Tokou cherishes history
TOKOU Village is situated on the east coast of Ovalau Island, three miles from the old colonial capital of Fiji, Levuka.
With its pristine mountain backdrop overlooking the beach, Tokou is one of the many villages whose inhabitants are known for their welcoming smiles and friendliness.
Warm just like its climate, the people of Tokou have enjoyed good company, cracked jokes and shared food with tourists and local visitors. But there’s one thing the people of Tokou will forever cherish and not lose; its history.
The first missionaries to Fiji arrived in the 1800s and to this day, their picturesque cemetery includes the graves of the first French priest and five nuns to Fiji.
The Marist priests, Father Brehet and Father Mathieu, established a close relationship with the people of Tokou from as early as 1852. That year, Tokou became the first village in Fiji to convert to Catholicism because of the kindness and help of the Marist priests.
Tokou is still a predominantly Catholic community and has an approximate population of 700 consisting of people from Yasawa, Vanua Levu, Kadavu, Lau and Tailevu who harmoniously live together as a family with only a few of them originally from Tokou. Food crops have been their sustenance for years with kava as their main source of income.
According to village elder, Lido Kivi, the Loreto Girls School was the first school to be established in Tokou. It was an all-girls boarding institution run by nuns, most of whom were of Irish and French descent and of the Marist Order. Entry to the school was limited to only 100 girls and approximately 10 day scholars with aggregate marks set quite high in order to be admitted to the school.
Loreto Girls School then moved to Cawaci to join St John (because of the lack of space at the original site) which then became a co-ed school which we now know as St John’s College.
Mr Kivi, 75, said in his young days, the girls attended Loreto High School while the boys attended St John’s College in Cawaci.
“Since Loreto was an all-girls school, us boys, we had to go all the way to Cawaci,” he said.
“Now it’s fine. Loreto then moved to Cawaci and joined St John’s College, which is now a coed school.”
Mr Kivi was born and bred in Tokou and worked in fabrication in PAFCO for 18 years since it first opened in the mid ‘50s. He later worked on the Fujimaru, a Japanese fishing vessel.
He is also one of the few elders fortunate enough to still be alive to witness the changes that have taken place on Ovalau, especially in Tokou.
“A lot has changed. Before we used to have bure, now it’s all vale ni valagi (cement houses).
“Many have gone to live in Viti Levu and overseas, only a few of us from Tokou still live here.
“Even though not many of us who are from this village live here, we are still grateful that we are with people from other islands who have made their homes here.”
In 2013, the United Nations named Levuka as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tokou is on the southern border of this UNESCO site.
In 2009, the village pledged to establish a 365-acre marine reserve for 15 years. In return, an international environmental nonprofit organisation, Seacology, would fund the construction of a much-needed community hall for the villages.
The community hall was built in 2020, which then made the people of Tokou extend their conservation commitment by an additional 10 years in exchange for funding to retrofit the centre, which has weathered a number of storms.
When asked if there was anywhere else he would like to live besides Tokou, Mr Kivi said he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, but in his village.
“Where else should I go? Life is here. My life is here.
“My children are now married and they live overseas. They would call in every week and ask why I still want to be here in the village when I could be living with them overseas.
“If anything, this is the best place to live in because everything is provided. The food we get from the land, the money we get from the yaqona (kava), the fish we catch from the sea. I don’t want to go and see my children struggling to take care of my old self.
“Everything is here in the village. We just have to make use of it. This is something that our youths should learn to do. To make use of the land.”
If there’s anywhere you’d plan to go to first in Levuka, Tokou is the village to visit. Not only will you experience the warm welcome of the people, you will also feel the eeriness emanating from its historic sites which will make you marvel.
If anything, this is the best place to live in because everything. The food we eat from the land, the money we get from the yaqona ...
– Dr Mahendra Reddy