Contenu du sommaire

New Caledonia pursuing economic balance and social unity. — New Caledonia is a French Overseas Territory, relatively large (19,000 sq. km. and chronically under-populated (14,600 inhabitants in 1983). — This archipelago offers a large population diversity both historically and from a proto-historic view as well. The existence of a very old agrarian civilization has been deeply influenced by the establishment of an urbanized and industrial allochtone society. Nevertheless a rural Melanesian group continues to exist in the archipelago and is situated in the «perimeter reservations » located in the heart of the Central Mountain Range in the outlying islands. The multi¬ ethnic technician group is concentrated round Noumea, in a few secondary urban cen¬ ters and at some mineral extraction sites ; still, it is nonetheless economically predominant. The juxtaposition of an important urban center and vast unpopulated spaces toge¬ ther with the absence of intermingling among the large ethnic groups outside of the urban center, is a situation that is responsible for the existence of deep antagonism in the island population. Economic balance and the unification of the island society thus require serious institutional reforms. And since the source of wealth is concentrated primarily in the urban sector, it is of the utmost necessity to create an industrial and service center in the northern portion of the island having the status of a «free port » in order to revitalize the territory.

The Kanaka «Clan » : Yesterday and Today. — Because it still retains much of its traditions, one cannot understand the structure of present day Melanesian society without knowing its past organization, and especially its basis, the clan. It is characterized by several elements, each one as important as the other. First, the family name. It is fundamentally immortal, both the substance and the identification of beings, a magic energy, the foundation of honor as well as of land ownership, and a guarantee of future Kanaka citizenship. Then a hierarchy of patrilineal lineage, specialized and solidary that society organizes in a multi-segmentary form and assures the continuation of it. Next, the chief. He possesses more of a symbolic than an oppressive autho rity, much of which has been undermined. Then comes a large Round Hut, the political and religious center of the clan, and which represents it and its prestige. At the moment, the clan is engaged in pressing its land claims as a visible affirmation that land belongs to Kanakas alone. Next we have the assistants and police of the invisible (Ancestors and Totems) to dominate the natural elements and assure order in society. Finally, soil, the material basis of the clan, apportioned in a manner to assure the needs of all but also and mainly rich in symbolic values. The clan is inserted in a whole by matrimonial alliances in order to constitute a «place» and an economic system. Various causes have more or less seriously broken this traditional structure.

From pioneer occupation to land reform : colonization and land tenure control in New Caledonia. — The land tenure trouble has been the detonator of a major political contest in New Caledonia. When one analyses how the land patrimony of colonization has been settled one can note the existence of three phases. Between 1860 and 1880, one can see a fast monopolizing period, linked to the dynamics of the pastoral pioneer front through the wooden savanna of the western coast. In twenty years, stock-breeders grabbed 230,000 hectares without populating them, provoking strong clashes with the Melanesian tribes. Then the settlement process slowed down. Between 1880 and 1910, it was time for small penal and free colonies, requiring little land but allowing a more important density of population. At the beginning of the twentieth century, European estates covered 250,000 hectares. During this slowing down process, linked to the winding down of colonization, one could note a concentration process of small and medium size estates. After World War II, the grabbing process started again, but the appropriation procedures were different from these of the 1860-1880 period. In 30 years, colonial lands increased from 270,000 to 390,000 hectares, leading to confrontation with the Melanesian tribes which were trying to win back their traditional lands, lost previously, through the extension of "native reservations". So, the hasty land reform could not stop the transfer of clanic claiming upon ancestral lands to a global revendication, by most of the Melanesian community, of the whole territory of New Caledonia.