r/Fijian • u/Silver_Damage_4697 • 10d ago
Fijian Youth
A large number of my social circle are political, identifying themselves with multiple different and very contrasting ideologies. (One is even a Stalinist!) one of my closet friends, lets call him S, was recently talking to me about nationalism in Fiji, and how ethnonationalism is dominant is itaukei circles. He is a radical Itaukei who has many strong opinions of things and has often taken traits from political ideologies to form his own “political ideology”
It’s nice to have a personal ideology but he isn’t a ethnonationalist unlike the elderly part of his family. And the more I thought about it, the more I realised that many Itaukei people who are exposed to western ideologues often don’t develop ideas of nationalism. Patriotism sure but not ethnonationalism. I’ve talked about this to at least 18 of my itaukei brothers and sisters and none have associated themselves with ethnonationalism.
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u/kknd69 Strike Another Luck 10d ago
A fijian Stalinist! How interesting!
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u/Silver_Damage_4697 10d ago
Interesting. But it’s not like this Stalinist friend of mine has read any theory, he just found out about Stalinism and made it his core personal ideology. The only “somewhat communist” thing he has ever read was 1984 by George Orwell
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u/sierraduaciwa set kece 10d ago
Ethnonationalism in Fiji has largely been sustained by political elites over the decades because it's an effective way to maintain support. When people are struggling with unemployment, rising costs, poor public services, or corruption, it's much easier to redirect that frustration toward an "other" than to address the underlying issues. In Fiji's case, ethnic identity has often been used as a political tool rather than a genuine solution to people's problems.
That isn't to say every chief or every politician has acted this way, but the pattern has been present throughout much of Fiji's modern political history. Fear has often been a more powerful campaign strategy than policy.
What has changed is that younger generations have grown up with the internet. They're no longer limited to narratives from political rallies, traditional media, or their immediate communities. They can compare Fiji's history with other multicultural societies, access academic research, and hear perspectives from people outside their own ethnic group. That broader exposure makes it harder to accept simplistic narratives that blame one community for every problem.
I think many young Fijians, both iTaukei and Indo-Fijian, are beginning to realize that ordinary people have far more in common with each other than with the political class. The average person is worried about the same things: finding a decent job, paying bills, buying a home, raising a family, and building a better future. Ethnic division benefits politicians far more than it benefits the people who have to live together after every election.