Last week, we highlighted how Ratu Raivalita, a potential heir to the throne in Bau, was outmanoeuvred by Ratu Seru Cakobau and his father Ratu Tanoa in his attempts to assassinate them both and usurp power on Bau. In typical Bauan fashion, Ratu Raivalita’s sevusevu was accepted and he was entertained at Muaidule (Cakobau’s abode) before he was waylaid and later executed on his way to his own dwelling at Naisogolaca. Ratu Raivalita aka Doviverata aka Droiverata aka Drokiverata was killed sometime in late July or early August 1845. He was a leading light of Rewa, being the Roko Tui Dreketi’s sister’s son. This made him a critical pawn in a game of political chess between Rewa and Bau.
At the end of that article (FT 2/08/25), we said 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 Tanoa and Seru, its origins went back to when Banuve (Tanoa’s father and 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). It was this rivalry that lay at the bases of the powerplay in Bau. It was also this political intrigue that shaped, fed, engulfed and culminated in Ratu Raivalita’s assassination.
Factions in Bau
A CLOSER analysis of names and events around the ongoing political manoeuvrings in Bau at the time reveals that the undercurrents involved older chiefs of the side-lined Batitobe and their willingness to support any movements against the Tui Kaba usurpers. It is important to identify who exactly were aligned against the Tui Kaba to better identify the dynamics involved in the power struggles in and around Bau. Meticulous research by Sahlins (2004, p.215-6) reveals two groupings that were anti-Cakobau. One, were from the lineage of the ancient Vunivalu, the most recent (19th century) were the Nabaubau or Batitobe.
The second were the people of the Roko Tui Bau who had largely been subdued by the 1830s, but who were still in the equation as silent players, putting their support behind any moves against Cakobau and the Tui Kaba. Closely aligned to the Roko Tui Bau were clans who traditionally recognised him as their chief. Four clans have been clearly identified in this grouping. They included Nanukurua, Babaubau, Naisoro and Dewala. Among these the Nabaubau had the largest network of political support and hence they led this alignment against the Tui Kaba.
There was another dimension to the disproportionately large reach and influence of the Nabaubau. It appears that Nabaubau women were widely sought in order to give chiefly houses outside of Bau the vasu path to Bauan royalty.
The following snippet from Sahlins (2004, p.216) is from oral records: “The story of Nabaubau says that in the olden days, all the high chiefs and ladies in Bau came from Nabaubau, their mothers and mother’s mothers were usually from Nabaubau …. You can see that all the great names are existing in Bau today, both chiefs and ladies” (Rosenthal FN; cf. Lyth DB, 4:40b). Bearing further testimony to this is the fact that an “interesting number of the greatest Fijian chiefs of the nineteenth century were uterine nephews to the Nabaubau aristocracy, the sons of ranking Nabaubau women (Sahlins, 2004, p.216).
Rewa’s involvement
Recorded history shows that every revolt/uprising against the Tui Kaba (1800, 1832 and 1854) was supported by the Vusaradave, a bati pledged to the Roko Tui Bau. Readers would find it interesting to know that it was this group that silently supported Ratu Raivalita in his plot against Seru and Tanoa. The Roko Tui Dreketi, Ro Kania (sometimes referred to as Ratu Banuve — different from the Banuve of Tui Kaba) and his brother, Ratu Qaraniqio (aka Dakuwaqa aka Bativudi aka Lagivala), were two who supported Ratu Raivalita not only because he was their vasu, but because Rewa was at war with Bau by 1845. And Raivalita was head of the “Rewa faction” in Bau. This war was apparently being waged at different levels and on different fronts. Any advantage that could be gleaned was promptly utilised.
The intrigue was not only being played by Rewa, Bau was hard at it too. Soon after rivalries flared into war on Bau in 1845, Ro Cokanauto of Rewa defected to Bau. Cokanauto was the half-brother of Ro Kania and Qaraniqio. His mother was Tanoa’s daughter; thus, he was a vasu i Bau. Taking his supporters with him, Cokanauto virtually split Rewa in two and set up base at Nukui in the south of the Rewa Delta. It was from Nukui, with the support of Bauan imports, that Cokanauto began to harass Rewa both by land and by sea. Taking the powerplay to another level, Ratu Tanoa elevated his rebel grandson, Cokanauto, to the position of Roko Tui Dreketi and set up a parallel rival to Ro Kania. It is said that this is what prompted Rewan involvement in the Raivalita plot against Cakobau.
Records show that in 1851, Ratu Qaraniqio told the French Catholic missionary, Pere Mathieu, that “… my brother Ratu Banuve (Ro Kania) …. raised a war against Cakobau. He plotted with Raivalita. …. But the famous Varani, the assassin of the commander of L’Aimable Josephine, having heard of the plot, went to inform Cakobau. The next night the latter had his brother (Raivalita) put to death” (in Deniau, HF2). There was political strategy at play in Rewa’s move. The hitherto simmering rivalry between Rewa and Bau was already out in the open with constant skirmishes on Bau as well as its surrounds.
Although militarily weaker Rewa had kept up an obstinate opposition that fuelled the war, “resting in the hope of assistance from Raivalita, their vasu, who had engaged to kill his brother (Cakobau), on condition that Rewa would become tributary to him on his assuming the government of (Bau) (Williams and Calvert, 1859, p.350). The aim was to have lordship over both Rewa and Bau through their nephew after his usurpation of the throne in Bau. In fact, there is recorded evidence that Raivalita, who had free passage between Bau and Rewa, had travelled to Rewa in November 1844 (Anon. of Gambia Log: 8 November 1844). Readers will recall that on his way back from Taveuni, he stopped at Ovalau sometime in June 1845. Whether part of the conspiracy also involved this stopover is unclear.
It is clear that the underlying enmity between Ratu Raivalita and Ratu Seru had to do with shared ambitions to the throne of Bau that both had hereditary rights to. Seru Cakobau, because he was the lineal candidate being Tanoa’s son from a Bauan woman of the Nabaubau making him a vasu i Taukei. And Raivalita, because he was also Ratu Tanoa’s son from the Roko Tui Dreketi’s sister, Adi Qereitoga, making him a vasu of Rewa. It is also clear that good relations between the two kingdoms would favour Raivalita while continuing rivalry would fall towards Seru Cakobau.
It is this tug-of-war that led to the death of Raivalita and the flaring of the famous Kaba Wars that are often repeated in oral renditions of Bauan/Rewan history. We will look at those two deadly encounters next week. Until then, sa moce toka mada va lekaleka.