Page 14 - IB July 2021

New Caledonia New Caledonia

Louis Mapou and Roc Wamytan at Congress
INDEPENDENCE LEADER TAKES TOP

JOB IN NEW CALEDONIA

By Nic Maclellan land. Interesting times ahead for the new President, who will
participate in his first Pacific Islands Forum in coming weeks.
After months of delay, New Caledonia finally has a new
leader. Louis Mapou was elected as President of New Caledo- Political action
nia on 8 July, the first time in nearly 40 years that a Kanak Mapou was born in November 1958 in Unia, a Kanak tribal
independence leader will head the government of the French reserve near the town of Yate, on the south-eastern coast of
Pacific dependency. New Caledonia’s main island. As a young activist, Louis Mapou
After French President Francois Mitterrand was elected was a supporter of Groupe 1878, one of the grassroots organ-
in 1981, he moved to reform systems of government in New isations that made up the pro-independence Parti de Libéra-
Caledonia. As head of the Territorial Council, French High tion Kanak (Palika) in 1976.
Commissioner Christian Nucci appointed independence leader Mapou’s older brother Raphael is a former Mayor of Yate
Jean-Marie Tjibaou as his Vice President in June 1982. The and a central figure in Rhéébù Nùù (“eye of the land” in the
charismatic Kanak leader quickly formed a coalition govern- language of the customary region of Djubea-Kapumë). The
ment between the Independence Front and the centrist party Rhéébù Nùù association has mobilised landowners in the south
FNSC. This progressive coalition faced massive opposition from to campaign around the Goro nickel smelter, with tense and
anti-independence settlers and lasted just two years, before sometimes violent struggles over environmental protection,
New Caledonia descended into armed conflict in late 1984. jobs and opportunities for local subcontractors.
Describing his election as “an honour and a privilege”, Like many Kanak leaders of his generation, Louis Mapou
President Mapou harked back to the reforming tradition of the went to university in France, studying human geography in
Tjibaou coalition four decades ago: “We must carry a heavy Nantes. He drew on this research as director general of the
heritage, that of our figurehead Jean-Marie Tjibaou.” Agence de développement rural et d’aménagement foncier
The Tjibaou government attempted rapid reforms to New (ADRAF) between 1998 and 2005. This agency has played a
Caledonia’s colonial economy: introducing family allowances; crucial role in land reform, purchasing rural properties from
boosting tourism through the creation of the international Caldoche farmers and ceding public lands to customary land-
airline Aircalin; integration of Kanak languages into teaching; owners. Kanak tribal reserves – created by colonial authorities
and tackling inflation and economic turmoil at the end of the and missions in the 19th century – hold more than 175,000
1970s nickel boom. hectares of land, but another 120,000 hectares of productive
It will be much harder to advance a progressive agenda land have been returned to customary landholding since the
today. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and US-China late 1970s.
geopolitical tensions, President Mapou leads a multi-party Mapou has also played a significant role in New Caledo-
government where half the members oppose his economic and nia’s nickel industry, serving as an administrator of ERAMET
political program. Beyond this, the French government has between 2005 and 2014 (bolstered by a strategic investment
unilaterally announced that New Caledonia’s third referendum from the French government, ERAMET is the parent company
on self-determination under the Noumea Accord will be held of Société le Nickel, the oldest mining and smelting corpora-
in just five months’ time. tion in New Caledonia). Mapou has served on the executive
Compared to the divided regional relations of the 1980s – an board of Koniambo Nickel and the Northern Province’s devel-
era of nuclear testing and the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior opment and investment agency SOFINOR.
– France has improved relations with Forum Island Countries Today, as a leading member of Palika in the Southern
and forged strategic partnerships with Australia and New Zea- province, he heads the Union Nationale pour l’Indépendance

14 Islands Business, July 2021