User:Vortex3427/Binoka

Ancestors

The chiefs of Abemama trace their ancestry to Mwea, a Beruan who took up the estate of Tuangaona (now in the village of Tebanga). He was either a follower of Kaitu and Uakeia, legendary warriors who conquered most of the Gilbert Islands, or came to Abemama independently before them. In the ensuring period, Abemama was divided between warring kainga and unstable chieftainships. The first supreme leader to unite Abemama was Tetabo, a descendant of Mwea. His sons reduced the neighboring islands of Kuria and Aranuka to Abemaman tributaries. His grandson, Karotu, consolidated power and suppressed rebellions. Karotu gave his eldest son and successor, Tewaia, a new title: uea.

Baiteke, who was Tewaia's son or half-brother, became the second uea in 1850. European interests were considerably influencing the Gilbert Islands. To wrest back control of trade, Baiteke ordered all foreigners staying on Abemama, Kuria, and Aranuka put to death. He then established a monopoly on trade — mainly bartering coconut oil — with the Europeans, by whom he obtained firearms and other foreign weapons. Baiteke established an absolute autocracy using his arsenal and reputed magic, allowed no foreigner to reside in his realm, and established a social hierarchy.

Early life

Binoka was the eldest son of Baiteke, born in the 1840s. He was doted on by his father and raised in privilege by Baiteke's numerous wives, concubines, and royal favourites. H. E. Maude, a British historian of the I-Kiribati, wrote in 1970 that this made Binoka haughty and egocentric, as his caretakers would not have known to teach him self-discipline. Binoka developed good marksmanship, but according to Maude "lacked the physical courage and aggressiveness of his forbears." Baiteke also had another son and two daughters, including Tea.

In 1973, Baiteke allowed Protestant missionary Hiram Bingham I to send a mission teacher to stay on Abemama. The ill-mannered and inexperienced Moses Kanoaro was disdained by Binoka, but nevertheless taught him how to read and write in Gilbertese and basic arithmetic and geography. Bingham reported in 1878 that Baiteke reserved education for royals and was strongly opposed to tutoring his subjects.

Binoka, as Maude wrote, inherited his father's intelligence. He developed a lifelong curiosity towards Western civilisation. Binoka obsessively collected foreign items from European traders, who knew he was not deterred by any price. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote of the hoard Binoka had amassed in his palace in his later years.

House after house, chest after chest, in the palace precinct, is already crammed with [...] all that ever caught his eye, tickled his appetite, pleased him for its use, or puzzled him with its apparent inutility. And still his lust is unabated [...] He hears a thing spoken of, and a shadow comes on his face. "I think I no got him," he will say; and the treasures he has seem worthless in comparison.

— Robert Louis Stevenson, In The South Seas (1896), p. 335–336

Binoka convinced Baiteke to hire a German to build Abemama's first stone house.

Early reign and rebellions

As was customary for an aging ruler, Baiteke abdicated in late 1878. In his mid-thirties, Binoka became the third uea. He retained his father's trade monopoly

Conquests

Binoka harboured lifelong ambitions to conquer all the Gilbert Islands, informed by the legends of Kaitu and Uakeia. In 1880, he attempted to invade Maiana.

Last years

“ THERE is one great personage in the Gilberts: Tembinok' of Apemama: solely conspicuous, the hero of song, the butt of gossip. Through the rest of the group the kings are slain or fallen in tutelage: Tembinok' alone remains, the last tyrant, the last erect vestige of a dead society. The white man is everywhere else, building his houses, drinking his gin, getting in and out of trouble with the weak native governments. [He] figures in the patriotic war-songs of the Gilberts like Napoleon in those of our grandfathers. ” — Robert Louis Stevenson, In The South Seas (1896), p. 329–330

In 1889, the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson asked to stay on Abemama. He was accompanied by his wife Fanny Stevenson, his stepson the novelist Lloyd Osbourne, and their Chinese cook Ah Fu.