I WISH to applaud Mr Natabe for his interesting article titled “Our history books miss slow deaths” (18/9).
While his theory has some eligible points, I beg to differ on the contradicting ones.
As per the article, the Vunivalu of Bau sold our country in 1874. I humbly request that proper English is used in such important historical articles to avoid confusion in the minds of our young people.
In fact, Fiji was not sold, it was ceded. There is a huge difference between sold and ceded.
“Sold” as the article stated, refers to the act of selling or trading something in exchange for money. You lose ownership for good.
Whereas “ceded”, as was the case, refers to allowing or giving way to another person or group or government to have temporary authority or control or ownership of something.
Moreover, thousands of people seem to be confused by the so-called Bauan dialect. Again, please do not mislead young learners.
The standard or common dialect is the vosa-vakabau, meaning acceptable dialect. Vakabau means acceptable. It is not vosa-vaka-Bau (Bauan dialect), as the article claims.
Even though it is spoken by some parts of Bau. Speaking of Bau, it is obvious there is a huge misunderstanding in the article in regards to Ratu Cakobau and/or Bau gaining dominance.
Back then, dominance was merely based on victory over traditional war and tribal support. Some tribes may not have supported Ratu Cakobau but majority of the tribes did.
Democracy existed back then, so the majority counts.
Likewise, for the current administration. Some may not have voted for FijiFirst. But the majority counts so they are in authority. Democracy existed in both eras.
The only difference is, back then it was archaic traditional democracy, whereas today, there is modern governance or political democracy.
Since the article moans about festival names, why not ask the organising committee to change your festival name to one that suits your linguistic taste. In trying to equalise language and dialects, there is a significant difference between them.
“Language” refers to the method of communication consisting of the use of words in a structural and conventional way, understood by a large group of people. Whereas “dialect” refers to a particular form or version of language that is peculiar to a specific tribe or group.
No one can alter the language of the British, so let it be. I believe it was totally inappropriate for that article to claim that the standard vosa-vakabau (standard dialect) is responsible for the deaths of dozens of tribal dialects in Fiji.
I believe that is grossly incorrect. We, up here in the foggy hills of Maumi, are part of Bau, but we have our own unique dialect, the vosa-vaka-Maumi.
It was spoken by our forefathers, still spoken by the present generation and we will ensure that it is spoken by the generation of tomorrow.
This is possible because we speak the vosa-vaka-Maumi in our homes, church, village meetings, kava sessions and any random conversation. To be more practical, we have our own bible which is written in the vosa-vaka-Mau mi known as “Ai Vola Tabu Vaka-Maumi”.
The reason being, it is read by people of all ages in every household, everyday. So our Bible serves its main purpose of spiritual monitoring, besides helping us maintain our very own unique dialect or the vosa-vaka-Maumi.
Certainly the last line of the article was very encouraging in saying that we must save our language.
Let’s go ahead and save it then, not by crying over shattered pieces but by picking up the broken pieces and moving on. Every drop makes an ocean.
Therefore, it all starts with us individuals in our own homes.
INOKE TUIRARA
Maumi, Bau
Tailevu
