| Tem Bauro | |
|---|---|
 The Graphic, 10 September 1892 | |
| Uea of Abemama, Kuria and Aranuka | |
| Predecessor | Binoka |
| Successor | Tokatake |
| Regent | Timon |
| Born | 1882 State of Abemama |
| Died | 1903–1906 Gilbert and Ellice Islands |
| Kainga | Tuangaona |
| Father | Timon (biological) Binoka (adoptive) |
| Mother | Taeia (biological) |
| Religion | Catholicism |
Tem Bauro[a][b] (fl. 1882[c] – c. 1903) was the fourth uea (Gilbertese 'king, high chief') of Abemama, Kuria and Aranuka. He was the last ruler of the State of Abemama, a sovereign state in the Gilbert Islands, before the British annexed the archipelago in November 1892.
Born in 1882, Bauro was the heir of Binoka, the most infamous of the uea, who died without issue on 10 November 1891. The regency of Timon, Bauro's father and Binoka's younger brother, lasted less than five months before Timon died of drink. Bauro was therefore only 10 years old and regentless when Captain E. H. M. Davis of HMS Royalist arrived to hoist the Union Jack on Abemama, bringing an end to his family's sovereignty. Under the British protectorate, Bauro continued to reign uneventfully and in a customary manner. He died young, between 1903 and 1906. Like Binoka, he had no children and was succeeded by his nephew, Tokatake.
Background
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The Gilbert Islands are a remote archipelago in the Central Pacific. Annexed into the British Empire in 1892, the islands achieved independence in 1979 when the Republic of Kiribati was founded. In the precolonial period, indigenous polities included chieftainships headed by a uea (king, high chief). On Abemama, Kuria and Aranuka, uea from the kainga (clan hamlet) of Tuangaona have reigned since the late 18th century. The historian H. E. Maude referred to this absolute hereditary monarchy as the State of Abemama, writers such as R. L. Stevenson and Louis Becke called it the Kingdom of Abemama.
Early life
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Binoka (d. 10 November 1891) was the third uea of Abemama, Kuria and Aranuka, made famous by Stevenson's In The South Seas (1896). Despite having dozens of wives, he never bore a heir.[d] Instead, Binoka took up Bauro (born 1882)[c] — the son of Timon, his younger brother,[e] and Taeia, a commoner,[f] — as his heir. After the adoption ceremony, Binoka cut Bauro's feet to let out his commoner blood, which Binoka made the nobles dab on their foreheads.[g] With a minute amount of his blood, the nobles were rendered inferior to Bauro, silencing any potential opposition to him succeeding Binoka. Bauro was no more than six years old when this happened.
Reign
editAfter Binoka died, Timon served as his son's regent for four and a half months before he 'died of drink.' In 1892, Captain Edward H. M. Davis of HMS Royalist sailed around the Gilbert and Ellice Islands to proclaim the establishment of a British protectorate. On Abemama, the first island he went to,
According to R. G. Roberts, Bauro 'reigned for a brief an uneventful period, and then died without issue.' Although he was still ruling in 1903, he had been succeeded by Tokatake — the son of Rita, his only recorded sibling — by 1906.
Footnotes
edit- ^ Tem is a Gilbertese male prefix.
- ^ Bauro is the Gilbertese borrowing of Paul, and many sources refer to Bauro as Paul. One source refers to Bauro as Bauro Timon. Another source gives a full name: Paul Ienibaro Simon.
- ^ a b In Stevenson's In The South Seas, Bauro is described as 'the heir-apparent, Paul, his [Binoka's] nephew and adopted son, six years old, stark naked, and a model of young human beauty.' Stevenson stayed on Abemama in September and November 1889, so Bauro was born in 1881 or 1882. When he visited Abemama in November 1892, Captain Edward H. M. Davis wrote that Bauro was 10 years old, placing his birth in 1882.
- ^ There were rumours that Binoka was impotent, and Stevenson reported that his relationships with the women of his household might have been strictly platonic.
- ^ According to Stevenson: '[One brother of Binoka], detected in private trading, was banished, then forgiven, lives to this day in the island, and is the father of the heir-apparent, Paul.'
- ^ Baiteke (r. 1850–1878), the father of Binoka and Timon, established a strict system of social stratification when he was the second uea. Of the five social classes he created, Taeia's (Rang) was the third; the lowest landed class. Timon had disgraced his royal (Ba n uea, lit. 'family of uea') blood by marrying into the Rang class.
- ^ After the Ba n uea, the Inaomata were the second-highest social class. They were landowners who owned their high status to the uea.