The Republic of the Kiribati (decides , i.e. near to kiribès ), known in the past under the name of islands Gilbert, Island state is a , composed of three archipelagoes of the Pacifique.

The Kiribati are with horse on the equator and the Date-line, at the same time in Polynésie and Micronesia, in the south of the Marshall Islands and of Hawaii and in the north of Tuvalu, of the Samoa, the islands Cook and the French Polynésie.

The Kiribati are consisted three Archipel S principal, including/understanding in all 32 Atoll S and a “high island” with the variation. If the narrowness of the emerged grounds do of it one of the smallest countries of the world (less than 811 km ²), their dispersion makes it possible the Kiribati to assert a maritime zone: 3550000 km ².

History

See also: History of the Kiribati, postal History of the Kiribati

The Kiribati have been inhabited for approximately two thousand years by people austronésien of Micronesia, speaking only one and even language, the Gilbertin, in episodical contact with Samoa NS.

The Kiribati were “discovered”, in an exhaustive way, rather tardily by the European explorers, only with the whole beginning of the 19th century. They owe their name of islands Gilbert (in French) with the admiral Johann Adam de Krusenstern who thus baptized them towards 1820, of the name of the British captain Thomas Gilbert which had crossed them in 1788.

In 1892, the the United Kingdom placed under its protectorate the islands Gilbert, the islands Ellice (from now on Tuvalu) and the Union islands (until in 1925, become Tokelau). They become a British Colonie the January 12th 1916, also including/understanding the islands Ocean (Banaba), Fanning and Washington (since 1901) - like Christmas (starting from 1919).

The islands Gilbert undergo (partly) the occupation Japan ease during the Second world war, starting from the end 1941. The Bataille of Tarawa puts end in November 1943 partially at it.

In 1978, independence is granted to the Ellice islands, separated from the Gilbert since 1975 and which take then the name of Tuvalu (“eight unit”). The Kiribati become in their turn independent under their new name the July 12th 1979.

During the 25 years of independence, the republic knew a democratic political life and ended up becoming member of the the United Nations in 1999. The democratic inversion of Teburoro Tito, president re-elected for one 3rd and last mandate, led to the election of the opponent Anote Tong in 2003.

Policy

See also: Political of the Kiribati

The Kiribati are a parliamentary République . The Parliament of the Kiribati, called Maneaba nor Maungatabu (“the common house of the crowned mountain”), is elected every four years and is composed of 44 representatives (last elections in August 2007).

The president is called you beretitenti (“the president” in gilbertin) and is at the same time the Head of the State and the government. He is elected by the universal direct suffrage, among the three or four candidates proposed by the Parliament in his center. He chooses his vice-president. In 2007, the president was Anote Tong (since July 2003) and the vice-president Teima Onorio.

Each of the 21 inhabited islands has its own local council which takes care of the daily businesses. The atoll of Tarawa, where the capital Tarawa-South is, and the essence of the government, have three distinct councils: Betio, Tarawa-South and Tarawa-North.

Subdivisions

See also: Subdivisions of the Kiribati

The constitution of July 12th 1979 (table 2, §132) does not subdivide the republic in archipelagoes or districts but gives the exhaustive list of the islands which compose it, with their official orthography (and the alternatives authorized: cf Leitartikel Geography of the Kiribati). The islands of the Line and Phœnix however are gathered administratively under the jurisdiction of only one decentralized ministry ( Line and Phoenix Group Development Ministry ), based in Ronton (Christmas).

Geography

See also: Geography of the Kiribati

The Kiribati are composed of three archipelagoes: the islands Gilbert (17 islands) with 1.500 kilometers in the north of the Fiji, the islands Phoenix (8 islands) with approximately 1.800 kilometers in the south-east of the Gilbert islands and the islands of the Line (11 islands, including 3 inhabited) to approximately 3.300 kilometers in the east of the Gilbert islands and a volcanic island isolated in the west Banaba. The latter is the old island with Guano, baptized Ocean Island , annexed the September 26th 1901, then attached to the colony by the British - who also made their administrative capital of it (phosphate layers exhausted in 1979, the year of independence). The islands of the Line also include/understand the island Jarvis, the Récif Kingman and the Atoll of Palmyra but those is managed by the United States.

