Before the eruption of protests in New Caledonia last month, many of us, including myself, knew little of the island nation. After learning more about the island and its struggles, I learned not just of an extraordinary example of anti-colonial resistance, but of the global importance of the Pacific islands today.
The island nation is a French overseas territory and relic of the waning French empire. Its indigenous population, the Kanaks, erupted into protests last month, rejecting an electoral reform measure that would have diminished their voting power.
Western coverage of the protests were dismissive of the actual causes of Kanak revolt. As a French colony, the Kanaks were gradually dispossessed and disenfranchised over the past two centuries. They are now a minority on their own land, and the wealth gap between them and white settlers, new and old, has become impossible to ignore. The electoral proposal was merely the last straw on top of a heap of frustrations and settler violence.
Our media coverage also places great emphasis on “restoring the peace” from the “violent” protests. In empire, occupation is the status quo, and standing up to oppression is violent. The real violence, of course, is that which France has inflicted on Kanaks for the past 170 years.
The history of New Caledonia and two centuries of French plundering and pillaging of the island’s people and natural resources should be understood as the cause of problems that have made protests inevitable.
French colonization
The first Western incursion of the island was in 1774, when the notorious Captain Cook landed on its shores and named it New Caledonia, when there were 70,000 Kanaks living on the island. Before his arrival, the indigenous people of the island had lived there peacefully for about 3000 years.
In 1843, the French sent three missionaries to the island. They were quickly expelled after attempting to enter into a treaty with the chief of the island. In 1851, the French arrived again, this time with arms. After dining with locals, the colonizing forces sacked and burned numerous villages and laid informal claim to the island. In 1853, Napoleon III signed a deed, officially claiming the land for military purposes and use as a penal colony for political dissidents of the French empire.
At the time, France and England were competing for hegemony in the Pacific, and the British had already established their penal colony in the massive landmass of Australia. In 1864, France began shipping in convicts from France and other parts of the empire, like Algeria. From 1864 to 1897, 20,000 convicts were imported onto the island and quickly put to work in the extraction of nickel, beginning in 1864, and copper, beginning in 1875. 3,800 Communards from the Paris Commune were arrested and deported to New Caledonia in the late 1800s. Of the communards, only the anarchist-feminist communard Louise Michel took the side of the Kanaks.
In France’s Australia, the Kanaks have met a similar fate to the Aborigines of that great landmass: “France opted for the model of settler colonialism, premised on the gradual disappearance of the indigenous Kanaks and their replacement by a European population. In the early decades of colonization, the native population was 40,000, and the settler population was 600. Today, Kanaks only make up 41% of the population. Settler colonialism is very much a demographics game, and requires population management to ensure that the locals become a minority or are entirely eliminated. Doing so increases the settler population increases legitimacy, and makes it impossible to reverse colonialism.
Women also faced more restrictions after the arrival of the colonizers, whose religion dictated that women couldn’t leave the house without men. The colonizers raped women, and the church made it a crime to talk about contraception.
The French did this first by making the Kanaks prisoners on their own land by dispossessing them from their homes and enslaving them. They were violently driven from their homes and forced to live on reservations, which constituted only 10% of the entire island. An “indigenous legal code” was imposed, banning Kanaks from leaving the reservations without permission from police, and after 9 PM, they risked being murdered on sight by French settlers. Their land was taken and given to settlers, who often sold them back to the French government for millions of francs. Scores more Kanaks died from European diseases introduced by the colonizers.
The French then forced the Kanaks into slave labor to aid in the exploitation of the island’s abundant resources, specifically nickel and copper. As expressed in this NYT article from 1872, the island was surprisingly more valuable than initially expected by Napoleon III’s administration, yielding fertile plains in the east, and coal, copper, iron, slate, gold, and jade reserves in the west. The French were able to successfully “acclimatize” different foreign harvests, including rye, wheat, oats, maize, rice, raw sugar, tea, and coffee brought in from the rest of their empire, which were displayed in the Paris Exhibition in 1867 as some sort of colonial feat. Some Kanaks were also captured and shipped off to Australia, California, Canada, Chile, and Fiji to fuel production in other parts of the empire.
