The Early Development of the Bula Tale Co-operative in Fiji Islands: Its Experimental Practice and Aftermath

抄録

The aim of this paper is to depict how Fijian society dealt with the Bula Tale co-operative with special reference to its involvement in communist controversy. The Bula Tale was a cooperative group and commenced its activities in the early 1960’s mainly in four villages of Nadroga/Navosa province, Fiji. It was also known as the Bula Tale Communist Party for a short period. What is conspicuous about this group is that its members radically changed their way of life for better living. For example, they not only abolished or simplified some aspects of Fijian customary procedures such as marriage and funerals, but also prohibited themselves from drinking kava. At the same time, the Bula Tale people encouraged themselves to work hard. Owing to these striking features of their practices and provocative naming of communist party, the Bula Tale caused the sensation and had no choice but to relocate their settlement to another province. In this paper I follow this uproar of the Bula Tale and try to interpret this event on the background of the 1960’s Fiji.