The 33 islands (which all are of the Atoll S except Banaba) are divided into three archipelagoes:

• Gilbert islands: Abaiang, Abemama, Aranuka, Arorae, Banaba, Beru, Butaritari, Kuria, Makin (formerly, Little Makin), Maiana, Marakei, Nikunau, Nonouti, Onotoa, Tabiteuea, Tamana, Tarawa
• islands Phoenix: Birnie, Kanton (or Canton or Abariringa), Enderbury, Manra (or Sydney), McKean, Nikumaroro (or Gardner), Orona (or Hull), Rawaki (or Phoenix), reef of Winslow. Only Canton is inhabited permanently by an about sixty residents come from the Gilbert since the end of the year 1930, while a new attempt at colonization on Orona is in hand since 2001.
• islands of the Line: island Caroline (or island of the Millenium, baptized thus in 2000 to be the first ground where the sun of thousand-year-old IIIe rose), reef of Filippo, the island Flint, the Kiritimati island (or Christmas island, oldest and the largest terrestrial atoll in the world), the island Malden, the Starbuck island, Tabuaeran (or Fanning island), Teraina (or Washington island), the Vostok island. Only the islands Christmas, Fanning and Washington are inhabited (population coming from the Gilbert and of Ellice since the last war, which supplanted the rare colonists in the plantations of coconuts American or French - which engaged between the two wars especially of the Polynesian labor, of (Tokelau or of Tahiti)).

The near total of these islands are Atoll S which exceed hardly the sea level (if one does not count Banaba, only “high” island, which culminates with 81 meters, the top of these atolls is the hill of Joe , a sand dune of a dozen meters in height, on Christmas). Except for that of Christmas which is oldest and the largest atoll in the world, these atolls should not have completely emerged, starting from “Makatea”, which with the whole beginning of the Christian era (what corresponds to their human occupation), the Holocène (6 000 before J. - C.) correspondent with a sea level higher than current from 1 to approximately 1,5 m. The thinness of the ground, quasi non-existent, implies a weak vegetation, of human origin essentially, apart from the Cocotier S and of the Pandanus, omnipresent, and involves great difficulties for agriculture, limited, essentially, with the harvest of the Coprah, the karewe (fresh sap of the coconut) and of the local taro, the giant Taro of the marshes ( Cyrtosperma chamissonis ). Cultures also of the Breadfruit tree, banana and the pandanus (for its fruits, its sheets and its wood).

A treaty signed in Tarawa-South on December 18th, 2002 delimits the maritime borders between the French Republic (French Polynésie) and the Kiribati (islands of the Line).

Economy

See also: Economy of the Kiribati

Kiribati has few natural resources except for the resources Halieutiques. The commercially exploitable layers of Phosphate S were exhausted per hour of independence. The Copra and fishing currently represent the major part of the production and exports (including in the fish shape of aquarium). They rise with a little more than 6 million American dollars - to compare with the imports, 44 million in 1999.

The economy strongly fluctuated these last years and did not progress at the rate/rhythm of the demographic strong growth. Economic development is strongly limited by the lack of natural resources, skilled workers (except however sailors, trained well by the Marine Training Centers Betio and much in demand in Germany and since 2001, the United States), the weakness of the infrastructure and the distance of the markets internationaux.

The international air lines became problematic, especially since Air Kiribati definitively gave up (in March 2004) the only plane which enabled him to connect the Fiji and the Tuvalu (a ATR 72) like with the only charter (a Boeing 737), ensured by Aloha Airlines, which connected as for it each week Honolulu to Christmas. Blow, the only company which currently connects Tarawa to the rest of the world remains Air Marshall Islands, starting from Majuro (Marshall) - and, on the occasion, Air Nauru, when its only jet is not under sequestration. Air Kiribati, governmental company, ensure, after a fashion, the internal connections between the islands Gilbert (except Banaba), but are unable to directly connect the Phoenixes or the islands of the Line. The principal airports are those of Bonriki (Tarawa-South) and of the Christmas island whose technical detail is the following (Code AITA; Code ICAO; length of track; width of track; altitude; latitude (DEC); longitude (DEC)):

• International Bonriki (TRW - NGTA - 2011 m - 43 m - 2 m - 1.380 - 173.150)

• Christmas Island (CXI - PLCH - 2103 m - 29 M-1 m - 1.990 - -157.350)

The Tourisme provides more than one fifth of GDP, but there remains enough limited, because especially of difficult air transport (two principal hotels with Tarawa-South of which one of both is a governmental hotel, another governmental hotel with Christmas).