New Caledonia essentially became an offshore factory to plunder and produce resources for the greater empire. As their land and resources were taken away from them, and convicts and settlers made there way to the island, the Kanak population slowly dwindled and upended the existing social structure.
Although the French were swift and cruel with their violent dispossession of the island, the Kanaks didn’t take it without a fight. A look at the history of Kanaky shows a long tradition of organized resistance from the very beginning of colonization.
The first significant act of rebellion occurred in 1878, organized by a big chief named Atai. The French responded with a brutal massacre, leaving 600 locals and 200 settlers dead. Some Kanak tribes were wiped out completely, and another 1,500 people were sent into exile in Australia or Vanuatu.
The second early act of rebellion occurred in 1917, when the big chief at the time, Noel, organized a protest against the conscription of Kanaks into the French army during WWI. The French responded by killing him and then decapitating him, and displaying his head in the Museum of National History in Paris. In both acts of repression, the French followed the “pacification” process used by all colonizing forces: committing mass murder to incur silence, and then claiming peace.
After World War II, during a period of decolonization, there was some hope in the Kanak fight for independence. In 1946, Kanaks were finally granted freedom of movement and released from compulsory labor. The territory became an official territory of France, rather than an outright territory, and Kanaks were even given French citizenship. The UN placed it onto a list of territories “to be decolonized,” giving the cause some international legitimacy.
In 1951, Kanaks and Caldoche (French settlers), were officially granted the right to vote. The first Kanak political party, the Union Caledonienne, was founded, and began demanding political autonomy. In 1957, a Territorial Assembly was created, although the political organ was quickly abolished by Charles de Gaulle in 1958.
The hope didn’t last long. In 1962, the French government doubled down on its occupation of Kanaky after losing Algeria. Empires often do this when they sense their power waning, such as the English in Palestine, India, and Ireland as many of its other colonies gained independence.
The independence movement
Today’s protests are a continuation of the independence movement that began in the 1970s and 1980s. At the time, there was a wave of independence movements in the Pacific, many of which found success: Western Samoa in 1962, Nauru in 1968, Tonga and Fiji in 1970, Papua New Guinea in 1975, Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands in 1978, Kiribati in 1979, and Vanuatu in 1980.
Inequality also deepened as nickel extraction and production boomed. A number of students also returned with a new revolutionary spirit after studying in France during the period of civil unrest in 1968, when the French economy was brought to a halt as demonstrations and occupations broke out across the country to protest capitalism and American imperialism. It became the largest general strike to ever occur in France, involving 22% of the working population. The students used this revolutionary spirit to contribute ideas to organizing collective action in the face of growing inequality on the island.
Revolutionary Kanaky intellectuals reclaimed the previously derogatory Canaque, turning it a symbol of political pride. A deeper dive into the history of the word Kanak situates Kanaky’s struggles to that of broader colonialism. The word is derived from Hawaiian “kanaka maoli,” meaning “ordinary person.” It was co-opted by colonizers and applied indiscriminately to the locals. In Germany, Kanake had become a racial epithet derived from its former colonies in Oceania, which included Palau, Northern Mariana, Nauru, Samoa, and the Marshall Islands. It was used against southern Europeans, Turkish immigrants, and all non-white people.
During the Cold War, there was an influx of refugees arriving into Germany. (While in Berlin, I remember learning that the plethora of Vietnamese restaurants was a result of East Germany letting in Northern Vietnamese refugees during the Vietnam War.) West Germany saw increased migration into East Germany as a demographic tactic to engineer a humanitarian crisis. Franz Josef Strauss, former prime minister of Bavaria and conservative party chair, was quoted as stating, “Tamils are storming us in their thousands, and if the situation in New Caledonia sharpens, we’ll soon have the ‘Kanaken’ in the country.”
