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"We, the Black people in Fiji, came here a long
time ago to our present homes in Fiji from Tanganyika, in East Africa. We don't
know exactly when we came to Fiji but we know that we came from Africa." --Fijian
Tradition
INTRODUCTION TO THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN FIJI
April 14, 2000 By RUNOKO RASHIDI
On March 14, 2000 I returned to Honolulu, Hawaii
from a combined, and very much needed, nine day vacation- holiday and study
tour to Viti Levu, Fiji. Fiji, as is well- known, is an island nation deep in
the South Pacific. The island of Viti Levu (which means "Great Fiji") is the
largest and most populous island in Fiji with an approximate area of 10,400
kilometers and 75% of the total Fijian population. The Fiji isles themselves,
of which there are more than 300, are situated at a kind of ocean crossroads
between the mighty island chains of Polynesia and Melanesia.
I considered that traveling to Fiji was a kind
of exceptional reward for me. I had just completed a lecture tour in Hawaii
and I was ready for something even more special. During February 2000, in honor
of African History Month, I had made major presentations in ten states and the
District of Columbia and had traveled to most of the geographic regions in the
United States. I had enjoyed a wonderful travel experience but it was also an
extremely demanding lecture tour and by the end of February, as they sometimes
say, "I was fried (really worn out)."
On March 1, I flew from Los Angeles to Hawaii.
I was so tired that I could barely talk and even had some difficulty sitting
down and standing up. My resistance was vastly depleted and I had managed to
catch a bad head cold. I needed a large break and believed that I had justly
earned one. Hawaii itself is a wonderful place, extremely beautiful and always
a pleasure to visit. It just doesn't have enough Black folk to satisfy my needs.
Fiji promised to be different. Indeed, I found Fiji to be a tropical paradise
and the Fijians turned out to be some of the most beautiful Black people that
I've ever encountered. In fact, much to my delight, the brothers and sisters
in Fiji, dark-skinned Black people who wore big natural type hairstyles, didn't
merely identify themselves as Black but said that they came from Africa and
said it with great pride! What a refreshing revelation.
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The Political & Spiritual Purpose of the
Holy Land
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In Fiji, needless to point out, I felt right at
home. These Black folk were just my kind of people. As a matter of fact, the
brothers and sisters in Fiji that I met seemed as interested in me as I was
in them. Believe me when I say that if there is one thing that I excel in it
is in asking questions and I asked the Fijians all kinds of questions about
exactly what part of Africa they came from, when they got to Fiji, how they
got there, what their present living conditions were like, what was their relationship
with the recently arrived Indian population, how did they feel about White people,
the nature of their oral traditions, myths and religious beliefs, male-female
relationships, diet, health, other Pacific islanders, general projections about
the future and just about everything that I could think of.
They never got tired of answering my questions
and had quite a few for me also. They told me that the two most well known African-Americans
were Rev. Martin Luther King and Muhammad Ali. Of course, they knew about Michael
Jordan and Magic Johnson and most of the major African-American sport figures.
One Fijian brother, a businessman that I met in the lobby of a luxury hotel,
told me how proud he was of the brothers and sisters in America and how much
African-Americans had advanced the cause of Black people around the world.
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