (kava, made from the root of Piper methysticum) is a part not only of important ceremonies but also of everyday life. Displays of “traditional” Fijian culture, music, and dancing make an important contribution to tourism; model villages and handicraft markets are popular.
Most Indian women continue to wear the sari together with traditional jewelry in gold and silver. Traditional marriage ceremonies are practiced, as are customs such as fire walking and ritual self-torture as part of important religious ceremonies. Cinemas showing imported Indian films are popular. Diwali, the Hindu Festival of the Lights, is celebrated every October and is a public holiday.
Fijian culture is more closely related to that of the Polynesians. Indians, whose ancestors were brought between 1879 and 1916 to work on British plantations in Fiji, comprise about 45 percent of the population. The remainder consists of Europeans, Chinese, other Pacific Islanders, and people of mixed ethnicity. About 52 percent of the people are Christians, with Methodists and Roman Catholics forming the largest groups. Hindus comprise 39 percent of the population, and Muslims, 8 percent.
| Fiji | Life | Back to Top |
The lifestyle in Fiji varies between ethnic Fijians and Indians. Rural Fijians practice subsistence agriculture. Some live in traditional bures, one-room houses with woven mat walls and thatched roofs. However, many bures have been replaced by concrete houses that withstand cyclones better. Furniture is sparse, as floor mats are preferred to sofas and chairs. Village life is communal, with everyone expected to share in ceremonial preparations and village upkeep. People are respectful of traditional patriarchal authority; the village chief, usually a man, leads the villagers and presides over important rituals. Kava, a non-alcoholic drink made from the crushed root of a pepper plant, is the ceremonial drink.
| Fiji | Land | Back to Top |
Fiji has a complex geologic history. Based on a submerged platform of ancient formation, the Fiji islands are largely the product of volcanic action, sedimentary deposit, and formations of coral. Viti Levu, the largest island, has an area of about 4,000 square miles and accounts for more than half of Fiji's land. A jagged dividing range running from north to south has several peaks above 3,000 feet (914 metres), the highest being Mount Tomanivi (formerly Mount Victoria) at 4,341 feet. The main river systems—the Rewa, Navua, Sigatoka, and Ba—all have their headwaters in the central mountain area. To the southeast and southwest, and to the south where the range divides, the mountains give way to plateaus, then lowlands. The coastal plains in the west, northwest, and southeast account for only 15 percent of Viti Levu's area but are the main centres of agriculture and settlement.
| Fiji | Plants and Animal | Back to Top |
Forests cover 45 percent of the islands. Rain forests exist on the windward sides of the mountainous islands, while the leeward sides have grassy plains. The islands suffer from a 0.21 percent (1990-2000) annual rate of deforestation. The loss of trees has resulted in soil erosion, and silt washed into the ocean can smother coral. The siltation, combined with oil exploration, sewage dumping, and overfishing, threaten Fiji’s coral reefs as well as the coastal ecosystems. With its rich plant and animal life and low population growth, however, the Fiji Islands’ environmental problems are not as severe as other places in the world.
| Fiji | Economy | Back to Top |
Fiji’s economy is dependent on the sugar industry and tourism. Two political coups in 1987 adversely affected tourism and caused a loss of skilled and educated workers when many Indians left the country. There was a general recovery by the early 1990s, but in 1993 Cyclone Kina caused an estimated $84 million in damage to agriculture and infrastructure. In 1999 Fiji’s labor force stood at 319,599; most people were employed in salaried or wage positions. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing employ 2 percent of Fiji’s workers and in 1999 contributed 18 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Sugarcane is the principal cash crop, while paddy rice is the chief subsistence crop. Vegetables, fruit, beef, pork, poultry, and dairy products are produced for the local market.
Tourism is almost as large an earner of foreign exchange as sugar. Fiji is strategically located for air travelers from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Japan and is a major destination for tourist cruises. Tourism is based on the attractions of duty-free shopping and colourful handicraft markets as well as the usual attractions of tropical islands. Many hotels are located on small offshore islands or secluded beaches and offer accommodations in houses of local design and materials rather than in urban-style multistory buildings.
Fiji, endowed with forest, mineral, and fish resources, is one of the most developed of the Pacific island economies, though still with a large subsistence sector. Sugar exports and a growing tourist industry are the major sources of foreign exchange. Sugar processing makes up one-third of industrial activity. Roughly 300,000 tourists visit each year, including thousands of Americans following the start of regularly scheduled non-stop air service from Los Angeles. Fiji's growth slowed in 1997 because the sugar industry suffered from low world prices and rent disputes between farmers and landowners. Drought in 1998 further damaged the sugar industry, but its recovery in 1999 contributed to robust GDP growth. Long-term problems include low investment and uncertain property rights. The political turmoil in Fiji has had a severe impact with the economy shrinking by 8% in 1999 and over 7,000 people losing their jobs. The interim government's 2001 budget is an attempt to attract foreign investment and restart economic activity. The government's ability to manage the budget and fulfill predictions of 4% growth for 2001 will depend on a return to stability, a regaining of investor confidence, and the absence of international sanctions (which could cripple Fiji's sugar and textile industry).
