Binoka

Binoka and his adopted son, Bauro, photographed by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1889

Binoka (died 10 November 1891) was the third uea ("monarch") of Abemama. He controlled the Gilbert Islands of Abemama, Aranuka, and Kuria from 1878 until his death in 1891. The writer Robert Louis Stevenson featured Binoka, who he called Tembinok', in the pages of In The South Seas (1896) after the uea hosted his party on Abemama for nine months.

Contemporary accounts depicted Binoka as an oft-oppressive autocrat who derived his wealth from copra, maintained a trade monopoly with the Europeans, and hoarded foreign items. He harboured ambitions to conquer the Gilbert Islands, but they never materialized. Binoka is said to be the last independent Gilbertese ruler. The year after he died, Captain Edward Davis moored at Abemama to proclaim the Gilbert Islands a British protectorate.

Background

Binoka was part of a Gilbert Islands dynasty that, according to oral tradition, had ruled Abemama for five to seven generations before him. It also conquered the nearby islands of Kuria and Aranuka. His father, Baiteke, was the second member to hold the title of uea, which was used by other islands for their own hereditary monarchs. In Baiteke's time, foreign traders, whalers, beachcombers, and missionaries, mainly from Europe, were increasing their presence and control on the Gilbert Islands. Baiteke was one of the last independent rulers there. He responded in 1851 by ordering the executions of every non-Indigenous person living on the three islands. Then, Baiteke closed his borders and established a monopoly on foreign trade, which he limited to one port. He mainly bartered off coconut oil or copra. Thus, Baiteke became his realm's only supplier of foreign goods, including firearms and cannons, which he used to solidify his autocratic reign. It was this power Binoka, his son, would inherit.

Early life

Binoka was probably born around the 1840s. He had a younger brother, Timon (/sɪmɔn/), and two sisters. Binoka was raised in privilege by his father's female consorts and "palace favourites". He practiced using firearms and became a fair marksman.

In 1878, Baiteke abdicated, as was customary at his age, in favour of Binoka.

Robert Louis Stevenson's account of Binoka

Recreation of Binoka's flag. He was forced to remove one of the stars after the British seized Nonouti

Binoka was the last truly independent and influential king of parts of the Gilbert Islands, at a time when the Gilberts were being increasingly influenced by white settlers and traders. Binoka resided on Abemama, and, unlike the rulers of neighbouring islands, did not allow outsiders to establish a permanent presence there. Binoka controlled access to the atolls under his control and jealously guarded his revenue and his prerogatives as monarch. He briefly accepted the presence on Abemama of Tuppoti, a Christian missionary, then deported him for attempting to set up a copra trading business.

In 1888, he granted Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne the right to live temporarily on Abemama, on the condition that they did not give or sell money, liquor or tobacco to his subjects. They returned to Abemama in July 1890 during their cruise on the trading steamer the Janet Nicoll.

Binoka was immortalised by Robert Louis Stevenson's description of him in his book In the South Seas. Stevenson spent two months on Abemama in 1889. Stevenson described Binoka as the "one great personage in the Gilberts … and the last tyrant". Stevenson described the ambitions of Binoka as an embryonic "empire of the archipelago" and established his importance in the Gilbert Islands as "Binoka figures in the patriotic war-songs of the Gilberts like Napoleon in those of our grandfathers."

Stevenson describes Binoka, in years before his visit, as attempting to extend his rule over a number of islands and atolls; he compelled Maiana to pay tribute, and seized Nonouti, before being driven out by a British warship and being forbidden to expand his kingdom further. Stevenson does not date these events. At this time Royal Navy ships served on the Australia Station, and operated in the South Pacific.

Binoka—the merchant king

Binoka owned trade ships which would travel to Australia and New Zealand. His commercial ventures, however, ended in failure with the loss of his ship the Coronet.

He found a Scotsman, George McGhee Murdoch, who organized production and marketing on Binoka's several thousand acres of heritable land. Murdoch also maintained good relationships with the New Bedford whalers who used Abemama as a base, and he persuaded Binoka to allow Stevenson's party to settle ashore. George Murdoch did not reveal Binoka’s murderous habits to Stephenson - Binoka would shoot his own subjects down from tree-tops for the amusement of watching them fall sprawling - and Stevenson did not name Murdoch in his book.

Binoka was also a merchant king, controlling his kingdom's commerce. He enforced the allocation of produce; such that the taro went to the chiefs of each village to allocate among their various subjects; certain fish and turtles and the whole of the produce of the coco-palm, the source of copra belonged to Binoka. He would trade the copra with visiting trading ships. He was, according to Stevenson:

greedy of things new and foreign. House after house, chest after chest, in the palace precinct, is already crammed with clocks, musical boxes, blue spectacles, umbrellas, knitted waistcoats, bolts of stuff, tools, rifles, fowling-pieces, medicines, European foods, sewing-machines, and, what is more extraordinary, stoves.

