The Road to Cession

Before 1874, Fiji was a patchwork of competing polities. The most powerful was the Kingdom of Bau under Ratu Seru Cakobau, who declared himself “Tui Viti” (King of Fiji) in 1871. His claim, however, was fragile: rival chiefs rejected his authority, Europeans carved out plantations, and an influx of missionaries, traders, and adventurers destabilised the islands. Meanwhile, a debt of £9,000—claimed by the United States for damages to its citizens’ property—hung over Cakobau like a noose.

By the early 1870s, the fragile Kingdom of Fiji was close to collapse. Europeans, led by adventurers like Ma‘afu from Tonga and settler planters, undermined Cakobau’s government. Britain, initially reluctant to take responsibility, finally agreed to annex Fiji after lobbying from missionaries, settlers, and chiefs who saw no alternative. On 10 October 1874, Cakobau and twelve other chiefs signed the Deed of Cession at Levuka, placing Fiji under British sovereignty.

Creating a Colonial Order

British rule stabilised Fiji but also froze power structures in ways that shaped the next century. The chiefs who ceded sovereignty retained influence, institutionalised through the new Great Council of Chiefs (Bose Levu Vakaturaga). Europeans gained security for their plantations and commercial ventures. Indigenous Fijians were shielded from land alienation through colonial policy, but at the cost of being largely excluded from wage labour and commerce.

It was this labour vacuum that created the space for Indian indentured migration. British colonial officials quickly recognised that the new colony’s prosperity depended on sugar, and sugar required a workforce. Indigenous Fijians were not available in sufficient numbers, so Britain looked to India—already the heart of its indenture system.

The Deed of Cession thus created a dual reality: chiefs retained symbolic power, Europeans secured economic dominance, and Indo-Fijians were soon imported as a labour class. These arrangements would later harden into Fiji’s communal political system, pitting groups against one another under colonial supervision.

Political Implications of Cession

The cession had immediate and long-term consequences:

• Stabilisation of authority: Britain imposed centralised rule, replacing chaotic frontier politics with colonial bureaucracy.
• Institutionalising chiefly power: The Great Council of Chiefs became a key colonial instrument, consulted on native affairs and later enshrined in Fiji’s post-independence constitutions.
• Exclusion of Indigenous Fijians from labour markets: “Native Regulations” confined Fijians to their villages, preserving land but limiting economic freedom.
• Opening the door to Indian migration: Colonial officials immediately requested indentured labourers for the sugar industry, beginning in 1879.

The Indo-Fijian Connection

Although Indo-Fijians were not yet present in 1874, the cession is central to their history. Without British control, the indenture system would not have been introduced in Fiji. The British colonial framework also shaped how Indo-Fijians would later be treated: as economic contributors but political outsiders. They were brought into a system already designed around protecting chiefly authority and settler interests, leaving little room for their future equality.

Legacy of the Deed of Cession

Every year, 10 October—Fiji Day—commemorates both independence in 1970 and cession in 1874. The double symbolism reflects Fiji’s complex journey: the act of surrendering sovereignty to Britain and, nearly a century later, reclaiming it. For Indo-Fijians, the cession represents the beginning of their story in Fiji, even before the arrival of the Leonidas. It set the stage for a society structured around ethnicity, labour, and land—a structure whose legacies remain contested today.