Foreign financial aid, coming mainly from the the United Kingdom, the Australia and the Japan, brings an important complement to the economy, (between a quarter and half of the GDP these last years, 15,5 million American dollars in 1995). But they are especially the fishing rights paid by the European Union, the South Korea or from now on by Taiwan which represents the main part of the incomes.

The majority of Gilbertins have activities of subsistence (fishing, culture of vegetables and fruits) which improve their daily newspaper.

Telecommunications are expensive and the service is definitely insufficient. There is no service of access by broad band and the national company, TSKL which has the monopoly proposes Internet with one of the most expensive tariffs in the world.

See also: Kiribati and the business “Ocean To marble”.

Since the beginning of 2007, the Kiribati launched out in the marketing of flags of convenience, while registering in Tarawa of the boats of all horizons, thus hoping to diversify their economic resources.

Demography

See also: Demography of the Kiribati

The inhabitants are Gilbertins (in Gilbertin, I-Kiribati ). They are in demographic strong growth (+ 2,3% per annum; 4,3 children per woman) and exceed little the 100.000 inhabitants in 2004. The not-urban densities are among strongest of the world, in particular in Betio, on the atoll of Tarawa. While the English is the language used by the constitution, for the laws and the instruments, the Gilbertin ( you taetae nor Kiribati ) is the usual vernacular language, largely spoken by totality about the inhabitants about the republic (a language austronésien, downward of Proto-Oceanic, recognized with parity with English by the constitution of 1979). Only negligible minorities also speak tuvalu (0,3% of the population, they are the descendants of the inhabitants of the Ellice islands remained on the spot during the separation of the Tuvalu in 1976). The Gilbertin is also spoken with the Tuvalu (on an island, Nui), with the Fiji (Rabi island) and with the Solomon, like by the few expatriates in New Zealand and in the United States (Hawaii). The Christianisme is the principal religion in the country, sometimes mixed with some residual practices of ancestral beliefs (of animist type). The majority of the Christians is Catholique (diocese of Tarawa and Kiribati) but the Kiribati Protesting Church (KPC, congregationalists) is very well represented, exceeding more than one third of the population (just as the Mormon and Protestant Churches like the adventist and the Church off Christ , the very minority latter). The faith baha' IE is also well spread, especially with Tarawa and Christmas (less than 3%). At the time of the census of 2005, where the religions were declared, the distribution on 92.533 Gilbertins was the following one:

• Roman catholics 51.144;
• KPC 33.042 ;
• Adventist of 7th day 1.756;
• Baha' I 2.034;
• COG 364 ;
• Mormon 2.910;
• Others 1.238;
• No 23, not-indexed 22.

Culture

See also: Culture of the Kiribati

Sir Arthur Grimble, well after Robert Louis Stevenson, made known with the rest of the world this original culture, thanks to popular emissions on BBC and with books like Pattern off Islands . The major scientific work was initially made by Henry Evans (Harry) Maude (the first police chief-resident British with being also anthropologist). In France, work was especially carried out by Jean-Paul Latouche, former president of the Société of Océanistes (Museum of the Man). The language Gilbertin E was initially described (and written) by the reverend Hiram Bingham Jr. at the end of the XIXe century, then codified throughout XXe by missionaries (French and catholic especially), like the Reverend Père Ernest Sabatier and its very complete Dictionary Gilbertin-French (Tabuiroa, 1952-1954), translated into English by Sister Olivia (edition of the commission of the Southern Pacific). If, for lack of means, the written literature remains little developed, the songs and especially the traditional dances ( you mwaie ), very codified, and particularly expensive with Stevenson, constitute the privileged artistic mode of expression of Gilbertins. In its thesis of doctorate Tradition, Changes, and Meaning in Kiribati Performance the first work so exhaustive, Mary Elizabeth Lawson wrote how Gilbertins describe their dances as bai N will abara , a thing of our ground, something which finds its origin of the bakatibu , the ancestors (1989, 79).