While the captains and supercargos of trading ships could expect to sell such novelties at a great profit, Binoka controlled access to his islands and would refuse to deal with those whom he considered to take advantage of him. Stevenson describes Binoka as classing captains and supercargoes in three categories: "He cheat a little"—"He cheat plenty"—and "I think he cheat too much”.

Binoka gave his many wives a share of the copra, which they would use to trade for hats, ribbons, dresses and other produce available on the trading ships. However sticks of tobacco were the main product they purchased, which Stevenson described as being "island currency, tantamount to minted gold". Stevenson described a notable feature of life with Binoka as being that evenings were spent with Binoka playing card games with his wives with the currency being tobacco sticks. He had developed his own version of poker in which he could play either of two hands dealt to him. By this strategy Binoka would win most of the tobacco, so that Binoka ended up with effective control of the tobacco, which he would allocate to his wives and other subjects, so that he was, as described by Stevenson "the sole fount of all indulgences".

While Stevenson refers to Binoka as "the last tyrant", Stevenson's account of his time with Binoka is much more sympathetic that given to Nakaeia, the ruler of Butaritari and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands. Nakaeia allowed two San Francisco trading firms to operate, Messrs. Crawford and Messrs. Wightman Brothers, with up to 12 Europeans resident on various of the atolls. The presence of the Europeans, and the alcohol they traded to the islanders, resulted in periodic alcoholic binges that only ended with Nakaeia making tapu (forbidding) the sale of alcohol. During the 15 or so days Stevenson spent on Butaritari the islanders were engaged in a drunken spree that threatened the safety of Stevenson and his family. Stevenson adopted the strategy of describing himself as the son of Queen Victoria so as to ensure that he would be treated as a person who should not be threatened or harmed.

In 1876 Britain and Germany agreed to divide up their interests in the western and central Pacific, with each claiming a 'sphere of influence'. In 1877 the Governor of Fiji was given the additional title of High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. The British 'sphere of influence' included the Ellice Islands and the Gilbert Islands, but it made little difference to the governance of these islands until after Binoka's death.

Murdoch is reported as saying that "I ordered myself a belt with a big crown on the buckle, and I stuck another crown in front of my helmet. Solid silver, they were. I told him the Queen herself had sent them to me for a present. Whenever a new law came out, I invented a special message from the Queen requesting his pairsonal collaboration in the matter. He was impressed and pleased. I made a by-ordinary good citizen of the old reprobate before he died."

Binoka died from an infected abscess on 10 November 1891. In 2014, Don, a descendant of Binoka, said that he died of syphilis, brought to Abemama by the whalers. He was succeeded as uea by his adopted son, Bauro. Timon acted as regent until Bauro came of age and reigned briefly and uneventfully.

The year after Binoka's death, Captain Edward Davis moored at Abemama to proclaim the Gilbert Islands a British protectorate. Murdoch became the District Agent and Tax Collector, setting up local courts and administration that brought peace and order to the lagoon villages and controlled (often with strong measures) the European beachcombers; he retired as a Resident Commissioner in 1912.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Binoka
16. Tem Tetabo 8. Tem Namoriki 17. Nei Beiarung 4. Tem Karotu 2. Tem Baiteke 5. Nei Teaa 1. Tem Binoka

Bibliography

• Crowley, Terry (1990). "King Binoka of Abemama and the Pacific Pidgin lineage" (PDF). Te Reo. 33 (1900). Linguistic Society of New Zealand: 25–42.
• Maude, H. E. (1970). "Baiteke and Binoka of Abemama: Arbiters of change in the Gilbert Islands". In Davidson, J. W.; Scarr, Deryck (eds.). Pacific Islands Portraits. Canberra: ANU Press. ISBN 0708101666.
• Roberts, R. G. (1953). "The Dynasty of Abemama". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 62 (3). Polynesian Society: 267–278. JSTOR 20703382.
• Stevenson, Fanny (2016) [1914]. The Cruise of the Janet Nichol among the South Sea Islands – via Project Gutenburg.
• Stevenson, Robert Louis (1896). In the South Seas. Scribner.
• Uriam, Kambati K. (1995). In Their Own Words: History and Society in Gilbertese Oral Tradition. Australian National University: The Journal of Pacific History. ISBN 0959547770.

Further reading

• "Literary Notes: A long way from Treasure Island", Neil Rennie, The Independent, 9 November 1998