Ebeye

Ebeye is the most populous island of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, as well as the center for Marshallese culture in the Ralik Chain of the archipelago. Settled on only 80 acres (360,000 m²) of land, it has a population of more than 12,000. With crowded living conditions, an inadequate school system, and scarce clean water, Ebeye has been known by the unofficial and unfortunate title of "Slum of the Pacific." This term, however, is often made in comparison to the affluent and relatively luxuriously subsidized lifestyle of nearby Kwajalein island, home to a major United States Army installation populated by only about 1,500 individuals—American and (some) Marshallese civilian contractors and their families (estimated 2006 figure). Despite this, for many who reside on Ebeye, though crowded and often politically tense, this tightly-knit and very diverse community from all over the Marshall Islands is also considered a vibrant, urban melting pot.

Relocation from the Mid-Atoll Corridor

Prior to the early 1950s, a large number of present-day residents of Ebeye lived on small islands throughout Kwajalein Atoll, which is in fact the largest atoll in the world, boasting close to 99 islands surrounding a massive lagoon. However, with Kwajalein island used as a support base for the nuclear tests conducted at Bikini Atoll and Eniwetok Atoll, Marshallese residents of Kwajalein were relocated by U.S. authorities to a small, planned community constructed on Ebeye, which was largely unpopulated and had served as a Japanese seaplane base prior to the Pacific War. With the advent of the Nike-Zeus intercontinental ballistic missile testing program of the 1960s, the U.S. military deemed it necessary for safety and security reasons to evacuate a vast sector of the atoll to create a zone in which unarmed guided missiles could be targeted from the continental United States. For this reason, whole communities of Kwajalein Atoll Marshallese residents were relocated from the "Mid-Atoll Corridor" to Ebeye and were provided with housing and the incentive of work at the base on Kwajalein test site. These promises were not entirely upheld, nor were these relocated families thoroughly compensated. Not only were they removed from their land and access to abundant marine resources, but most "Mid-Atoll" people did not have land rights to Ebeye, leaving them without much of a say in their future. Currently, these people are allowed to return to their islands during range downtime but cannot build homes or maintain their land adequately, as they are subject to removal on a nearly monthly basis by authorities.

Subsequent population growth by migration from outlying rural atolls and islands throughout the Marshalls created a major housing shortage and problems with resources throughout the following decades. Original Ebeye inhabitants with land rights were not compensated adequately for the tenants who came to live on their land, and this created enormous tensions that polarized migrants from other atolls and "landowners" or original "Kwajalein people" (Ri-Kuwajleen). These tensions continue to persist today and are part of the basis for many Kwajalein Atoll landowners' disputes about the Land Use Agreement between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands Government in Majuro.

Refuge from nuclear fallout

Some of the residents of Ebeye are refugees or descendants of refugees from the effects of the cataclysmic 15-megaton Castle Bravo nuclear test at Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954. The detonation rained nuclear fallout and two inches (50 mm) of radioactive snow on nearby Rongelap Atoll, causing widespread radiation sickness, and the birth of tragically malformed infants called "jellyfish babies". The American authorities evacuated Rongelap, and Ebeye was the final destination for many of them. Robert Barclay's novel "Melal", set in Kwajalein Atoll in 1982, provides some insight into these issues, along with a portrait of the difficult contradictions of life between the horrors of Ebeye living and the luxuries of American middle-class life a stone's throw away at Kwajalein.

pelling and pronunciation of Ebeye

When Christian missionaries first arrived in the Marshall Islands, they introduced Latin script writing and orthographized the Marshallese language. Originally, Ebeye was called and written "Ebeje", which (according to elders of the atoll) means "making something out of nothing." However, the colonial German administration mispronounced the J as if it were German language pronunciation, and foreign observers phonetically recorded the name as "Ebeye". During the Japanese period, though, the island's pronunciation in katakana was similar to the original Marshallese, phonetically . Because most of the modern Marshallese residents of Ebeye don't have family roots on the island, the American pronunciation has stuck, and everyone uses it, even the Marshallese.

External links

* [http://www.yokwe.net/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1513 Celebrating Survival in an 'Atypical Marshallese Community']

* [http://www.robert-barclay.com "Melal: A Novel of the Pacific"]

* [http://www.gregdvorak.com Seeds from Afar, Flowers from the Reef]

* [http://166.122.164.43/archive/2004/April/04-16-17.htm Program Targets Crime On Overcrowded Ebeye]

* [http://www.prtec.hawaii.edu/3_PROJECTS/Pages/ebeye.htm Ebeye Public Elementary School]