Binoka

In this Gilbertese name, Tem is the masculine personal article used before names starting with b or m.

Tem Binoka (died 10 November 1891) was the fourth high chief (te uea) of Abemama, Kuria and Aranuka, in the Gilbert Islands. He ruled the chiefdom as an autocrat from 1878 until his death in 1891.

Tem Binoka
"King of Apemama [sic] and his son Bauro" (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1882)
Uea of Abemama, Kuria and Aranuka
Reign	1878–1891
Predecessor	Baiteke
Successor	Bauro Timon
Born	1840s
Died	10 November 1891
House	Tuangaona
Father	Baiteke

Binoka is best known for his portrayal as Tembinok' in Robert Louis Stevenson's In The South Seas (1896), a travelogue of the South Pacific. For eight weeks in 1889, Binoka accommodated Stevenson's party on Abemama and was befriended by the Scottish writer.

Stevenson depicted Binoka as an enterprising but debilitating autocrat. He recorded his failed conquests of Maiana and Nonouti, which caused a British warship to forbid him from expanding his realm, and his extensive mercantile endeavors. Stevenson also sentimentalized Binoka as a warlord past his prime, a vestige of the bygone pre-European era of the Gilbert Islands.

Binoka was succeeded by Bauro, his nephew and adopted heir. Less than a year later, a British warship came to Abemama and hoisted the Union Jack, proclaiming a British protectorate over the Gilberts. In 1979, the Gilbert Islands received independence from Britain as part of Kiribati. Although the chieftainship has technically survived, the current titleholder has described himself as "a dog with no teeth". Binoka's family has disputed characterizations of Binoka as a despot.

Background

Ancestors

Main article: State of Abemama

Abemama, Kuria, and Aranuka, the central Gilbert Islands

Binoka was a member of the Tuangaona family (utu) of Abemama, whose origins are described in oral tradition. His great-grandfather, Tetabo, was said to be an aintoa, a man of superhuman size and strength. Tuangaona was named after his birthplace. Tetabo was the first person to unite the island, leading Abemama against raiders from Tarawa. But it was his sons—led by Namoriki, the eldest brother—who permanently subjugated Abemama and went on to conquer Kuria and Aranuka. Karotu, the son of Namoriki, consolidated his power over the three central Gilbert Islands, creating a unified State of Abemama. He named Tewaia, the son he sired by his first wife, as his heir, and gave him the chiefly title of uea. Tewaia was succeeded by Baiteke, his half-brother, in 1850.

"Tem Baiteke, King of Apemama [sic]" (Handley Bathurst Sterndale, c. 1860 – c. 1871)

Gilbertese leaders such as Baiteke were threatened by an increasing European presence in the Gilbert Islands. Beachcombers, traders, and whalers had established a barter trade with Gilbertese people, uncontrolled by indigenous authorities, while Christian missionaries aimed to transform Gilbertese societies. In 1851, Baiteke executed every foreigner on Abemama, Kuria and Aranuka, and closed their borders to outsiders. Trading ships were subsequently restricted to the islet of Abitaku, which he controlled. Baiteke had not only curtailed European influence; he had established a monopoly on their goods, including firearms, which made him very powerful. Baiteke was able to create an organized autocracy and he could more easily suppress revolts. He introduced a feudalistic system of social stratification, placing his family, the utu n uea, at the top.

Early life

Binoka was born c. 1840. He was the firstborn child of Baiteke. Little is known of his mother; he had a brother, Timon, and at least one sister, Teaa. Binoka was raised by the consorts and favourites of his father. Unlike Baiteke, Binoka grew up in privilege, segregated from the lower classes, and he did not learn the self-discipline and militant spirit of his ancestors. Binoka and Karotu lived briefly at the same time, as Binoka recalled seeing his battle-scarred ancestor as a boy.

In 1973, Baiteke allowed Hiram Bingham, a Christian missionary, to send a mission teacher to Abemama. However, Bingham found that Baiteke strictly reserved education for his son. Binoka held the inexperienced teacher, the ill-mannered Moses Kanoaro, in contempt, but learned basic arithmetic and geography and how to read and write Gilbertese. Binoka also convinced his father to employ a German to build Abemama's first stone house.

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.

THERE is one great personage in the Gilberts: Tembinok' of Apemama: solely conspicuous, the hero of song, the butt of gossip. Through the rest of the group the kings are slain or fallen in tutelage: Tembinok' alone remains, the last tyrant, the last erect vestige of a dead society. The white man is everywhere else, building his houses, drinking his gin, getting in and out of trouble with the weak native governments. [He] figures in the patriotic war-songs of the Gilberts like Napoleon in those of our grandfathers.

— Robert Louis Stevenson, In The South Seas (1896), p. 329–330

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.
• Macdonald, P. D. (2016). "The Would-Be Empire Builder". Retrieved 30 July 2024.
• 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