Kiribati joins the Commonwealth: 30 years on

Thirty years ago the small island state of Kiribati became the forty-first member of the Commonwealth following independence from Britain.

The country, made up of a collection of former colonies known as the Gilbert Islands, Banaba, the Phoenix and the Line Islands, then with a population of 55,000, became the Republic of Kiribati on 12 July 1979.

British MP Sir Ian Gilmour had earlier, on 17 May 1979, presented a Bill to the UK Parliament making provision for the independence of Kiribati as a “fully responsible” republic within the Commonwealth.

Passed into law just two months later, the final Kiribati Act read: “Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom shall have no responsibility for the government of Kiribati. No Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on or after Independence Day shall extend, or be deemed to extend, to Kiribati as part of its law.”

Ieremia Tabai became the first president of Kiribati on independence and was re-elected again three years later in April 1982 and went on to serve three terms as premier.

The islands had been part of a British colony since 1892, when Captain Davis of the HMS Royalist declared them a protectorate on behalf of reigning British sovereign Queen Victoria.

The number of South Pacific countries applying to become individual members of the Commonwealth ballooned during the 1970s. In 1970 Western Samoa, Tonga and Fiji joined, followed in 1978 by the newly independent Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. After Kiribati in 1979, Vanuatu, formerly known as the New Hebrides, joined in 1980.

Kiribati has a total land mass of 810 square kilometres spread across 33 separate atolls and islands on a stretch of ocean measuring a third of a million square kilometres. Just 21 of the islands are inhabited. The country now has a population of around 100,000.

Ten years ago, on New Year’s Eve 1999, President Teburoro Tito and 70 Micronesian dancers on Millennium Island, one of Kiribati’s many islands, became the first to usher in the new century.

"Let all the world be joined with us to greet the new millennium," they chanted. "Let us put aside all divisions - let us unite in love and peace."

Key Links:

• Country Profile: Kiribati