A string of murders in the 1970s helped sow the seeds for organized action for political autonomy. In 1975, Richard Kamouda, a young Kanak was beaten to death by French police in New Caledonia. In 1979, a racist French police inspector murdered a man named Theodore Daye. Later that year, Emile Kutu was shot by his employer when he tried to pick up his wages. None of the killers faced many consequences, and the Kanaks rose up in protest after every murder.
Things came to a head in 1981 when the independence leader Pierre Declercq was assassinated. Declercq was a white Frenchman who arrived in 1971 and became involved in the independence movement. He was elected secretary general of the Union Caledonienne. Declercq wrote drafts of independence measures and met with Mitterand. He was a crucial figure at a time when Kanaks made up only 56,000 of the 140,000 population.
The threat that Declercq posed is evident from this quote from July 23, 1981: “Regarding the armed settlers, just one remark: when they are so numerous and so quick to pull the trigger, how is it that Declercq is still alive?”
Declercq was assassinated just two months later on September 19, 1981. Nobody has ever been apprehended for his death, but the new leader of the party blamed it on a group of French settlers who had arrived from Algeria.
With the formation of a pro-independence political party and coalition in 1979, revolutionary fervor began growing in the streets. The new leader of the Union party stated that Declercq’s assassination was a “declaration of war” on the indigenous Kanaks, and protests erupted. On September 20, a 24-hour general strike in protest of his assassination was called.
This energy was unstoppable, no less thanks to the lack of initiative from the French government. President Giscard d’Estaing had made promises for increased autonomy and plans for future development during his time in office from 1974 to 1981, but these efforts were shelved when Mitterand became president in 1981, who dropped all talks of self-determination and created a new idea to solve the “Kanak identity problem.” The FLNKS boycotted the vote for this measure. Independence leader Eloi Machoro famously took an axe to a ballot box.
On September 24, 1981, about 30 protestors went into the street with banners to protest. They were surrounded by the army and settlers and beat in the street. Two protestors were arrested. The news from this time are almost parallel to what we see today: “police kept white settlers and independence movement supporters apart.” “White settlers had used bulldozers to put out fires lit by independence supporters” after a “clash.” Following the second violent arrest of protestors, more Kanaky began “waking up” to the movement, and two lawyers from France were brought to help the Kanaky.
In 1982, the pro-independence coalition became the governing party in the NC government. There was some hope in the air of the empire: Vanuatu had just won independence, and socialist and communist parties were doing well in France, pledging support for Kanaky independence. In 1983, 20 Kanaks chained themselves in front of a sawmill to protest the pollution of the surrounding waters. The French government unleashed truckloads of soldiers onto them to stop the protest.
FLNKS, Tjiabou, resistance
In 1984, the coalition was dissolved and the Kanak Socialist Nationalist Liberation Front (FLNKS) was formed. By this time, Mitterand began pushing for dialogue rather than supporting Kanaks on the ground, and it was clear that real independence would not be achieved through him. The French empire was also quashing rebellions left and right in the rest of its territories, no less at its own fault: in 1961, for example, Parisian police murdered over 120 Algerians and let their bodies float on the Seine, and then killed scores more at a peaceful march. In 1984, a state of emergency law was imposed on New Caledonia.
The FLNKS began boycotting elections and established a provisional government, with Jean-Marie Tjiabaou as president. Eloi Machoro, an independence leader, famously took an axe to a ballot box in defiance. France immediately sent 1500 troops and police to the island. In tandem with armed settlers, they killed over 20 Kanaks. Over 100 were arrested as political prisoners, and scores were tortured.
From 1984 to 1988, in what came to be known as Les Evenements, Kanaks began organizing acts of resistance against security forces and violent settlers. Kanaks called for the release of Kanak prisoners, organizing “in the bush, in the countryside,” and building barricades around villages to occupy the land. Armed with guns and axes, some tried to force European residents to give up their weapons. France imposed a state of emergency law on New Caledonia, the first time it had used such a measure since the Algerian War two decades prior. By 1988, France had flooded the island with French soldiers and police, 1 for every 7 Kanaks.
