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Karongoa was the chiefly boti which reigned over most of the prehistoric Gilbert Islands. Its founder, Tematawarebwe, fled from Samoa with his family and followers and settled in Beru around the 13th or 14th century. He built the first maneaba, the communal meeting house at the centre of Gilbertese society. The Karongoa reached the other islands and spread their oral traditions and maneaba to them, with the Karongoa holding the chief boti — a clan and its seating place within a maneaba. Much of this occured through the 17th-century conquests of the warriors Kaitu and Uakeia.

Karongoa brought Polynesian influence and gerontocracy to Gilbertese culture. Only the islands of Makin, Butaritari, and Banaba remained independent, as evidenced by their different oral tradition. Most of what is known of prehistoric Kiribati comes from oral tradition, which historians recorded and of which Karongoa elders were the authority.

Background

The Gilbert Islands are a chain of 16 atolls in Micronesia which are now part of the country of Kiribati, as is the nearby coral island of Banaba. Around 200 A.D., Micronesians became the first to widely settle the islands. Samoans and Tongans invaded the southern islands around the 14th century.

History

Beru

The founder of Karongoa was Tanentoa, commonly known as Tematawarebwe. He fled Samoa with his followers; brothers Kourabi and Buatara; and parents. They arrived on the south end of Beru, one of the southern Gilbert Islands. Two indigenous clans, said to be descended respectively from Tabuariki and Nainginouati, already lived there.

The three groups peacefully divided Beru between themselves. There was extensive intermarriage. Tematawarebwe himself married a descendant of Tabuariki named Nei Teareinimatang. They also shared one maneaba, which served as a simple social centre. Tematawarebwe thought it was too crowded. According to tradition, when his grandson Teweia came of age, Tematawarebwe sent him to retrieve the timbers of a former maneaba in Samoa. Tematawarebwe then built a larger maneaba on Beru, in the village of Tabontebike.

This was the first maneaba in the current sense. It was more than a place for gatherings. It was a place for ceremonies and dances; a courthouse, an adjudicator of clan disputes; a civic centre, where clans discussed and made important decisions.

Bibliography

• Hockings, John (1989). Traditional Architecture in the Gilbert Islands: A Cultural Perspective. University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0702221791.
• Maude, H. E. (1963). "The Evolution of the Gilbertese Boti: An Ethnohistorical Interpretation". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 72 (1): 3–68. JSTOR 20704081.
• Uriam, Kambati K. (1995). In Their Own Words: History and Society in Gilbertese Oral Tradition. Australian National University: The Journal of Pacific History. ISBN 0959547770.