Village Life Still Counts!

19 February 2007

A village person's world view is fundamentally different from the urban person's understanding of how the world works. And the villager's world view has been created in large part by actually living on top of one's resource base. We in town, on the other hand, for the most part try to live on top of another resource base--money. That's why our most important 'garden' is either Westpac, ANZ or NBSI. For it is from this 'garden' that we draw our daily sustenance of food, shelter, power, drink, etc. The ATM, for instance, is our favorite 'garden tool' and in some ways our only tool.

Villagers, on the other hand, draw their daily food sustenance, water, shelter, recreation, etc. from a resource base which they actually own and for the most part, control. They live their lives atop of their own resource base. We in Honiara need to feed the ATM with our bi-weekly cheques from our work patterns before we are able to withdraw money out of the system. Villagers--making up more than 84% of Solomons people--radically differ from their urban cousin in their view of how the world works and is the basic reason why much rural development over the past 30 years hasn't worked as well as it should have.

Much rural development has been driven by urban people, many from overseas but not a few of our own leaders, whose agenda, consciously or unconsciously, is to convert the villager to become pale imitations of themselves. Would this fact be at the bottom of villagers fierce reluctance and unwillingness to part with their most precious resource, their land?

Last Saturday's very public signing in Auki of the Aluta Basin landowners giving permission for land surveys to begin for an oil palm plantation will be watched with great interest by Malaita people and the rest of the islanders as well. I am convinced that the present work--identifying the real landowners, seeking their permission for the survey process to begin and bringing them on board in such a public way, as important as it is, will be the easy part. Without a constant, continuous and consistent awareness and education reachout to the villagers of that area, then the project is apt to flounder. As said above, the village person's world view on the meaning of land is quite different from the modern world's understanding of it.

Yes, village and urban lives have been growing closer over the years. But not as quickly as had been predicted by the experts for years now. When I first came ashore in Honiara in 1958, the town boasted 2,300 people, about the same number of those who currently sell vegetables, fruit, fish, etc. on a busy Saturday morning at Central Market. Over the past fifty years, then, even though Honiara and the provincial towns have seen dramatic increases in population, the percentage of people opting for the urban life has been modest.

The 1976 Census, for instance, showed the Solomons with a 12% urban population. Now more than 30 years later, the urban population still remains modestly low, no more than 16%. In other words, the Solomons urban population has no doubt grown but at a much lower rate than had been predicted in the mid 1970s. Many thought that Solomons people would be abandoning village life and heading for the lights and delights of urban life. Honiara alone would be attracting many more thousands than it actually has. Why hasn't this urban drift prediction--true for many developing countries worldwide--come to pass in our own country?

Few will argue that village life is the easier one compared to town dwelling. Most Honiara citizens know quite well that village living is physically demanding and time consuming for life's simplest of tasks. A cup of instant coffee, for example, can easily take 25 minutes or longer to collect fire wood, bring in water, cook and finally serve. Yet, each December Honiara noticeably thins out when so many of us head for our home village knowing full well that most have no running water, few boast of toilet or shower facilities and the typical meal is bland.

Yet, as ship owners delightfully tell you, their ships departing Honiara in the early weeks of December are filled to overflowing. Police are at full alert monitoring these ships from actually sinking at the wharfs with so many passengers in full flight from town returning to village life.

What is it then that continues to attract so many of us back to village life even if only for a few short weeks? It certainly can't be the ease of travel! Spending 12, 18 and 24 hours or more on a crowded slow ship with few amenities puts off the bravest of travelers. The ticket cost to travel on these 'cattle barges' goes up yearly, yet still they leave town and head for their village.

Some say that returning to village life, even for a short period, is a way of recharging their internal batteries for the rest of the year of town living. I would go a step further! Returning to village life is a re-confirmation of the Melanesian world view: they do not own the land but the land owns them!

J. Roughan
19 February 2007
Honiara