Nineteenth-Century Conflict and the Koivuanabuli Fortification Complex on Mali Island, Northern Fiji

ABSTRACT

Intergroup conflict in Fiji is documented as early as AD 1250 through construction of fortification sites in different areas of the archipelago. By the early decades of the nineteenth century, traditional warfare had escalated and become transformed. It now created a landscape of fear, where every village was fortified and where cannibalism was rampant. Koivuanabuli, a hilltop refuge fortification was built in response by Mali Island peoples off the central coast of northern Vanua Levu. Positioned on top of a steeply sided conical prominence, it was tactically positioned to fend off assaults by large numbers of warriors as vividly described in an 1841 account. The fort, however, was located a considerable distance from the village populations it was meant to protect. A cross-island road, including sections through mangrove swamp, provided an assumed solution. We document this fortification complex, including road construction, and give insight into the nature of Fijian conflict and its increasing violence through the early historic era.

Keywords:

• Fiji
• fortification
• Oceania
• protohistoric
• warfare

Notes

¹The name Koivuanabuli was provided by Joeli Raisele, turaga ni koro of Vesi Village located immediately at the base of the hill. A literal translation of the name is “to the one who has been installed.”