On December 5, 1984, in Hiengene, seven Caldoche settlers murdered 10 Kanaks, including two brothers of Tjiabou. An all-white jury pardoned the murderers in court shortly after. In May 1985, white settlers unleashed a violent rampage on Kanaks, shooting one dead and wounding 95. Since November 1984 until that point, 20 people had been killed in similar incidents.
In January 1985, President Mitterand arrived on the island to continue independence talks. There were demonstrations against him by anti-independence groups, made up of Europeans as well as some Asians and Melanesians who believed that pro-independence groups were paid for by the USSR. This division existed despite persistent attempts by independence leaders to convince non-Kanak minorities of their shared struggles.
In this article from January 17, 1985, one settler expressed his racially-induced fear. details the division of the island by ethnic groups. “If we fail here, there will be no body else on the road to stop them,” as they were the only European owned house left on their road. In response, they had loaded their home with guns to protect themselves. The settler mirrors the delusion of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, fearing the very people they have violently dispossessed.
Further white supremacist sentiment was also clearly expressed. “Before, there were whites everywhere. Now there aren’t,” one Caldoche stated. “We’ve set up a militia and self-defense forces,” he continued, to fight the “bandits, thieves, and pillagers.” This invokes the far-right rhetoric of the Great Replacement Theory or the Proud Boys.
In 1986, the FLNKS again proposed a self-government, and made progress in gaining autonomy through talks with Mitterand. When Chirac came into office, he shelved these efforts and sent troops to the island. In 1986, the UN reinstated New Caledonia on the list of territories to be decolonized.
Les evenements came to an effective end with the Ouvea cave crisis. In May 1988, Kanak resistance fighters captured settlers as hostages as leverage, calling for independence and autonomy. Instead of negotiating, the French staged a “rescue mission” in which they slaughtered 19 Kanaks. Three died in custody after surrendering. Witnesses also stated that some were killed after surrendering. Two French policemen were also killed, but the hostages were left unscathed. The result was so bloody that even the French PM had to downplay the carnage in the midst of an election in France. In stating that only two Frenchmen were killed, Chirac effectively implied that the Kanaks killed were not French. In this Nation article from 1988, Daniel Singer states, “Kanaks, in this version, regain their independence on the way to paradise.”
Soon after, on June 26, 1988, the Matignon-Oudinot Accords were signed. Three provinces were created, and the Kanak people were officially recognized. However, while it granted amnesty to Kanak prisoners, it also let gendarme assassins off the hook. The text also promised to fix the wealth gap, restore Kanak lands, pave the way for a rural development, and schedule antoher referendum for 1998. FLNKS leader Tjibaou was assassinated by a Kanak who blamed him for signing the accords, in which he was photographed shaking the hands of a pro-French leader. (This is similar how Palestinians feel about Arafat for signing the Oslo Accords.
In 1998, the Noumea Accord was signed, which was meant to officially transition the territory into independence over a period of 20 years. The accord scheduled three future referendums to vote on independence, and restricted the right to vote to only natives and long-term residents. The 1998 process was unique in that Kanaks didn’t limit the call for independence to themselves: they called for sharing their self-determination with others as collective “victims of history,” namely the descendants of settlers and convicts and all populations that arrived during various waves of migration, not only from France but also from other Pacific islands or Asia. This shows the Kanak understanding of achieving realistic and intersectional collective liberation.
Today . . .
This brings us to the current moment, where it seems like nothing has changed. As David Robie, a prominent Oceania journalist, writes, the recent protests are a response to France’s betrayal to their promises made in 1988 and the lack of progress towards independence that has been made in the past 3 decades.
On April 2, 2024, the the French Senate approved a constitutional change that would allow all residents for at least 10 years to vote in the elections. From 15,000 miles away, Macron laid out a measure that would greatly impact the voting power of Kanaks, and they understandably rose up once again.
The tactics of current protests reflect those from les evenements. Although a nightly curfew and ban on alcohol has been imposed, Kanak protestors have maintained barricades around the capital and in remote towns. The town of Hienghene, for example, has been blocked off by a few dozen protesters taking turns keeping watch. The Hienghene police station siege is being led by Jean-Marie Tjiabou’s son, Joel. One police officer was injured after falling into a trap that protestors had made.
