Too Close to Home
Words by Daniel Bosley; Pictures by Aishath Naj
The Kuramathi island community lives on the southern edge of Rasdhoo atoll, alongside the rich channels to the lagoon interior that have made the area a paradise for locals and tourists alike.
But they don’t live on Kuramathi island. In fact, it has been half a century since most natives set foot on Kuramathi, which is better known as one of the Maldives most well-established resorts.
The islanders now live on neighbouring Rashoo, the atoll capital to which 124 people – 28 households – were forcefully migrated during the prime ministerial term of Ibrahim Nasir on July 2nd, 1970*. The Majlis’ law number 6/68 saw 17 other tiny island communities suffer a similar fate.
The eviction still stirs strong emotions among Kuramathi born Rasdhooans, whose passion lies just below the surface, still burning despite 50 years in the shade.
The reason given for the depopulation was the community’s failure to gather a quorum of 40 men (sometimes said to be 50) for attendance at Friday prayers – a similar tactic used at the time to depopulate Kaafu Giraavaru (now also a resort).
Older residents recall neighbours climbing trees in protest when the authorities came, eventually being taken across the channel in ties – bound for their homes from home. Re-housed on Rasdhoo, evictees still recall gardens producing lemon, watermelons, and chilli, underneath abundant coconut trees that sustained the community.
Inevitable tensions between the Kuramathi and Rasdhoo areas persisted for years, best indicated by the reported absence of any inter-island marriages for two decades (a staggering fact given Maldivian marriage rates).
By the time subsequent governments told similarly displaced islanders they could go home, Kuramathi Island’s new economic value had effectively slammed the door on its former residents. While other islanders, such as those in Gaafu Alif Kondey still celebrate the anniversary of their return each year, Rasdhoo’s refugees have to hope for a cheap late booking if they want a taste of home.
The wider depopulation efforts in the 60s, and an almost 10-year gap before Kuramathi resort opened, suggests the eviction was not originally related to resort development, though Kuramathi islanders argue their home was bigger, better-resourced, and had originally been the intended site of the atoll consolidation effort.
Today, living just 500 metres across the channel, Kuramathi islanders can gaze across to their old home, with the resort’s music wafting back across the water along with the memories of their lost home.
As protesting islanders had stated to the government at the time their relocation, it’s all a little close to home.
* Details provided by H.A. Maniku, ‘Changes in the Topography of the Maldives’ (1990).
I have been searching for some time for their history without much succes untill now. Great work & great article!
[DB]Thanks. Maybe no one has ever written it down…perhaps in dhivehi archives!??!
DB, thank you so much for this. I did my master’s thesis about a single island in the Maldives and so much of the oral history is not written down, which is so terrible. Pleased you are doing this.
(ps. Not sure if I ever met you, but definitely emailed you a lot… I’m a former volunteer teacher)
[DB] Which island did you study?
Hard to know what’s in the national archives…but who knows if they’ll ever make those public. Maybe have to start from scratch.
GA Maamendhoo, lots of history there because of Thinadhoo/Gan/United Suvadive Republic.
Would be great if the national archives eventually get released but also doubt it, especially in the near future.
[DB] Right, which is why we should keep asking questions. The national archives are in the minds and the memories of the people.
Dears,
There’s no such thing as a national archive in the Maldives. I know this by experience. In mid ’90s the President’s Office (PO) sent a circular to all government offices including the place I was working. In it the PO was asking to send all the old documents in their respective offices to them so that they will be digitally archiving them in their ‘newly established’ microfiche computerised system. I was back then in a bureau where lots of data are collected and archived and also was a computer programmer. I doubted how that system would turn go about. I’m not sure if our agency did sent any documents.
After some years I came to know exactly what happened to the documents which were sent to the PO. BURNT in the fire in the old government building (the place was in the space of the current ‘Bondibaiy Park’ in Majeedhee Magu) where they were stored until the docs made it to the so-called ‘microfiche’ system in PO.
And much later, during the time of Nasheed, first heard about establishment of a national archive in the Maldives. Also once day I happened to visit to the National Museum with my son and was astonished to see some very important national documents on display in the Scrolls Wing. At that time it was the time the current new building of the National Museum was opened officially – the ‘gifted building by the Chinese’ and it a setup of basically two sections: The Artifacts Wing and the Scrolls Wing. I wasn’t a much of an artifact person so I went straight into the Scrolls Wing and saw numerous scrolls, decrees, documents by Maldivian Kings, Sultans and foreign diplomats.
The conclusion I got after looking and reading some of them (which were in English – like the one from a visiting British researcher to Kind Iskandhar something, if I’m not mistaken) was that the Maldives was known by the world even then and that it’s not Gayoom who introduced the Maldives to the world. As I was with my young son I didn’t get enough time to go about all the scrolls. But I can remember two important things very clearly. That is why didn’t I and most Maldivians didn’t know about all these before. Then there was the answer on a board. It says that these scrolls were found laying inside a neglected box inside the PO for ages and it was by mistake that it was found and that the current government (i.e. Nasheed’s) has begun an extraordinary project to digitize those important documents and to archive them in the public domain. So I left with a bit of happiness.
That’s not all. When I got time, in mid 2012, I went back to the National Museum and told them I’m a private researcher and would like to see those documents. Then they told me what documents and that since they’re just moving into the newly built museum they quite busy. But I kept going after the staff in the hope to see them but it went dragging for over a month and I got busy myself in my own affairs. So I never made back those document again.
That’s the kind of Public Archive you’ve got in the Maldives. I’m into databases and computers – that’s very much about archives. Since I’ve been in working in the Maldives I know the inside and outside of the politics. The dictatorship simply want the majority of the Maldivians to be dumb – so no showing of documents, no transparencies, no other leaders/kings/sultans BUT ONLY GAYOOM and Co. is the show.
Sorry if I did hurt someone. But that’s the truth. You young fellows won’t have a clue about much episodes in the past and likely know a bit of what’s happening now.
Oh, one more important doc – the letter which a European sent to the then King saying that the Maldivian big boats were very much desired as they were capable of long distance travel and would like to know if they could come to a deal where they would buy boats from us and also they weren’t interested in the blue prints of it. And much more which I couldn’t read. You guys must pressure the National Museum to have a look at these. I really think Gayoom wanted to destroy those documents but somehow the box was misplaced and found by the next one who replaced him – Nasheed.