| Fiji | Communications | Back to Top |
modern local, interisland, and international (wire/radio integrated) public and special-purpose telephone, telegraph, and teleprinter facilities; regional radio communications center domestic: NA international: access to important cable links between US and Canada as well as between NZ and Australia; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Pacific Ocean)
| Fiji | Languages | Back to Top |
About 52 percent of the people are Christians, with Methodists and Roman Catholics forming the largest groups. Hindus comprise 39 percent of the population, and Muslims, 8 percent. Fijians are mostly Christians, while most Indians are either Hindus or Muslims. English is the official language and nearly everyone can speak it. With one another, however, the ethnic Fijians usually speak Fijian, while most Indians speak Hindi.
| Fiji | Politics | Back to Top |
Fiji Labor Party or FLP [Mahendra CHAUDHRY]; Fijian Nationalist Federation Party or NFP [Singh RAKKA]; Fijian Political Party or SVT (primarily Fijian) [Maj. Gen. Sitiveni RABUKA]; National Federation Party or NFP (primarily Indian) [Jai Ram REDDY]; United General Party or UGP [David PICKERING]
| Fiji | Government | Back to Top |
governor-general represented the British monarch as the head of state, while actual executive power was exercised by a prime minister. Following a military coup in 1987, Fiji was expelled from the Commonwealth. Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka, the coup leader, declared Fiji a republic, and the former governor-general was named president. A new constitution, promulgated in 1990, gave ethnic Fijians greater representation in the government, required that the prime minister and the president be ethnic Fijians, and incorporated Fiji’s hereditary clan chiefs into the government structure. In 1997 the government approved a new constitution that largely removed preferential treatment for ethnic Fijians in the government. The constitution became effective in July 1998. In October 1997 Fiji was reinstated as a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
| Fiji | Legal | Back to Top |
Legal system: based on British system Suffrage: 21 years of age; universal Executive branch: note: armed ethnic Fijian terrorists, led by George SPEIGHT stormed the Parliament building on 19 May 2000; ethnic Indo-Fijian Prime Minister Mahendra CHAUDHRY and his government were held hostage for 56 days; following the attempted coup, the Commander of the Fiji Military Forces, naval Commodore Frank BAINIMARAMA declared martial law and dissolved the government on 29 May 2000; an interim government, headed by interim Prime Minister Laisenia QARASE, was appointed to serve until a new constitution was initiated and subsequent elections held; in November 2000, Fiji's High Court upheld the 1997 constitution and ruled that Ratu Sir Kamisese MARA remained the president; Justice Anthony GATES concluded that MARA should recall the pre-May 19th Parliament and appoint a prime minister to form a new government; the Fiji Court of Appeals upheld GATES' decision on 1 March 2001; it ruled that the 1997 constitution had not been abrogated, Parliament had not been dissolved, only prorogued for six months, and that the presidency remained vacant since MARA's resignation took effect 15 December 2000; President Ratu Josefa ILOILO reinstated QARASE's interim government as the caretaker government and elections were scheduled for August 2001; approximately 23 fluid political parties are currently jockeying for power chief of state: President Ratu Josefa ILOILO (since NA 2000); Vice President Jope SENILOLI (since NA 2000) head of government: Prime Minister Laisenia QARASE (since NA 2000); Deputy Prime Minister Epeli NAILATIKAU (since NA 2000) cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the prime minister from among the members of Parliament and is responsible to Parliament; note -there is also a Presidential Council that advises the president on matters of national importance and a Great Council of Chiefs which consists of the highest ranking members of the traditional chiefly system elections: president elected by the Great Council of Chiefs for a five-year term; prime minister appointed by the president election results: Ratu Josefa ILOILO elected president by the Great Council of Chiefs; percent of vote - NA% Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament consists of the Senate (32 seats; 14 appointed by the Great Council of Chiefs, nine appointed by the prime minister, eight appointed by the leader of the opposition, and one appointed by the council of Rotuma) and the House of Representatives (71 seats; 23 reserved for ethnic Fijians, 19 reserved for ethnic Indians, three reserved for other ethnic groups, one reserved for the council of Rotuma constituency encompassing the whole of Fiji, and 25 open; members serve five-year terms) elections: House of Representatives - last held 11 May 1999 (next to be held NA May 2004) election results: House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - Fiji Labor Party 37, others 34 Judicial branch: Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president)
| Fiji | organization | Back to Top |
ACP, AsDB, C, CCC, CP, ESCAP, FAO, G-77, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, ISO (subscriber), ITU, OPCW, Sparteca, SPC, SPF, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNIFIL, UNIKOM, UNMIBH, UNMIK, UNTAET, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO
| Fiji | Education | Back to Top |
Education is not compulsory in Fiji, virtually all children attend primary school. The government provides free education for eight years. Tuition is charged for levels 9 through 12, but some financial assistance is available. In 1996, 70 percent of secondary school aged children were enrolled. An estimated 99 percent of the population age 15 and older can read and write.
| Fiji | Defence | Back to Top |
Military branches: Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF; includes ground and naval forces)
Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 227,599 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 125,238 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 9,471 (2001 est.)
| Fiji | International Disputes | Back to Top |
None
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