New Caledonia

BOOK REVIEWS 193 detailed study (hopefully, much of it by colonialism and Kanak nationalism. Solomon Islanders) and, inevitably, a He argues that the real conflict is challenge to counterinterpretation. among three to four groups-indige Given its length, substance, and nous Melanesians (43 %), immigrant handsome production, the book is very Europeans (37%) and non-Europeans reasonably priced. The Pacific Islands (20%), and metropolitan French offi Monograph Series has achieved rare cials-each ofwhich is divided and at distinction through this and other least partly responsible for the prob recent volumes. lem. He focuses on historical experi ROGER M. KEESING ence and constitutional evolution, insisting that the future ofNew Cale Australian National University donia lies in "the permanent character * * and-short ofprotracted civil conflict -the stark unavoidability ofthe elec The Politics ofElectoral Duality: toral dimension" (29). His explication Experience and Elections in New Cale ofthe debate over who should be donia, by Alan Clark. Occasional allowed to vote in territorial elections Paper no. 2. Wellington: New Zealand reveals a gray area that both Kanaks Institute ofInternational Affairs, Janu and French seek to define to their own ary I987. 58 pp, map, notes, tables, advantage. Ultimately, he forsees nei bibliography. Nz$8.80. ther the maintenance ofthe tense status quo nor independence for the outnum New Caledonia: Essays in Nationalism bered Kanaks as practicable, but rather and Dependency, edited by Michael a "neo-Caledonia" that treats all ethnic Spencer, Alan Ward, and John Con groups fairly and still preserves French nell. St Lucia: University of Queens metropolitan interests in the South land Press, I988. xiv + 253 pp, maps, Pacific. notes, chronology. A$I9.95 paperback. Clark obviously wants Western-style democracy for a country whose indige Unlike most Pacific Island countries, nous people accuse France of using that whose demographic majorities are principle as a weapon to keep them clearly either indigenous or immigrant, from gaining their freedom. Indigenous New Caledonia is a bipolar society. Its Fijian leaders, in a similar bipolar situ mainly rural native peoples and mainly ation, rejected democracy when the urban colonists-Jean Guiart likens I987 election threatened their power, Noumea to an ancient Greek city-state, but in New Caledonia France holds the others call it a French fortress-face a military card, as its May I988 massacre political conundrum that meddling by of nineteen Kanak kidnappers demon Paris only worsens. strated. Clark himself admits that the - Alan Clark, a French language and pattern in New Caledonia has been one history scholar from New Zealand and ofrepeated metropolitan intervention longtime visitor to New Caledonia, in local political processes and frequent rejects the usual "binary" view ofthe revision (from Paris) ofterritorial stat crisis as a struggle between French utes, often in response to "extralegal" 194 THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC. SPRING/FALL 1989 actions by militant minorities. His examine more than elections. Indeed, rather pious declaration that France "is the editors assert in their introduction a nation-state wedded to a written con that the 1987 referendum on indepen stitution" (30) is ironic, given that in dence in New Caledonia was as the past two centuries France has had "crude" a method for establishing com five republics, two Napoleonic munity as the Fiji coups. The editors empires, and two monarchies because agree with Clark that the demography ofrevolutionary upheaval. In 1958, the of New Caledonia is complex and that same year that a settler quasi-coup in it suffers from the "double legitimacy" Noumea halted progress toward ofthe two major ethnic rival groups, autonomy, rebellious paratroopers but contend that the situation is never threatened Paris and brought Charles theless colonial-sustained by force de Gaulle to power. and that the ideology ofmultiracialism Moreover, Clark's attempt to avoid has at times been bolstered by deliber being "arrogant" (partisan) produces a ate French and Polynesian immigration few odd arguments: although the to produce a pro-Parisian majority. Melanesian population declined from Ties ofeconomic dependence-halfthe the 1880s to the 1920S, so did the territorial budget, nickel industry sub French (from emigration, however, not sidies, and a bureaucracy that employs death), and ifMelanesians could not a quarter ofthe population-also buy vote before 1945, neither could French votes for Paris in a "consumer colony" women (their husbands, at least, were reminiscent ofAmerican Micronesia. not disenfranchised