Overview
officially Republic of Kiribati
Island country, central Pacific Ocean.
It consists of 33 islands. The three major island groups are
the Gilbert, Phoenix, and Line islands (excluding the three Line
Islands that are U.S. territories); Kiribati also includes
Banaba Island, the former capital of the Gilbert and Ellice
Islands colony. Area (land): 313 sq mi (811 sq km). Population
(2005 est.): 95,300. Capitals: Bairiki (executive), Ambo
(legislative), and Betio (judicial), on Tarawa Atoll. The
indigenous people are mostly Micronesians. Languages: English
(official), Gilbertese. Religions: Christianity (mostly Roman
Catholic; also Protestant); also Bahāʾī. Currency: Australian
dollar. With the exception of Banaba (which is a coral island
and higher in elevation), all the islands of Kiribati are
low-lying coral atolls built on a submerged volcanic chain and
encircled by reefs. Only about 20 of the islands are inhabited;
nearly all of the population of Kiribati live in the Gilbert
Islands. The economy is based on subsistence farming and
fishing. Kiribati is a republic with one legislative house; its
head of state and government is the president. The islands were
settled by Austronesian-speaking people before the 1st century
ad. Fijians and Tongans arrived c. the 14th century. In 1765 the
British commodore John Byron discovered the island of Nikunau;
the first permanent European settlers arrived in 1837. In 1916
the Gilbert and Ellice Islands and Banaba became a crown colony
of Britain; the Phoenix Islands joined the colony in 1937. Most
of the Line Islands joined the colony in 1972, but in 1976 the
Ellice Islands were separated and in 1978 formed the country of
Tuvalu. The colony became self-governing in 1977, and in 1979 it
became the Republic of Kiribati.
Profile
Official name Republic of Kiribati1
Form of government unitary republic with a unicameral
legislature (House of Assembly [462])
Head of state and government President
Seats of government islet villages of Bairiki (executive), Ambo
(legislative), Betio (judicial) on South Tarawa
Official language English
Official religion none
Monetary unit Australian dollar ($A)
Population estimate (2008) 97,200
Total area (sq mi) 313
Total area (sq km) 811
1Ribaberikin Kiribati in Gilbertese (also known as I-Kiribati).
2Includes two nonelective members.
Main
officially Republic of Kiribati
island country in the central Pacific Ocean. The 33 islands
of Kiribati, of which only 20 are inhabited, are scattered over
a vast area of ocean. Kiribati extends 1,800 miles (2,900 km)
eastward from the 16 Gilbert Islands, where the population is
concentrated, to the Line Islands, of which 3 are inhabited. In
between lie the islands of the Phoenix group, which have no
permanent population. The capital and government centres are at
Ambo, Bairiki, and Betio, all islets of South Tarawa in the
northern Gilberts. Kiribati and Tuvalu were formerly joined as
the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. The name Kiribati is the
local rendition of Gilberts in the Gilbertese, or I-Kiribati,
language, which has 13 sounds; ti is pronounced /s/ or like the
word see—thus Kiribati, pronounced “Ki-ri-bas.” Total land area
313 square miles (811 square km). Pop. (2005 prelim.) 92,533.
Land
A few of the islands are compact with fringing reefs, but
most are atolls. The largest atoll (and one of the largest in
the world) is Kiritimati (Christmas) Atoll in the Line group,
which has a land area of 150 square miles (388 square km) and
accounts for almost half of the country’s total area. Kiritimati
was used for U.S. and British nuclear weapons testing in the
1960s; it now has a large coconut plantation and fish farms as
well as several satellite telemetry stations. Banaba reaches 285
feet (87 metres) above sea level, the highest point in Kiribati.
Its rich layer of phosphate was exhausted by mining from 1900 to
1979, and it is now sparsely inhabited. The rest of the atolls
rise no higher than some 26 feet (8 metres), making them
vulnerable to changes in ocean surface levels. By 1999 two
unpopulated islets had been covered by the sea; the threat of
rising sea levels, a theoretical result of global warming, would
be disastrous for the islands of Kiribati. Average precipitation
in the Gilbert group ranges from 120 inches (3,000 mm) in the
north to 40 inches (1,000 mm) in the south, though all of the
islands experience periodic droughts. Most rain falls in the
season of westerly winds, from November through March; from
April to October, northeast trade winds prevail. Temperatures
are usually in the range of 80 to 90 °F (27 to 32 °C).
Coconut palms dominate the landscape on each island. Together
with the products of the reef and the ocean, coconuts are the
major contributors to village diet—not only the nuts themselves
but also the sap. The gathered sap, or toddy, is used in cooking
and as a sweet beverage; fermented, it becomes an intoxicating
drink. Breadfruit and pandanus also are grown. Cyrtosperma
chamissonis, a coarse tarolike plant, can be cultivated in pits,
but plants such as taro, bananas, and sweet potatoes are scarce.
Pigs and chickens are raised.
People
The people are Micronesian, and the vast majority speak
Gilbertese (or I-Kiribati). English, which is the official
language, is also widely spoken, especially on Tarawa. About
half of the population is Roman Catholic, and most of the rest
is Kiribati Protestant (Congregational). For many years the
population of most islands has remained fairly static because of
migration to the rapidly growing urban centres of South Tarawa,
where more than two-fifths of the population lives. South
Tarawa, including Betio, the port and commercial centre of
Tarawa, has an extremely high population density. Most people
live in single-story accommodations. The rural population of
Kiribati lives in villages dominated by Western-style churches
and large open-sided thatched meetinghouses. Houses of
Western-style construction are seen on outer islands and are
common on Tarawa.
