Tembinok'

Tem Binoka ( – 10 November 1891) was the high chief (uea) of Abemama, Kuria and Aranuka, in the Gilbert Islands. He was the firstborn child and successor of Baiteke. When Baiteke abdicated in 1878, Binoka inherited his robust autocracy.

Binoka monopolised the copra trade with foreign ships. The production of copra, the primary export from the Gilbert Islands, in the State of Abemama exceeded the combined output of the rest of the Gilberts. Binoka started his own mercantile endeavors to compete with foreign firms, and dreamed of conquering the Gilberts. Both ventures were dashed in 1884. Due to the financial illiteracy of his Gilbertese managers and the exploitation of his European ones, his businesses operated at a deficit and were closed down. In addition, HMS Dart expelled his occupying forces from Nonouti. Having defeating the last of three known rebellions against him in 1885, Binoka led a largely placid life.

In 1889, Binoka hosted the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson's party and was befriended by the writer. He appeared as Tembinok' in Stevenson's travel book In The South Seas (1896). Stevenson sentimentalized Binoka as a warlord past his prime, a vestige of the bygone pre-European era of the Gilbert Islands. Binoka was succeeded by Bauro, his nephew and adopted heir. In 1892, a British warship came to Abemama and hoisted the Union Jack, proclaiming a British protectorate over the Gilberts.

Background

Origins alt=A map of the three islands. Abemama is the largest. Kuria and Aranuka lie to the southwest. Binoka was the high chief of Abemama, Kuria and Aranuka. Tebanga was the formal capital of his dynasty, but Binoinano was the location of his palace. According to oral tradition, Tetabo was the founder of the (family) of Tuangaona, to which Binoka belonged. In the 18th century, Tetabo united Abemama against invaders from the north. For his exploits, Tetabo was titled , but he ultimately fell out of favour with the people and spent time in exile. His sons won battles on Abemama and the smaller atolls of Kuria and Aranuka, which lay to the southwest, leading to the preeminence of Tuangaona on those islands and the exaction of tribute. After a brief and uneventful reign, Tawaia was succeeded by Baiteke, who was either his son or Karotu's. Visiting ships were subsequently restricted to the isolated islet of Abatiku, where Baiteke could oversee trade and control the flow of resources in and out of his territory. He now controlled the import of firearms, and was able to put down revolts with ease. To consolidate power, Baiteke divided his people into social classes, with the (family of the ) at the top of the hierarchy. He supplanted the traditional authorities who had elected Karotu, the (old men) who made communal decisions on behalf of their villages in the (meeting houses).

Early life Binoka was born . He was the firstborn child of Baiteke. Little is known of his mother; he had a brother, Timon, and at least one sister, Teaa. Binoka was raised by the consorts and favourites of his father. Unlike Baiteke, Binoka grew up in privilege, segregated from the lower classes, and he did not learn the self-discipline and militant spirit of his ancestors. Binoka and Karotu lived briefly at the same time, as Binoka recalled seeing his battle-scarred ancestor as a boy.

In 1873, Baiteke allowed Hiram Bingham, a Christian missionary, to send a mission teacher to Abemama. However, Bingham found that Baiteke strictly reserved education for his son. Binoka held the inexperienced teacher, the ill-mannered Moses Kanoaro, in contempt, but learned basic arithmetic and geography and how to read and write Gilbertese. Binoka also convinced his father to employ a German to build Abemama's first stone house.

Binoka served as the deputy of his father in visiting ships.

Reign

Robert Louis Stevenson's account of Binoka Recreation of Binoka's flag. He was forced to remove one of the stars after the British seized Nonouti Binoka was the last truly independent and influential king of parts of the Gilbert Islands, at a time when the Gilberts were being increasingly influenced by white settlers and traders. Binoka resided on Abemama, and, unlike the rulers of neighbouring islands, did not allow outsiders to establish a permanent presence there. Binoka controlled access to the atolls under his control and jealously guarded his revenue and his prerogatives as monarch. He briefly accepted the presence on Abemama of Tuppoti, a Christian missionary, then deported him for attempting to set up a copra trading business.

In 1888, he granted Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne the right to live temporarily on Abemama, on the condition that they did not give or sell money, liquor or tobacco to his subjects. They returned to Abemama in July 1890 during their cruise on the trading steamer the Janet Nicoll.

Binoka was immortalised by Robert Louis Stevenson's description of him in his book In the South Seas. Stevenson spent two months on Abemama in 1889. Stevenson described Binoka as the "one great personage in the Gilberts … and the last tyrant".

He found a Scotsman, George McGhee Murdoch, who organized production and marketing on Binoka's several thousand acres of heritable land. Murdoch also maintained good relationships with the New Bedford whalers who used Abemama as a base, and he persuaded Binoka to allow Stevenson's party to settle ashore. George Murdoch did not reveal Binoka’s murderous habits to Stephenson - Binoka would shoot his own subjects down from tree-tops for the amusement of watching them fall sprawling - and Stevenson did not name Murdoch in his book.

Binoka was also a merchant king, controlling his kingdom's commerce. He enforced the allocation of produce; such that the taro went to the chiefs of each village to allocate among their various subjects; certain fish and turtles and the whole of the produce of the coco-palm, the source of copra belonged to Binoka. He would trade the copra with visiting trading ships. He was, according to Stevenson: greedy of things new and foreign. House after house, chest after chest, in the palace precinct, is already crammed with clocks, musical boxes, blue spectacles, umbrellas, knitted waistcoats, bolts of stuff, tools, rifles, fowling-pieces, medicines, European foods, sewing-machines, and, what is more extraordinary, stoves.

While Stevenson refers to Binoka as "the last tyrant",

In 1876 Britain and Germany agreed to divide up their interests in the western and central Pacific, with each claiming a 'sphere of influence'. In 1877 the Governor of Fiji was given the additional title of High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. The British 'sphere of influence' included the Ellice Islands and the Gilbert Islands, but it made little difference to the governance of these islands until after Binoka's death. Binoka died from an infected abscess on 10 November 1891. In 2014, Don, a descendant of Binoka, said that he died of syphilis, brought to Abemama by the whalers. He was succeeded as uea by his adopted son, Bauro. Timon acted as regent until Bauro came of age and reigned briefly and uneventfully.

The year after Binoka's death, Captain Edward Davis moored at Abemama to proclaim the Gilbert Islands a British protectorate. Murdoch became the District Agent and Tax Collector, setting up local courts and administration that brought peace and order to the lagoon villages and controlled (often with strong measures) the European beachcombers; he retired as a Resident Commissioner in 1912.

Ancestry