Maasina Ruru
Encyclopedia
Maasina Ruru was an emancipation
Emancipation
Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...

 movement for self-government and self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...

 during and after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, 1945–1950, credited with creating the movement towards independence for the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

. The name is from the 'Are'are language
'Are'are language
The Are'are language is a language that is spoken by the 'Are'are people, who live mainly on the Solomon Islands. It is spoken by 17,800, which makes them the second largest language in the Solomons after the Kwara'ae...

 meaning the Rule of "relationship of siblings together" and is often corrupted to "Marching Rule" , "Marxist Rule", or "Rule of Brotherhood".

Foundation and influences

The movement was created after Nori Nono'oohimae, Aliki Nono'oohimae and Jonathan Fiifii'i
Jonathan Fiifii'i
Jonathan Fiifii'i was born in 1921 was a Kwaio at Ane'emae near Oloburi, Malaita, Solomon Islands. His father was Buumae and mother Dafua....

 worked together in the Solomon Islands Labour Corps
Solomon Islands Labour Corps
The Solomon Islands Labour Corps was an World War II organization of about 3,200 native Solomon Islanders who served in the allied war effort. The corps were stationed at all military establishments, especially the large bases at Guadalcanal, the Russell Islands, and Tulagi. It was established in...

 during World War II. One of the influences is said to have been the African-American soldiers whose humane treatment of the fellow workers was markedly different from the plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 owners. They spread a message of independence amongst the Malaita
Malaita
Malaita is the largest island of the Malaita Province in the Solomon Islands. A tropical and mountainous island, Malaita's pristine river systems and tropical forests have not been exploited. Malaita is the most populous island of the Solomon Islands, with 140,000 people or more than a third of the...

n soldiers who began a campaign of non-compliance and civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...

.

They were also influenced by other revolutionary or anti-government movements, progressive missionaries such as Rev. Richard Fallowes and apocalyptic movements such as that of the priest Noto'i. During 1939 in Uogwari and Atobala he had been a prophet
Prophet
In religion, a prophet, from the Greek word προφήτης profitis meaning "foreteller", is an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people...

 of the ancestor La'aka
La'aka
La'aka is a powerful ancestress and one of the most widely propitiated of spirits among the eastern Kwaio on Malaita, Solomon Islands. She is seen as both a protective figure who exemplifies maternal virtues and the productive powers of women and as a warrior whose deeds rivalled those of the...

 and channelled that Tulagi
Tulagi
Tulagi, less commonly Tulaghi, is a small island in the Solomon Islands, just off the south coast of Florida Island. The town of the same name on the island Tulagi, less commonly Tulaghi, is a small island (5.5 km by 1 km) in the Solomon Islands, just off the south coast of Florida...

 would be destroyed and the government would be thrown into the sea. His followers were arrested by the government but in 1946, the capital moved from Tulagi
Tulagi
Tulagi, less commonly Tulaghi, is a small island in the Solomon Islands, just off the south coast of Florida Island. The town of the same name on the island Tulagi, less commonly Tulaghi, is a small island (5.5 km by 1 km) in the Solomon Islands, just off the south coast of Florida...

 to Honiara
Honiara
Honiara, population 49,107 , 78,190 , is the capital of the Solomon Islands and of Guadalcanal Province, although it is a separately administered town...

. Noto'i joined the Maasina Ruru movement as did people from all over the islands.

Operation DeLouse and Operation Jericho

In 1947, the British government launched Operation De-Louse to arrest the leaders of the movement. The nine main chiefs or Alaha were also arrested and charged under the Sedition Act
Sedition Act
Sedition Act may refer to:*Alien and Sedition Acts, including the Sedition Act of 1798, laws passed by the United States Congress*Sedition Act 1661, an English statute that largely relates to treason...

for organising secret meetings. This despite the fact that Maasina Ruru meetings were mass meetings of thousands of people at a time. They were mostly sentenced, including Fifi'i, Nonoohimae and Aliki, to six and a half years hard labour.

While the leaders were in jail the campaign of civil disobedience continued with villages refusing to pay taxes en masse. While many villages were also barricaded against the British, the government launched Operation Jericho. Two thousand arrests were made in Malaita
Malaita
Malaita is the largest island of the Malaita Province in the Solomon Islands. A tropical and mountainous island, Malaita's pristine river systems and tropical forests have not been exploited. Malaita is the most populous island of the Solomon Islands, with 140,000 people or more than a third of the...

 alone and yet the resistance continued.

In 1951 the British government held meetings with the imprisoned leadership and brokered a deal for self-government in the form of the Malaitan Congress. The prisoners were released and demands were met towards the end of 1951.

Sources

  • Fifi'i, Jonathan; From pig-theft to parliament: My life between two worlds, translated and edited by Roger Keesing
    Roger Keesing
    Professor Roger Martin Keesing was a linguist and anthropologist, noted for his fieldwork on the Kwaio people of Malaita in the Solomon Islands, and his writings on a wide range of topics including kinship, religion, politics, history, cognitive anthropology and language. Keesing was a major...

    . Suva, Fiji : Institute of Pacific Studies ; Solomon Islands College of Higher Education, 1989.
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