With the inhabitants of the Marshall and close Carolines, Gilbertins are specialists recognized in the dugouts to beam, known for their extreme speed and their handiness (cf We, the Navigators ). If the Maneaba (common house) constitutes the center impossible to circumvent of the Community life and the spirit of the katei nor Kiribati (way gilbertine), the people ( you aomata ) there are supposed to respect the old codes known as you bunna (protection), you kareka (to listen to the opinions), you betia (to remain with the variation of the danger), you boia (to be liked), you reita (to keep good relationships), you baema (to remain with its group). Very traditional company where hertzian television is not diffused, the elimination of illiteracy is however very important.

Language

See also: Gilbertin, Languages austronésiennes, Languages océaniennes

Language of the group océanien, downward thus of former speakers started from Taiwan and having travelled through the the West Indies (speaking proto-austronésien (family austronésien), like other Austronesian) this language belongs to the sub-group Micronesia N of the English océanien (: Nuclear Micronesian ) but seems to be influenced, more tardily, by the Polynesian Langues themselves (Samoa and Tuvalu especially).

Spoken by a little more than 100.000 speakers (in complement of English, taught at the end of the elementary school and included/understood by the young people and the townsmen), the Gilbertin is a language which presents a weak dialectal variety (if they are not different accents and minor characteristics which separate the islands from the North of those of the South) except however for Banaba, whose language is also represented with Rabi (Fiji). A dialect of the Gilbertin also is spoken with Nui (Tuvalu), populated by of Gilbertins which seems to have replaced the Polynesian population initially installed there.

It is an inflected language (with more suffixes that prefixes) for some grammatical categories but where the particles (appointed essentially) play a considerable part and who practices also a limited euphony. 13 letters (and as many phonemes): With, B, E, I, K, M, NR, NG, O, R, T, U and W. Palatisation of T in front of I and U (in certain regional accents). The modern C-W communication tends to distinguish two has different, by including one preceded by W nonmarked after B and M (example: mwaneaba instead of maneaba ). The word order is most of the time of type YOUR (Verb-Object-Subject), with an object which follows the verb immediately. Simple examples of sentences:

E built to you groin (there are many women, verb built preceded by a pronominal prefix E , “il/elle”, and followed you , article, and of groin , “woman”, Cognat of vahine)

I kana you ika (I eat fish, verb kana preceded by a pronominal prefix I , in capital letter as in English, ika fish)

E matu Nareau (Nareau sleeps, verb matu preceded by E , Nareau ancestral divinity gilbertine)

antai aram? is (which your name? , of macaw name followed by the possessive suffix - m , “your”).

On the languages of Oceania, lira the article of Francoise Ozanne-Rivierre, “Languages of Oceania and Histoire” in the Pacific: a scattered world , under the direction of Alain Bensa and Jean-Claude Rivierre, Harmattan, 1998. ISBN 2738472516

Sports

Practiced sports: Football and Volley ball especially but without national teams themselves. Only one truth stage in Bairiki (Tarawa-South), with steps.

Olympic Carry-flag: Meameaa Thomas (a haltérophile). Official name of the CNO: National Kiribati Olympic Committee Foundation: 2002 Recognition by CIO: 2003

Official:

• President of the CNO: Birima' aka Tekanene
• General secretary of the CNO: Willy Uan
• Participating in Athens: 3 athletes (two boys, a girl). Two sports: athletics and haltérophilie.
• First participation in the Olympic Games: 2004

National anthem

Titrate: “Teirake kaini Kiribati” (Upright Kiribati). Type-setter: writing and composed by Urium Tamuera Ioteba. Come into effect in 1979.

