Vanuatu: History and Virus Situation
I may not know you, but I do know you’re probably exhausted on reading and watching so much news about the Corona virus pandemic. And I understand you, sometimes it feels like this is the only thing happening in the world and while you’re at home, obeying the quarantine orders, you don’t have many options of how to spend your time at home. You can either watch television, listen to the radio (do we still do it?) browsing the internet, playing video games or sleep all day long, which is a pretty popular option.
But , don’t matter what, you just can’t escape from being bombarded by the corona virus news. And I’m not here to help you with your detoxification on this issue, I want actually to show you how a tiny Pacific island country that I bet some of you never heard before is dealing with this pandemic (but I promise it is going to be a short text on that issue).
And let’s be realistic, those countries are being forgotten by our media since always, its almost like they don’t exist or don’t matter, but in reality countries like Vanuatu are just as interesting as any European country and deserves attention.
And why you choose to talk about Vanuatu? Are you from there? do you have family there? You may be asking me, but no, I don’t have any connections to Vanuatu besides I wish to live there and we must be honest, who doesn’t dream about living in such a wonderland like Vanuatu, beaches, sunny all day long, nature wonder and… Oh, I’m sorry I get lost in my thoughts, so let’s finally start talking about how is Vanuatu dealing with this pandemic but first, let me introduce you some history and facts about the country.
— A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO VANUATU HISTORY —
The wonderful republic of Vanuatu is an archipelago of approximately 83 islands situated in the South Pacific Ocean in the total land area of approximately 12,274 square kilometers and the territorial waters covering 450,000 square kilometers. It has been inhabited since 500BCE by the people of the Lapita culture.
People in the early Ni-Van society used to live in small clans separated by natural factors such as deep ravines, dense jungle and broad stretches of sea. Those claims were canibalists and you may think this has ended a long time ago, but actually the latest case of cannibalism in Vanuatu was registered in 1969 when a 7th adventist was baked and eaten by members of the Big Nambas Trib (What the hell are the big Nambas? Don’t worry my friend, you can learn a little bit about them here. And by the way there are Small Nambas too)
Magic was widespread throughout tribes and woman, besides cooking and gardening, were also “devoted” to her man’s pigs, because pigs were considered a symbol of wealth and are still a cultural currency in Vanuatu since your status in a village is is based on the pigs you own.
There is a fascinating story of a great leader named chief Roimata, the ancient king of Vanuatu who arrived in the village of Mangaas on Efate Island in the late 1500s or early 1600s, that says he conquered the land to unite the tribes and form an army establishing peace between the tribes. But Roi Mata was poisoned by his brother and his grave was found by French archeologist Jose Garranger in 1967 containing the bodies of over 50 members of his retinue located on Eretoka Island and it is part now of the World Heritage List as Unesco says: “The site reflects the convergence between oral tradition and archaeology and bears witness to the persistence of Roi Mata’s social reforms and conflict resolution, still relevant to the people of the region”.
The archipelago was then “discovered” by Europeans in May 1606 by Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain, Pedro Fernandes de Queirós who was followed by the French navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville in 1768 and British captain Jameis Cook in 1774, responsible for mapping the archipelago and naming it the New Hebrides.
They were followed then by French and English missionaries, sandalwood traders, and black birders in 1870 when cheap labours were needed or the sugar-cane industries of Fiji and Queensland, nickel mines in New Caledonia and coconut plantations of Western Samoa. Many of the people would never return home.
And as it happened to many other civilizations, the Vanuatu natives were also severe affected by diseases brought by missionaries and blackbirders such as Cholera, measles, smallpox, influenza, pneumonia, scarlet fever, mumps, chicken pox, whooping cough and dysentery. As it is expected, these native people had no contact before with those diseases and because of that no resistance to them. This lead to an extermination of the people from about one million in the early 19th century to 41.000 in 1935. Today the population is 292.000
To protect the interests of mainly British missionaries and french planters in 1906 France and UK created a condominium witch is in international law, a political territory in or over which multiple sovereign powers formally agree to share equal dominium.
And this lead the island to be a major allied base during World War 2 when the Americans after a stealthy attack against the Japaneses who were approaching Vanuatu took over and built an entire infrastructure to support their introduced military population and the necessary equipment to wage a counter offensive. But despite everything, the 40s were calm years for the native New Hebrideans since they never really experience the horrors of Japanese occupation.
Questions remarking land ownership became a major concern for Vanuatu people, because land was a commodity for Europeans, but from the perspective of Ni-Vanuatu, that was not something that could be owned and it could not be sold since It is held in trust by families, from one generation to the next but at that time more than one-third of the New Hebrides continued to be owned by foreigners.
This was the spark they needed to fight for the independence and after some 74 years of joint “Condominium” rule between Britain and France, Vanuatu finally received its independence on the 30th July 1980 thanks to Anglican minister Father Walter Lini, who was the leader of Vanua’aku Party sending a petition for independence to the UN in 1974 and gaining the elections of 1979 after the condominium authorities set up an assembly that allowed minority parties to govern until the first-ever election in November 1979.
Today The Republic of Vanuatu is an independent parliamentary democracy, with 52 members of Parliament, for which general elections are held every 4 years.
VANUATU AND CORONAVIRUS: HOW’S IT DOING?
Glad you ask. There is not a single case of coronavirus in Vanuatu so far, but still vulnerable, if strict measures are not adopted. It, however, continues its surveillance.
There are five public hospitals, and one private hospital with 27 health centers located across the islands and more than 200 aid posts in more remote areas. The two major referral hospitals are located in Port Vila and Luganville in the country.
The country has imposed coronavirus restrictions by a State of Emergency prevent international travelers from entering the country, and as you know its economy is heavily dependent on tourism that is being extremely affected by those necessary restrictions alongside last month’s Cyclone Harold where Approximately a third of Vanuatu’s population was said to have been impacted by the storm across seven islands.
Officials have banned foreign aid workers from entering the country to help because of fears on coronavirus.
Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands are two of very few countries in the Pacific Region without any Coronavirus cases yet. Nearby neighbor countries including Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia (18), Fiji (18) and Papua New Guinea (8)have confirmed coronavirus cases among their populations.
