Baiteke () was the third ruler of the

Kingdom of Abemama The State of Abemama, also known as the Kingdom of Abemama, was a precolonial polity in the Gilbert Islands. It consisted of Abemama, Kuria, and Aranuka. The State of Abemama was ruled by Tuangaona, a Gilbertese clan, for four generations befor ...

. Forced to confront growing European influence, Baiteke ordered every foreigner in his kingdom killed, closed his borders, and limited trade to a single port. With

firearms A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originated ...

bought from the Europeans, Baiteke easily suppressed rebellions. He established a stratified society with his family at the top. In 1878, he abdicated in favour of his eldest son, Binoka.

Early life

Karotu was the first ruler of the

, a precolonial

polity A polity is a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of political Institutionalisation, institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources. A polity can be any group of people org ...

in the

Gilbert Islands The Gilbert Islands (;Reilly Ridgell. ''Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.'' 3rd. Ed. Honolulu: Bess Press, 1995. p. 95. formerly Kingsmill or King's-Mill IslandsVery often, this name applied o ...

. Ruled by the Tuangaona ''utu'', the kingdom encompassed

Abemama Abemama (Apamama) is an atoll, one of the Gilberts group in Kiribati, and is located southeast of Tarawa and just north of the Equator. Abemama has an area of and a population of 3,299 . The islets surround a deep lagoon. The eastern part of ...

, Kuria, and

Aranuka Aranuka is an atoll of Kiribati, located just north of the equator, in the Gilbert Islands. It has an area of and a population of 1,057 in 2010. By local tradition, Aranuka is the central island of the Gilbert group. Geography Aranuka is an a ...

. In the 1840s, Tewaia succeeded his father, Karotu, and was given the chiefly title of ''uea''. Soon after, Teaa, Karotu's second wife, fell pregnant. Tewaia accepted Karotu and Teaa's wishes for the new child to be the next ''uea'' and had sex with Teaa four times so that the child would be considered his son. Teaa gave birth around 1810; the child was announced as Tewaia's son and named Baiteke. Locals on Abemama told the story to R. G. Roberts, who recounted it in ''

The Journal of the Polynesian Society The Polynesian Society is a non-profit organisation based at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, dedicated to the scholarly study of the history, ethnography and mythology of Oceania. History The society was co-founded in 1892 by Percy ...

''. While Roberts wrote that Baiteke was actually Karotu's son, H. E. Maude later concluded it was impossible to know if Karotu or Tewaii was Baiteke's father. In 1821, I-Matang whalers began to frequent the area. In the 1830s, during Karotu's reign, the I-Abemama began trading bêche-de-mer with European ships. Beachcombers began arriving on Karotu's islands in 1838. Growing I-Matang influence eroded traditional I-Kiribati governance and norms, and would become a key issue of Baiteke's reign. Tewaia's reign was brief and uneventful, and Baiteke succeeded him as ''uea'' around 1850.

Reign

I-Matang

In the 1840s, a number of beachcombers were enroaching on the island realm. The Abemamans prostituted female

serfs Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery. It developed dur ...

to whalers, who started barters controlled by them rather than the ''uea''. In the 1840s, there was an influx of whalers and merchants seeking to trade for

coconut oil Coconut oil (or coconut fat) is an edible oil derived from the kernels, meat, and milk of the coconut palm fruit. Coconut oil is a white solid fat below around , and a clear thin liquid oil at higher temperatures. Unrefined varieties have a disti ...

, including ships under Richard Randell's firm. Considering this, Baiteke had all nine foreigners staying on Abemama killed. Several months later, he ordered the deaths of the 25 foreigners residing on Kuria and Aranuka. Maude wrote that Baiteke did not face any European retribution or even any demands for reprisal largely because of Richard Randell. Richard Randell, married to an I-Kiribati woman, fluent in the

Gilbertese language Gilbertese (), also known as Kiribati (sometimes ''Kiribatese'' or ''Tungaru''), is an Austronesian language spoken mainly in Kiribati. It belongs to the Micronesian branch of the Oceanic languages. The word ''Kiribati'', the current name of t ...

, advocated for them to

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

missionaries led by Randell's close friend Hiram Bingham. Randell cast the foreigners as men who committed atrocities against I-Kiribati and influenced Baiteke against missionaries. According to Maude, he was largely why Baiteke did not face any calls of retribution for the massacre.

Rebellions

Society

Legacy

In late 1878, Baiteke abdicated in favour of his eldest son, Binoka.

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * {{Cite book , last=Uriam , first=Kambati K. , url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/e0752718-2b70-45ba-85ba-192fc115c1f4 , title=In Their Own Words: History and Society in Gilbertese Oral Tradition , publisher=The Journal of Pacific History , year=1995 , isbn=0959547770 , location=

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

, language=en Gilbert Islands People from the Gilbert Islands 19th-century monarchs in Oceania