Cooperative Secretary Aile Rantes

One of the leaders of the Lamango plantation demonstration and a successful candidate in the 1981 local council election, Aile Rantes said he knew politics was not like church or school, and he quickly learned the symbols and processes of Western politics which included carrying a 'hanbag' (briefcase) and building a village office. He was elected to the National Parliament in 1983. He is carrying a copra scale along with his briefcase.

Before his political career began, he was the secretary of the local Cooperative Society which bought and sold copra and cacao while also running a small store in Lorlow village. Buying and selling through the Cooperative Society became a way that Mewun learned to become a nation in a wider world.

The commitment to traditional values was written into Vanuatu's first constitution, but the definition of these values was vague. The old loyalties to localism and collective village life remained strong at the time of independence and often conflicted with the national interest.

• Summer 1981

• Larcom, Joan

• Skinner-Jones, Ann

• Economic Activity
• Elections and Politics

• Melanesia
• Oceania
• Pacific Islands
• South West Bay (Malakula, Vanuatu)
• Wintua (Malekula, Vanuatu)

• Rantes, Aile

• Clothing and dress
• Cooperative societies
• Copra
• Plantations
• Political culture
• Politics and government

• image

• No linguistic content; Not applicable

• Skinner-Jones, Ann

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2021-11-16