A history professor at Victoria University of Wellington stated that these protests have really “underscored the capacity the independence movement has to bring the territory to an economic standstill.”
One French settler is quoted as saying that although it had been hard to acquire food and fuel, the protests had not been outright violent or dangerous. Another French settler spoke of the fear she felt. Her parents told her, “We never wanted to tell you about what happened in 1984, but it’s happening again.” This mimics that of Israelis telling their children about the “violence” they faced from Palestinians during the intifada. “It’s too dangerous,” another settler is quoted as saying. “We really don’t know how to get food or drinks or medicine.”
Like all other news articles, the focus is on the “fright” of the settlers, and not the demands of the Kanaks. “White people consider that the Kanaks are part of the fauna, of the local fauna, of the primitive fauna. It’s a bit like rats, ants or mosquitoes,” Tjiabou once wrote. The Kanaks are mere pests to the colonizers, expected to take the decree of a president 15,000 miles away without a fight.
Meanwhile, there are documented instances of violence from the settlers during the course of the protests, including many that are now under investigtion by French authorities. A number of Kanak protests were shot by unknown assailants. A video shows French police officers forcing a Kanak to sit on his knees so that they could kick him. A Kanak police officer was severely beaten by local gendarmes.
Kanaky’s resistance is a reminder that the will of the colonized is unbreakable. 170 years after the arrival of the French, the island continues to fight for the liberation. As Tjiabou, the independence leader murdered in 1989, wrote, “Non-recognition and absence of cultural dialogue can only lead to suicide or revolt.”
While history of New Caledonia is one of settler colonialism, exploitation, and ethnic cleansing, it is also one of unrelenting and unforgiving anti-colonial resistance that can serve as a lesson to all colonized people.
New Caledonia’s resources and the growing wealth gap
Western countries have held onto their far-flung colonies and territories even in the face of international awareness and condemnation. However, it is unlikely that they will give up these territories because of the resources they hold. New Caledonia is home to 30% of the world’s nickel reserves, as well as large amounts of other crucial minerals. Nickel makes up 90% of the territory’s exports and employs 25% of the population.
Like all former and current colonies, being resource-rich does not translate to increased prosperity for the locals, and revolutionaries throughout the independence movement have highlighted mining interests as part of achieving economic independence. Much of the industry is in the hands of the West and multinational conglomerates, like the Koniambo Nickel Plant. “In economic and social terms, New Caledonia is a typical case of colonialism, with the power, the best land, and nickel and other wealth concentrated in the hands of the white settlers,” wrote Daniel Singer in the Nation in 1988.
Nickel is essential to making EVs, photovoltaic cells, and more, meaning it gives France some power in the global trade wars. More broadly, Western control of these resources is crucial in the global trade war. As this independence pamphlet points out, Australia and New Zealand previously supported the independence of New Caledonia, but have since shifted their stances as they have become more staunch allies of the United States.
The exploitation of the island’s resources and the extraction and control of its wealth by foreign nations and settlers makes for highly visible wealth disparity in the territory. Unemployment rates for Kanaks are at 26%, while it is only 7% for non-Kanaks.
This gap is exacerbated by existing racial inequalities and results in a lack of opportunities for meaningful and sustainable existence for Kanak youth in the homeland. Kanaks are also much less likely to have senior positions, and have a much lower graduation rate for both high school and college. The wealth gap is even more pronounced than in France, with the poorest 10% earning 13 times less than the richest 10%. In the Northern Province, Kanaks earn 32% less than non-Kanak people with the same age, sex, and qualifications. Kanaks also make up 80% of prison inmates, despite being a minority of the populations. In addition to Oceanians, they make up 90% of the inmates, despite only being 50% of the population.
Kanak poverty is exacerbated by the high prices that characterize the local economy due to import costs as well as distortions in the commercial and distribution sectors, as much of the economy is operated by a few families in the settler bourgeoisie.