New Caledonia at a Crossroads: Independence or Insurrection?
The French territory is in chaos after lawmakers in Paris signed a law that could drastically change the archipelago. In response, the independents rose up and an uprising began.
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New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific, is at a crossroads. Known for its stunning natural beauty and colourful culture, the archipelago is currently grappling with a long-running debate over independence from France. This turmoil, which stems from a complex history and deep-rooted social divisions, recently escalated into an uprising on 13 May 2024. Protesters set up barricades on main roads, New Caledonian flags in hand, while shops were looted and cars burned.
In some neighbourhoods, residents have organised self-defence militias to defend themselves, setting up roadblocks and equipping themselves with baseball bats, iron bars and firearms. According to local elected representatives, there are nearly 100,000 firearms in circulation in New Caledonia.
“We're heading straight for civil war” said the High Commissioner of the Republic in New Caledonia, Louis le Franc, on 15 May 2024. In response to the blaze, the government declared a state of emergency and a curfew, deployed troops and banned access to Tiktok — the first country in the European Union to take such an authoritarian step. Seven people have died in the riots so far, including two police officers.
The uprising was sparked by an amendment to the French constitution signed by the National Assembly 16,000 kilometres away, giving tens of thousands of non-indigenous people the right to vote in New Caledonia. But tensions had been brewing for a long time, and this political reform was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.
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A millennia-old marginalised population
The Kanaks — the indigenous Melanesians who have lived on the archipelago for thousands of years — are fed up. Especially the young generation. Now representing roughly 40 per cent of New Caledonia’s population, Kanaks have an average standard of living half that of the non-Kanaks.
“They [France] should not be surprised, the surburbs have always been left behind. The movement is taking place to show, not surprisingly, that no one is listening to us. We are marginalised here. There is no one who sees us.” says a young Kanak demonstrator, in front of the camera, with a hood over his head.
Despite possessing significant natural resources, the Kanak population remains largely economically marginalised, with high unemployment rates and limited access to education and health care. This inequality stems from colonial policies that favoured European settlers.
The situation got worst after the nickel industry collapsed last year, triggering an economic crisis. New Caledonia is the third producer of nickel in the world and its sector is providing jobs to 25 per cent of the island’s workforce. In 2023, nickel lost 40 per cent of its price after Indonesian nickel, mainly extracted by Chinese companies, flooded the market. Nickel is a key metal used in everyday life and a main component in the production of batteries for electric vehicles.
The scars of a penal colony
The archipelago’s history is marked by a turbulent relationship with France. Colonised in 1853, New Caledonia served as a penal colony for over 60 years, a brutal system that saw over 20,000 French convicts transported to the island over decades. This period left an indelible mark on the island’s social fabric and established a system of inequality that persists to this day.
The arrival of the French coincided with the brutal dispossession of the indigenous Kanak population. Their land was confiscated, their traditional way of life suppressed and their cultural heritage marginalised. This policy of forced assimilation aimed to erase their distinct identity and replace it with French values and norms.
After 1945, the European population began to grow slowly as people immigrated. However, the most significant growth in the white and Polynesian settler population occurred in the years before and during the nickel boom from 1969 to 1972. For the first time, the indigenous Melanesian group became a minority in their own homeland, although they remained the largest single ethnic group.
Historically, two camps have long been at loggerheads: the independentists, a majority of Kanaks who want autonomy, and the loyalists, a majority of non-Kanaks who want to keep New Caledonia within the French Republic. Tensions reached a climax in the 1980s, when a civil war almost broke out.
A triple no
The United Nations placed New Caledonia on the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories in 1986, indicating that it considered the territory to be under some form of colonial administration. The first referendum on independence took place in 1987, with 98.70% of voters saying 'yes' to remaining part of the French Republic (turnout was 59.10%).
After a series of events, including a bloody hostage-taking, the Matignon Agreements of 1988 and the Nouméa Accord of 1998, which set out a 20-year roadmap until three new votes on independence.
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All three referendums ended with a ‘no’ to independence. The last one, however, is controversial because it was boycotted by pro-independence Kanaks. It was during the Covid-19 and some Kanaks were in mourning for their dead — it is a longer process in their culture. They felt that the French had gone ahead with the referendum without a consensus with the Kanaks and declared that they would not recognise it.
The agreements of 1988 and 1998 brought a change of perspective. The Kanaks decided to share their right to self-determination as a colonised people with other populations who had been there for several generations, with those who should not have been there in the first place, such as the descendants of French convicts.
The result was a new Caledonian identity and a limited electoral body for the archipelago’s politics. It is precisely this body that the French legislators want to change, breaking the statu quo established by the Nouméa Agreement.
This electoral body is frozen. Those who can vote today are the people who were in New Caledonia before 1998. Some citizens of the French Republic do not have the right to vote in the territory where they live and pay taxes, and for them, this is an affront to democracy.
For the Kanaks, however, freezing the electoral body is a must. It is a way for the Kanaks not to have their voice drowned in the masses. Drowned in a population where the Kanaks, the historical inhabitants of the country for thousands of years, are an unheard minority. And for the younger generation, drowned in an unequal future, with the dream of independence fading away.
What’s the end game?
For the French President, turning back is out of the question. Emmanuel Macron travelled to New Caledonia, on 24 May, for 12-hours visit in Nouméa, the capital. He described the situation as “an absolutely unprecedented movement of insurrection”, and excluded that “appeasement” requires a “return to the past.”
“Appeasement cannot be a step backwards”, continued the French President, adding that appeasement should not “disrespect the popular expression that has already been played out”, in reference to the three referendums voted no for independence.
Other specialists from the region think that in fact, the State should backward:
“To get out of the crisis, the executive has to withdraw its text,” says Benoît Trépied to France 24. Benoît Trépiedan is anthropologist specialising in New Caledonia. “Despite warnings, the executive has imposed a sword of Damocles that is seriously hampering further negotiations. Repression and the use of force are not the solution.”
“We often see a lot of things in the media that are very wrong. People live happily together here and maybe that should not be forgotten in the media.” says a shop owner of Mont Dore.
In the end, the reality of New Caledonia today is not independentists versus loyalists, or Kanaks versus Caldoche. The reality is people from different backgrounds who want to live together in peace. Like this shopkeeper who spoke to the cameras outside his burnt-out pizza restaurant:
“There is not politics in my pizzas shop. I feed whites, I feed Kanaks, I feed Chinese. Here though, there’s nothing left. What can I do?”
If you arrived there, thanks for reading all of this! Take care