Draft:Tabiteuean Religious Wars

In 1879 and 1880, Protestant converts warred against te Buraeniman (lit. 'the Feathers'), an indigenous cult, on Tabiteuea, the largest of the Gilbert Islands. In the two decades prior, indigenous beliefs had been completely wiped out. Hawaiian missionaries W. B. Kapu and H. B. Nālimu had converted most of North Tabiteuea, while Tabiteuean prophets Tanako and Baikitea converted Tanaeang and South Tabiteuea to their syncretic religion. On June 15, 1879, both movements clashed in the Battle of Taboaine. The Protestants won.

With the north completely Christianized, Kapu and Nālimu began preaching a crusade against the south. On September 15, 1880, in the Battle of Tewai, Protestants massacred 600 men, women, and children, ending the cult, and divided the conquered territory among themselves. In 1882, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) removed Nālimu for his role in the war. Many former Buraeniman later converted to Catholicism after the arrival of French missionaries, whose complaints led to Kapu's deportation in 1891. The northerners later voluntarily returned the southerners' land to them,

Background

Tabiteuea is the largest of the Gilbert Islands. The atoll is divided into eighteen aono, or villages: twelve in North Tabiteuea, and six in South Tabiteuea. In August 1868, the Protestant ministers W. B. Kapu and George Leleo, members of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association (HEA), and their wives arrived on Tabiteuea as missionaries. At the time, Tabiteuea was home to around 5,000 people, making it the most populous island in the archipelago. Little had changed since Tabiteuea first came into contact with foreigners in 1799. The scarcity of resources meant starvation was common and outside trade was rare.

Each aono of Tabiteuea, the name of which means "chiefs are forbidden", was autonomous and governed by the maneaba, the meeting house where unimwane, or male elders, deliberated upon community affairs. Murder was prohibited. The victim's utu, or extended family, either received nenebo – land given as compensation – or were allowed a reciprocal execution. Therefore, the object of duels was not to kill one's opponent, but to wound them enough that they would yield or be incacipitated.

These rules also applied to wars between aono. A death resulted in the conflict's cecession and the relinquishment of nenebo. War had long been governed by various customs and were determined by a series of individual contests. Each side was usually divided into three parties: a main group in the centre of the islet, and two more flanking them from the lagoon and ocean shores. Warriors came equipped with armour, which included coconut fibre overalls and cuirasses and porcupinefish skin helmets, and 12–18-foot (3.7–5.5 m) shark-tooth spears known as unun. They were supported by men wielding coconut wood lances, taumanaria, of similar length. In 1881, James Garstang, who had been on Tabiteuea longer than any other European trader, attested that, "until the Hawaiian teachers were brought here, the Natives never killed each other; they fought, but only to wound with their shark's teeth swords".

Buraeniman

In the 1860s – prior to the arrival of the Hawaiians – a new religion emerged on Tabiteuea that syncretized Christian and Gilbertese beliefs. Syncretizing Christian and Gilbertese symbols, te Buraeniman (lit. 'the Feathers') – in comparison to the Christians, who were known as followers of te Boki (lit. 'the Book') – worshipped an anti (god) known as Tioba (Jehovah) at feathered crosses surrounded by coconut circles. The Buraeniman offered prayers, hymns, and food to the crosses, which they believed gave the crosses healing powers.

The movement was founded by Tanako, a prophet from Tanaeang, North Tabiteuea. He was most likely inspired by a Catholic mass he attended in Fiji. Tanako quickly converted most of Tanaeang, which became the Buraeniman's northern stronghold; the villages to the north; and South Tabiteuea, where the Buraeniman were led by Baikitea. He also proselytized to the neighboring islands of Nonouti and Nikanau.

Kapu and Nālimu

After George Leleo was reassigned to Nonouti, W. B. Kapu was joined by fellow Hawaiian missionary Henry Benjamin Nālimu in 1871.

1879

Battle of Taboaine

1880

Battle of Tewai

Aftermath

Legacy

References

Bibliography

Dumas, Guigone (2014). Tabiteuea, Kiribati. Fondation Culturelle Musée Barbier-Mueller. ISBN 9-782754-10787-7.
Macdonald, Barrie (1982). Cinderellas of the Empire: Towards a history of Kiribati and Tuvalu. Canberra: ANU Press. ISBN 0708116167.
Maude, Henry Evans; Maude, Honor Courtney (1981). "Tioba And The Tabiteuean Religious Wars". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 90 (3): 307–336. JSTOR 20705580.