Festivals and bank holidays

Time zone and flag

The archipelagoes overlap the meridian line 180° which determines the change of day (the Date-line), so that in 1995, in preparation for the passage to the year 2000 the authorities decided to change time zone the two archipelagoes Eastern (before the republic was cut into two and lived out of two dates simultaneously, which was not always practical for the inhabitants: the title of “Kiribati space time” is besides that given, in 1988, with the monograph of Benoit Antheaume and Joel Bonnemaison, Atlas of the islands and States of the southern Pacific ). Instead of being the last to leave the year 1999, the inhabitants of the islands Gilbert (Kiribati) became the first to enter the year 2000 then, the following year, in the new century and the new millenium. In the passing, their so evocative flag showing the sun at the horizon of the waves takes a direction symbolic system which compares it to Janus whose double face looks at the same time the past and the future. This flag is based on the armorial bearings adopted for the islands Gilbert and Ellice in 1937, on a drawing of police chief-resident of then (1932), to sir Arthur Francis Grimble. It represents a rising sun ( otintaai ), flown over by a frigate ( you eitei ), who emerges from the floods of the Pacific. The sun darts of 17 rays (the 16 islands Gilbert and Banaba). The floods of the Pacific are cut in three parts, like the three archipelagoes of the State (Gilbert, Phœnix and islands of the Line). The frigate ( Fregata minor ), which represents a traditional and respected messenger, is the bird emblematic of the I-Kiribati (ethnonyme vernacular of Gilbertins).

See too

Selective bibliography

• Tony Whincup & Joan Whincup, Akekeia! , Traditional Dance in Kiribati, Wellington 2001, ISBN 0-646-41554-9 is the best photo album on the Kiribati and their dances and obtained the prestigious New Zealand price Montana in its category.

• Tony Whincup, Nareau' S Nation: In Portrait off the Gilbert Islands (1979) is more dated
• Rosemary Grimble (ED.), Migrations, Myths and Magic from the Gilbert Islands: early writings off Sir Arthur Grimble (1972), published work of his/her father, to sir Arthur Grimble, on the myths and the traditions gilbertines.

See also:

• Gerd Koch, The Material Culture off Kiribati (1986; initially published in German under the title Material Kultur DER Gilbert-Inseln 1965);
• Alaima Talu and Al , Kiribati: Aspects off History (1979);
• Albert F. Ellis, Ocean Island and Kiribati: Their Story (1935);
• and, most complete in particular from the historical point of view: Barrie Macdonald, Cinderellas off the Empire: Towards has off History Kiribati and Tuvalu (1982), exhaustive.

On the history and the political situation of the Pacific Islands in general:

• Islanders of the Pacific , I.C. Campbell and J. - P. Latouche, “Policy of today” with PUF, 2001, ISBN 2130519261.

On the birth of the democracy, lira Jean-Paul Latouche in Which wants to speak? , under the direction of Marcel Holds, Seuil, 2003.

On Christmas island: Eric Bailey, The Christmas Island Story , Stacey International, London 1977.

• Arthur Grimble : off has Pattern Islands John Murray, London 1952 and Return to the Islands 1957.

Its scientific work was published under the direction of H.E. Maude under the title of Tungaru Traditions: writings one the atoll culture off the Gilbert Islands , University off Hawaii Near, Honolulu, 1989

On navigation in the Pacific Ocean: David Lewis, We, the Navigators , Reed, Wellington, 1972.

In French: Father Ernest Sabatier, Under the equator of the Pacific , Dillen editions, Paris 1939 (translated into English under the title Astride the Equator , Melbourne 1978)

Essence to apprehend these islands before protectorate:

• Robert Louis Stevenson, In the South Seas , University off Hawaii Close, London 1971 (translated into French: In the South Seas , Small Payot library/Travellers 248,1995 ISBN 2228897469).

The bibliography updated by Trussel is most complete (cf Liens hereafter).

External bonds

• Trussel (has a very complete bibliography)
• Wysiwyg
• Janeresture
• Cyberflag: Flag of the Kiribati

Beats-smg: Kėrėbatis Simple: Kiribati Zh-min-nan: Kiribati

Random links:

Aufseherin | Übersexuel | Corsairs of the Bois de Boulogne | Allozyme | Me bororo (bovine race)