My God, My Land by Jacqueline Ryle

Author:Jacqueline Ryle [Ryle, Jacqueline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9781351916165
Google: hwTFDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-12-05T03:24:32+00:00

Kerekere and the cost of tradition

The ideals of ‘sharing or reciprocal love (fetokoni’aki in Tongan, fetufaai in Samoan and veitokoni in Fijian … ) inherent also in the wantok system in Melanesia’ (cf quote by Father Paunga at the start of this chapter) are in Fiji based on the notion of kerekere. As described earlier kin members give to others through love and respect for kinship ties, secure in the knowledge that when one day they will need help, they will be able to turn to kin members and receive the same. In a University of the South Pacific collection of papers from 1986 on urban life in Fiji, Suguta (1986: 186) describes this ideal of kin-based giving and sharing:

Giving is central to the Fijian way of life ... [and] allied with this concept is another - sharing. What is given is shared by others ... Whatever a person possesses is shared by others of his kin, so in the Fijian world view there is no such thing as 'ownership' in the Western sense, only possession. This concept of possession is built around the institution of kerekere which essentially means that whatever one possesses may be transferred to another for the latter's use. The donor need not worry, for his turn to become a donee will come around sooner or later! (see also Rika 1986)

Described somewhat tersely by Capell (1991: 85) as 'a system of gaining things by begging for them from a member of one's own group', the kerekere system9 is supposed to be reciprocal, yet this deeply revered cultural value has always been open to exploitation through greedy and anti-social behaviour and misuse by individuals who seek to sponge off relatives and not repay their debts (dinau) - debts understood more as favours than cash.

In many cases the kerekere system sadly does not work as smoothly or ideally as Suguta implies. Some people see kerekere merely as an easy means of gaining new things. A young mother in the village told me how one should never flaunt anything pretty such as clothes, since people would then inevitably ask to borrow them, and you would never see them again. Another woman told me how her collection of nice crockery and kitchen utensils inevitably disappeared into other homes while she was at work, ‘kerekere’d’ by other villagers, never to be returned.

Even though the system of reciprocity did not always function very well in practice, and people understandably complained, villagers invariably described to me with pride the ideal of sharing and caring they felt was such an important value in their lives. Yet these ideals are increasingly being eroded by the forces of globalisation and the spread of Western values such as individualism and consumerism, the desire for individual acquisition and accumulation – and the greed and anti-social behaviour that tends to go with it.10

It is very difficult to refuse a kerekere: to do so is, in effect, to refuse to nurture and care for a kin member, and goes against all ideals of vanua.

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