Thirty years after independence, some traces of the colonial past still remain. On independence day 2011 I found an old Gilbert Islands sign still on a government building.
The Gilbert Islands were named after Captain Thomas Gilbert, who visited the islands in 1788 on his way back from delivering convicts to Australia.
He wrote in his diary "Being now abreast of this island, the extremity ending in a beautiful clump of trees, I hauled up to look at the bay. It appeared to be safe and commodious, sheltered by a long reef running parallel with the island, with two large inlets into the bay. The reef is about 3/4 of a mile from the beach, and has several small islands which appear like flower pot"
Reading The Sex Lives of Cannibles by J Maarten Troost. He was describing the population density in Betio. I found you at he Captain's bar and now more comments about colonialism in the Gilbert's. Think I will follow your blog.
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