My Life in Vanuatu

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Vanuatu, a country in the western South Pacific. Consisting of some 80 tropical islands formerly called the New Hebrides, it was administered jointly by Britain and France until it became independent in 1980. The archipelago, which stretches north and south for 540 miles (865 km), has a land area of about 4,705 square miles (12,189 sq km). Of the 13 main islands, the most important are Espiritu Santo (locally, Santo), Efate, and Malekula. Most of Vanuatu is mountainous and heavily forested. It contains active volcanoes and is subject to hurricanes. The majority of the people are dark-skinned Melanesians. Over 80% are rural dwellers, many having little contact with the money economy. The only two towns are the ports of Port Vila (the capital), on Efate, and Luganville (also called Santo), on Espiritu Santo. There is no common native language. English and French are official and the chief media of school instruction; Bislama, also official, is the pidgin lingua franca. About 80% of the people are Christians, mainly of Protestant denominations. The economy is heavily dependent on the production of copra, frozen fish, and canned or chilled beef for export. Small quantities of cocoa and manganese are exported. Subsistence agriculture, a few light industries for the domestic market, and a slowly developing tourist trade round out the economic picture. History. Vanuatu was inhabited for at least 3,000 years before its discovery in 1606 by Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, a Portuguese in the service of Spain. Capt. James Cook visited the islands in 1774 and named them the New Hebrides, after islands in Scotland. From 1825, British and French traders, missionaries, labor recruiters, and planters gained footholds in Vanuatu, but economic exploitation and the introduction of devastating diseases provoked resistance to the Europeans. In 1888, Britain and France created a joint protectorate and in 1906 established a condominium administration. The condominium made little progress toward self-government until 1975, when elections were held for the first Representative Assembly. The Rev. Walter Lini's pro-independence and predominantly English-speaking party won, and after a period of noncooperation with the colonial powers it gained their pledge of quick independence for the islands. Despite a secessionist rebellion on Espiritu Santo, the Republic of Vanuatu replaced the New Hebrides Condominium on July 30, 1980, with membership in the Commonwealth. The new government, with Lini as prime minister, overcame rebel resistance by the end of August. Population: 173,000 (1999 est.).