Economy
Until 1979, when Banaba’s deposit of phosphate rock was
exhausted, Kiribati’s economy depended heavily on the export of
that mineral. Before the cessation of mining, a large reserve
fund was accumulated; the interest now contributes to government
revenue. Other revenue earners are copra, mostly produced in the
village economy, and license fees from foreign fishing fleets,
including a special tuna-fishing agreement with the European
Union. Commercial seaweed farming has become an important
economic activity.
An Exclusive Economic Zone of 1,350,000 square miles
(3,500,000 square km) is claimed. A small manufacturing sector
produces clothing, furniture, and beverages for domestic
consumption and sea salt for export. The country’s proximity to
the Equator makes it a desirable location for satellite
telemetry and spacecraft-launching facilities; several national
and transnational space authorities have built or have proposed
building facilities on the islands or in surrounding waters.
Such projects bring capital, additional employment, and
infrastructure improvements, but Kiribati continues to depend on
foreign aid for most capital and development expenditure. Food
accounts for about one-third of all imports, most of which come
from Australia and Fiji, and Japan and Thailand are the major
export destinations. Although South Tarawa has an extensive wage
economy, most of the people living on outer islands are
subsistence farmers with small incomes from copra, fishing, or
handicrafts. These are supplemented by remittances from
relatives working elsewhere. Interisland shipping is provided by
the government, and most islands are linked by a domestic air
service. Tarawa and Kiritimati have major airports.
Government and society
Kiribati has a president elected by the populace from among
three or four candidates chosen by and from members of the
national legislature, the unicameral House of Assembly (Maneaba
ni Maungatabu). The president can serve up to three terms of
four years each, but terms may be cut short by a vote of the
legislature. The House of Assembly has 42 members—40 elected; 1
appointed from the expatriate Banaban community on Rabi Island
in Fiji; and the attorney general, who serves as an ex officio
member—who serve four-year terms. The president chooses up to 10
cabinet ministers from the legislature, and they remain
responsible to it. Local government is through elected island
councils.
Primary education is compulsory, and selected pupils attend
government- or church-run secondary schools. Kiribati conducts
its own technical and teacher training, and the University of
the South Pacific operates a centre on Tarawa that offers degree
and certificate programs, but other higher education
opportunities must be pursued overseas. There are hospitals on
Tarawa and Kiritimati and clinics on all of the inhabited
islands.
Cultural life
Kiribati society remains conservative and resistant to
change; ties to family and traditional land remain strong, and
conspicuous displays of individual achievement or wealth are
discouraged. The building and racing of sailing canoes is a
common pastime. Musical composition and dancing in customary
styles are regarded as art forms and are the basis of widespread
competition. Volleyball and football (soccer) are popular
sports.
History
The first settlers in the Gilbert Islands and Banaba came
from Southeast Asia, by way of Micronesia, some 4,000 to 5,000
years ago. About the 14th century ad the southern islands
received an influx of Samoans, and soon thereafter the islanders
adopted a gerontocratic style of government (i.e., based on rule
by elders). The Line and Phoenix islands had no prehistoric
population.
Spanish explorers sighted some of the islands in the 16th
century, but most of Kiribati was not charted until the early
19th century, when first whalers and then coconut oil traders
reached the islands. From the mid-19th century, Gilbert
Islanders were recruited to work on plantations elsewhere in the
region.
The Gilbert Islands became a British protectorate in 1892,
and Banaba was annexed in 1900 after the discovery of its rich
phosphate deposits. Both were linked with the Ellice Islands
(now Tuvalu) as the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony from 1916;
the colony subsequently was extended to include most of the
Phoenix and Line island groups and, for a time, Tokelau.
Administration was through island governments, which sometimes
became enmeshed in sectarian rivalries between Roman Catholics
and Protestants. As a response to drought and perceived
overpopulation in the 1930s, a resettlement plan was initiated
for the Phoenix Islands; under a later plan, other islanders
were resettled in the Solomon Islands.
During World War II the islands were occupied by Japan, which
was later ejected by Allied forces. The colony had few services
until aid-funded development programs were introduced after the
war. An elected House of Representatives was established in
1967. The subsequent emergence of ethnic tensions led to the
division of the Gilbert Islands and the Ellice Islands into two
territories in 1975–76. In 1971 the Banabans sued the British
government for a greater share of royalties from phosphate
mining and compensation for the island’s environmental
devastation. The trial ended inconclusively and without a court
order to have the mining company restore the land, the outcome
for which the Banabans had hoped. In 1981 the community agreed
to Britain’s offer of a one-time trust payment of $10 million
(Australian) in return for the abandonment of further
litigation. The Gilbert Islands achieved independence under the
name Kiribati in 1979.
After independence a high priority was given to economic
development, especially the exploitation of marine resources and
the use of the country’s strategic position astride the Equator
for space launch and tracking projects. Both Japan and China
constructed Earth-satellite telemetry stations in the late
1990s, although China dismantled its facilities after Kiribati
shifted its formal recognition of China to Taiwan in return for
economic assistance in 2003. A commercial satellite-launch
platform located on a converted oil-drilling rig east of
Kiritimati began operation in the late 1990s. Kiribati belongs
to the Pacific Islands Forum, the International Whaling
Commission, the Commonwealth, and the United Nations.
Barrie K. Macdonald
Sophie Foster
