Independence: The New Hebrides Becomes Vanuatu, 30 July 1980

The road to 1980

Political parties formed in the early 1970s, largely along the language lines the Condominium had created. The New Hebrides National Party, later the Vanua'aku Pati, drew on the English-speaking and Presbyterian population and pressed for early independence. Francophone parties, backed by settler and planter interests, wanted it delayed.

Land was the central issue. Plantations held large areas alienated during the Condominium, and the independence movement's core demand was that land return to customary owners.

The Coconut War

In the months before independence, Jimmy Stevens and the Nagriamel movement declared Espiritu Santo independent as the State of Vemarana, with backing from French settlers and the American Phoenix Foundation. British and French troops present at the time did not intervene.

The new government asked Papua New Guinea for help, and PNG forces put the rebellion down in the weeks after independence. Stevens was tried and imprisoned.

30 July 1980

The Republic of Vanuatu came into being with Walter Lini, a Anglican priest, as first prime minister and Ati George Sokomanu as first president. The name was taken from a word meaning something close to "land that stands", replacing Cook's New Hebrides.

What independence settled

The constitution returned all land to customary owners — the single most consequential provision in it, and the reason land in Vanuatu cannot be bought outright to this day, only leased. Kastom was written in into the constitution as a source of law.

The flag

The flag adopted in 1980 carries a boar's tusk enclosing two crossed namele leaves, in yellow on black, with red and green fields. The elements are set out in the flag and emblem.

The land question

By the 1970s something on the order of a third of the archipelago’s usable land was held by foreign planters, much of it alienated in transactions that customary owners had never understood as sales. The independence movement’s central demand was not a flag; it was the return of that land.

Two blocs

The New Hebrides National Party, later the Vanua’aku Pati, drew on the Anglophone and Presbyterian population and pressed for early independence. Francophone parties, with settler backing, wanted the timetable slowed. That split came directly out of the Condominium’s two school systems, and it decided the shape of the transition.

Nagriamel and Vemarana

Jimmy Stevens’ Nagriamel movement on Espiritu Santo began as a land-rights organisation and became, with French settler and American libertarian backing from the Phoenix Foundation, a secessionist one. In May 1980 it declared the island independent as Vemarana and seized the administration in Luganville.

British and French forces were present and did not act. After independence the new government requested assistance from Papua New Guinea, whose troops arrived in August and ended the rebellion within weeks. Stevens received a long prison sentence.

The day itself

Walter Lini, an Anglican priest, became the first prime minister; Ati George Sokomanu the first president. The name Vanuatu was adopted — from roots meaning something like "land that stands" — in place of Cook’s New Hebrides.

What the constitution did

Article 73 returned all land in Vanuatu to its customary owners. Nothing else in the document has had comparable effect: land in Vanuatu is leased, never sold outright, and every development question since has run through customary ownership. Kastom was written in as a source of law, and the Malvatumauri council of chiefs given a constitutional role.

Since

Vanuatu has been a parliamentary republic since, with a politics of frequent coalition change and a consistent non-aligned foreign policy. It joined the United Nations in 1981.

Vanuatu’s foreign policy

The new republic joined the Non-Aligned Movement, recognised states that its neighbours did not, and took positions on decolonisation in New Caledonia and West Papua that set it apart in the region. For a country of under 150,000 people at the time, the foreign policy was conspicuously independent, and it has remained so.