The assassination of Ratu Raivalita
RATU Raivalita was Ratu Seru’s paternal half-brother and competitor for the title of Vunivalu. He was Adi Qereitoga’s son with Ratu Tanoa. Ratu Raivalita lived in Rewa with his mother (sister of the Roko Tui Dreketi, Ratu Kania) who was the “favourite” wife of Tanoa. He thus was a vasu of Rewa and son of Bau with access to all the privileges that go with this position in the Fijian spiders’ web of relationships. Readers will recall that Ratu Seru also spent some time in Rewa with Adi Qereitoga with whom he had a warm relationship because of a shared proximity to and fondness for Ratu Tanoa.
Thus, Ratu Seru was well aware of the exploits, strengths, weaknesses and the potential that resided in Ratu Raivalita who was also his rival for the title of Vunivalu. Ratu Raivalita was a veritable warrior in his prime and Ratu Seru watched as gradually Ratu Raivalita became a major problem for Bau not only because he was the leader of the “Rewa faction” in Bau when the Bau-Rewa rivalry was rife, but also because of his anger, reactiveness, cruelty and waywardness. It became obvious over time that Ratu Raivalita could not control his anger and, his pranks and “outrages” on defenceless villagers was bringing a bad name and reputation to Bau. It appears that despite these concerns the killing of Ratu Raivalita was triggered when it became known that he was plotting to kill both Ratu Seru and Ratu Tanoa (in Lyth L: 9 August 1845).
Sometime in late July or early August 1845, Ratu Raivalita, was killed by unnamed assassins on the orders of Ratu Seru who was apparently acting on behalf of his father, Ratu Tanoa. This is how the assassination unfolded.
In March 1845, Ratu Raivalita led a large Bauan party to escort the Tui Cakau back to Taveuni from Bau. He stayed in Somosomo (Taveuni) for three months until May (Williams, 1931, pp.322-23). On this journey, as had become almost customary among traditional leaders, he was accompanied by a number of trusted lieutenants. Among the more prominent in this case were Selemi (aka Matanibukalevu) and Ratu Nayagodamu (Ramudra’s brother’s son). This is the same Ramudra who replaced Ratu Tanoa when he was banished from Bau in the Bauan revolt of the early 1830s. Nayagodamu was thus another with a hidden hatchet against the rulers in Bau.
On his way back from Taveuni, some records show that Ratu Raivalita stopped over in Ovalau. Anyway, he returned to Bau in late July and immediately following protocol decided to visit his father, Ratu Tanoa, at his official residence “Muaidule”. He sent a sevusevu of yaqona in advance through the matanivanua. Then he followed with a sharing of the yaqona and a rehearsal of the journey to Taveuni before Ratu Tanoa. These customary rehearsals served as a medium to report on and orally record important events. It is important to note that through this audience with his father, Ratu Raivalita was seeking the monarch’s protection as he was aware that his life was in danger.
The acceptance of the sevusevu by Ratu Tanoa should have indirectly assured him of this chiefly protection, but in typical Bauan fashion it was ignored and the opposite happened. As he left Muaidule for his own house “Naisogolaca”, he was seized and clubbed to near death. The particulars of exactly what happened are fragmented, but I present here the chain of events from the sources I have accessed. Ratu Raivalita was seized by a group that included Ratu Seru and Komainaua (Ratu Wainiu). Komainaua, a chief from Cakaudrove, had been part of the ebb and flow of power play on Bau at the time. It is Komainaua who levelled Ratu Ravalita with a club to the head on Ratu Seru’s command (Wallis, 1851, p.104).
It is further recorded in other accounts that Ratu Raivalita did not die from that blow to the head, but was ritually strangled to death and buried near Cakobau’s house “where his enclosed grave still stands as a beacon to any who may hereafter conspire against the powers that be” (Waterhouse, 1866, p.110). There are also accounts of a white man intervening on behalf of Ratu Raivalita with a pistol as he was seized. Ratu Seru is said to have included him in his own service after his pistol misfired and nobody moved to kill him as ordered by Ratu Seru.
Raivalita’s plot
Selemi (aka Matanibukalevu), who was Ratu Raivalita’s trusted close friend and lieutenant, chose to die ritually to accompany his leader, Ratu Raivalita, into the other world. This ritual included strangling by close kin leading to “the spirits of the (two dead) friends” reuniting after death (Wallis, 1851, p.104). This, I found most interesting because as a scholar of Japanese history, I know that Japanese Samurai committed ritual suicide (seppuku) as a show of honour in capitulation to a victorious enemy in deep respect for their own fallen/defeated lord/chief.
Just before his strangling, Selemi revealed a huge conspiracy that involved Bauan as well as allied chiefs. Those that he included in his dying testimony included: Roko Tui Viwa, Ratu Namosimalua and his son Mai Sapai, Roko Tui Veikau Namara (a traditional Bati of Bau with close affiliations to the Roko Tui Bau who had been vanquished by Tanoa), two unnamed leading chiefs of the Lasakau sea warriors of Bau, and two unnamed shore warriors of the Soso people (Wallia, 1851, p.105).
There is some record of Ratu Gavidi being one of the two unnamed Lasakau chiefs involved in the conspiracy. However, his role is ambiguous because he is recorded as being one of those who disclosed Ratu Raivalita’s plot to do away with both Ratu Seru and Ratu Tanoa. For this, Ratu Seru promised him one of his own sisters to wife (Wallia, 1851, p.103). Another who warned Ratu Seru of the Ratu Raivalita plot was Ratu Varani of Viwa. Ratu Varani was Ratu Namosimalua’s brother’s son. This made him another ranking chief among those vying for power and influence.
It was obvious that the deep fault lines that ran in Bau not only went back to the removal of power of the Roko Tui Bau by the Tui Kaba of Ratu Tanoa and Ratu Seru, its origins went back to when Banuve (Ratu Tanoa’s father and Ratu Seru’s grandfather) who usurped power from “the family of Batitobe, who reigned at Bau before Banuve succeeded in gaining the kingdom” (Wilkes, 1845, 3:131). All of these ancient and ongoing grudges were at play in the assassination of Ratu Raivalita aka Doviverata aka Droiverata aka Drokiverata. On the flipside the same players were also plotting against the Tui Kaba to right old wrongs and to vie for power and control. That was the nature of pre-colonial Fijian politics.
