Maasina Ruru was an

emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure Economic, social and cultural rights, economic and social rights, civil and political rights, po ...

movement for

self-government Self-governance, self-government, self-sovereignty or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any ...

and

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

in the

British Solomon Islands The British Solomon Islands Protectorate was first established in June 1893, when Captain Herbert Gibson of declared the southern Solomon Islands a British protectorate.''Commonwealth and Colonial Law'' by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, S ...

during and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, 1945–1950, credited with creating the movement towards independence for the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

. The name is from the

ꞋAreꞌare language The Areare language is spoken by the ꞌAreꞌare people of the southern part of Malaita island, as well as nearby South Malaita Island and the eastern shore of Guadalcanal (the Marau Sound, 60 km away), in the Solomon Islands archipelago ...

meaning the Rule of "relationship of siblings together" and is often corrupted to "Marching Rule", "Marxist Rule", or "Rule of Brotherhood".

Foundation and influences

The movement was created after Nori, Aliki Nono'oohimae, Jonathan Fiifii'i, and a host of others from Malaita who worked together in the Solomon Islands Labour Corps during World War II. One of the influences is said to have been the African-American soldiers whose humane treatment of the fellow workers was markedly different from the

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

owners. They spread a message of independence amongst the

Malaita Malaita is the primary island of Malaita Province in Solomon Islands. Malaita is the most populous island of the Solomon Islands, with a population of 161,832 as of 2021, or more than a third of the entire national population. It is also the se ...

n soldiers who began a campaign of

non-compliance In general, compliance means conforming to a rule, such as a specification, policy, standard or law. Compliance has traditionally been explained by reference to deterrence theory, according to which punishing a behavior will decrease the viol ...

and

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active and professed refusal of a citizenship, citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders, or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be cal ...

. They were also influenced by other revolutionary or anti-government movements, progressive missionaries such as Rev. Richard Fallowes and apocalyptic movements such as that of the priest Noto'i. During 1939 in Uogwari and Atobala he had been a

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

of the ancestor

La'aka La'aka is a powerful ancestress and one of the most widely propitiated of spirits among the eastern Kwaio on Malaita, Solomon Islands. She is seen as both a protective figure who exemplifies maternal virtues and the productive powers of women a ...

and channelled that

Tulagi Tulagi, less commonly known as Tulaghi, is a small island in Solomon Islands, just off the south coast of Ngella Sule. The town of the same name on the island (pop. 1,750) was the capital of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate from 1896 t ...

would be destroyed and the government would be thrown into the sea. His followers were arrested by the government but in 1946, the capital moved from

Honiara Honiara () is the capital and largest city of Solomon Islands, situated on the northwestern coast of Guadalcanal. , it had a population of 92,344 people. The city is served by Honiara International Airport and the seaport of Point Cruz, and lies ...

. Noto'i joined the Maasina Ruru movement as did people from all over the islands.

Operation DeLouse and Operation Jericho

In 1947, the British government launched Operation De-Louse to arrest the leaders of the movement. The nine main chiefs or Alaha were also arrested and charged under the '' Sedition Act'' for organising secret meetings. This despite the fact that Maasina Ruru meetings were mass meetings of thousands of people at a time. They were mostly sentenced, including Fifi'i, Nonoohimae and Aliki, to six and a half years hard labour. While the leaders were in jail the campaign of civil disobedience continued with villages refusing to pay taxes ''en masse''. While many villages were also barricaded against the British, the government launched Operation Jericho. Two thousand arrests were made in

alone, and yet the resistance continued. In 1951 the British government held meetings with the imprisoned leadership and brokered a deal for self-government in the form of the Malaitan Congress. The prisoners were released and demands were met towards the end of 1951.

Foundation and influences

Operation DeLouse and Operation Jericho

References

Further reading