Burebasaga Confederacy

Burebasaga is the largest of the three confederacies that make up Fiji's House of Chiefs, to which all Fijian chiefs belong.

Composition of Burebasaga

It consists of the provinces of Rewa Province, Nadroga, Serua, Kadavu Island off the coast of Suva, and parts of Ba and Ra. Burebusaga covers the southern and western parts of the island of Viti Levu. The Western Division and the southern part of the Central Division.

Lomanikoro, in Rewa Province, is the capital of this confederacy.

Chiefly titles

The Roko Tui Dreketi is the Paramount Chief of the Burebasaga Confederacy. Unlike the Kubuna and Tovata confederacies, Burebasaga does not require its paramount chief to be a male. The present "Roko Tui Dreketi" is Ro Teimumu Vuikaba Kepa, who succeeded her late sister, Ro Lady Lala Mara, a former First Lady of Fiji, in 2004. Kepa was also Minister of Education in the Fijian Cabinet from 2000 to 2006.

Another prominent Burebasaga chief is the Tui Vuda, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, who was the President of Fiji from 2000 to 2006, when he was deposed in a military coup. The military returned executive control of the country to deposed president, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, in exchange for assurances of protection and immunity from prosecution on the afternoon of January 4, 2007. Former Prime Minister Ratu Tevita Momoedonu is also a Burebasaga chief. Fiji's first Prime Minister to be deposed in a coup, Dr. Ratu Timoci Bavadra, was also a chief of Burebasaga.

References

*Apologies To Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture and Vice Versa - Page 59, Page 286, by Marshall David Sahlins, "reference to Title of Roko Tui Dreketi and Burebasaga"
* International Studies - Page 22, by Indian School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University School of International Studies - 1959, "reference to Burebasaga as a Confederacy"
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=1O7o71_7sckC&pg=PA202&dq=Burebasaga&sig=AaS9VeAf3i1iOr7htCpn5_aS0l4 When Is the Nation?:] Towards an Understanding of Theories of Nationalism - Page 202, by Atsuko Ichijo, Gordana Uzelac - 2005, "reference to Burebasaga Confederacy and its composition"

Please note that Vuda has only one Ratu, His Excellency Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu Uluivuda. Neither Mr Momoedonu nor Dr Bavadra hold the title Ratu.

External links

Sources: [http://maorinews.com/karere/fiji/stratmarr.htm Maori News (Fiji Supplement)] ; [http://www.uq.net.au/~zzhsoszy/states/fiji/dreketi.html Roko Tui Dreketi]