Banaba Island, Kiribati

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An extremely remote isolated island several hundred kilometres to the west of the Gilberts Group. It is a raised atoll, rising several tens of metres above sea level. Extensive phosphate deposits were mined from the turn of the century until 1979. These deposits, destined for processing into fertiliser, were sold at below world market prices to Australia and New Zealand and helped 'kick start' these major agricultural economies. It is indeed curious that 1979 should also have been the year of Kiribati independence.

The inhabitants, the Banabans, never quite saw the justice of shipping their homeland to Australia in bulk carriers in return for an inadequate number of small pieces of paper termed "Royalties" and were a constant thorn in the side of the British Phosphate Commissioners. When there was insufficient of their homeland left (ie the village areas were to be mined) they were resettled on Rambi Island in Fiji in about 1947 (which they had to buy with their own money!) where the community resides to this day. Some have returned to Banaba. In retrospect their treatment seems rather shabby, but I suspect that they would have fared worse under many other possible colonial regimes. [PS Does anyone know how the Nauruans were treated by the Germans prior to 1914? It would make an interesting comparison.]

The Gilbert Islands Government also received royalty payments. These were built up over the years into the Revenue Equalization Reserve Fund, the income of which was destined to support the recurrent expenses of government in the post-phosphate years. Little of this money (none?) was spent in Banaba (since there was no-one to spend it on other than BPC employees), and naturally it drove a wedge between the Banabans attempts to claim justice and the pre-independence Gilberts government who had little interest in disturbing the status quo.

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