because oftheir French strategic interests may prevent race). He cites instances ofviolence by independence indefinitely, the editors Kanak radicals but glosses over that by argue, but true democracy should white settlers (Caldoches) and their respect the rights ofminorities as well Asian or Polynesian allies: "the non as the will ofthe majority. Theyenvi indigenous majority in New Caledonia sion an arrangement similar to that has exercised its independence in pre between the Cook Islands and New ferring to remain French" (24). His Zealand, if France forces dialogue "by theme ofelectoral duality, which he instituting a steady and progressive never fully defines, seems to apply devolution ofresponsibility" (18). mainly to French metropolitan manip The strength ofthis volume is the ulations-whether Gaullist or Socialist diversity ofits contributors: five -and to Kanak flip-flopping on elec Anglophones, four French, and three toral participation. He asks, for exam Kanaks. Most agree with Clark that ple, why the Kanaks gave up their France has projected its domestic poli share ofpower in the 1982 government, tics into its New Caledonian policies. but ignores the fact that Caldoche Spencer, a French language specialist, extremists invaded the meeting-hall, proves that press coverage by Le Figaro drove out the delegates, and smashed and its affiliated newspapers has been the windows. either superficial or biased, while The essays compiled by Michael Robert Aldrich finds the same fault Spencer, Alan Ward, and John Connell with French historiography. Jean- BOOK REVIEWS 195 Marie Kohler and Michael Ovington attributes the Kanak cultural revival as show that church ambivalence toward much to intensifying "silent competi decolonization and the heavy-handed tion" over land between natives and ness of metropolitan reformers have immigrants as to wartime American both contributed to polarization in the influence (material and egalitarian) or territory. Alan Ward, a respected postwar Melanesian citizenship. John scholar of southwest Pacific land prob Connell, who has recently authored a lems, scolds Kanaks for "false asser comprehensive political history ofNew tions that they ceased to be the major~ Caledonia, claims in his concluding ity only in the 1970S" and harks back to comparative essay on Melanesian the 1950S, when metropolitan leftists nationalism that the vision of an inde encouraged French emigration to New pendent "Kanaky" is evolving in an Caledonia-despite the objections of "artificial context." The lingering colo Caldoches who resented competition niallegacy ofdiscrimination and mar from more Metros-to keep Asians or tyrdom makes Kanak neotraditional Anglo-Saxons from taking over. syncretism a more militant form of Patrick PilIon's analysis of rural devel nationalism than that found in neigh opment schemes concludes that New boring Melanesian countries. More Caledonia is caught in a historical over, Kanak community schools and limbo because its lack ofgood land and cooperatives are, as he quotes Amilcar distributable resources failed to Cabral, "proofnot only ofidentity but produce a clear hegemony for colo also of dignity" (246). nists, as in Australia or New Zealand. The interviews with Marie-Adele Indeed, Alain Saussol, perhaps the Nechero-Joredie and Adrien Hnangan foremost authority on land issues in and the poem by Dewe Gorodey indi New Caledonia, argues that the colo cate that Kanak activists believe they nial order was "gently running down" can create "interdependence" among when the Melanesian population began their people in order to achieve inde its demographic comeback. pendence from France: "we must redis The issue ofnationalism in the terri cover ourselves, in our environment, in tory invites some disagreement among ourlanguage, with ourlife" (205). the contributors. Jean Chesneaux, rec Even if the no longer French Cal ognized for his studies ofpeasant rebel doches, with the help of metropolitan lion in China and Vietnam and author armed forces and Polynesian and Asian of a recent book ofreflections called voters, do maintain some sort of Transpacifiques, describes Kanak supremacy-just as South Africans and political culture as a blend oftradi Israelis continue to suppress their tional and modern components but domestic ethnic rivals-neo-Kanaky is also calls the privileged enclave of Met likely to grow stronger in the neo-Cale- rosand Caldoches very un-French-o _ donian arena. part ofthat artificially subsidized over DAVID A. CHAPPELL seas fantasy he terms Like franconesie. University ofHawaii at Manoa Chesneaux, Saussol is condescending toward the Caldoche gentry. He.

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