‘We are not ready’ : colonialism or autonomy in Tokelau

Abstract

Predictions of global decolonisation have waxed and waned. In the 1960s, during the first great wave of decolonisation, it was widely assumed that there would be distinct limits to this process and that numerous places were too small ever to become independent. At that time, only Western Samoa (now Samoa), Tokelau's nearest neighbour, was independent in the Pacific, and it was not until the 1970s that other Pacific island states followed. Even smaller states, such as Tuvalu with barely 10,000 people, did become independent despite warnings about their viability. In some there was local concern about uneven development, limited resources and infrastructure (as for example in the Solomon Islands), and many small states went to independence with trepidation as much as jubilation (Aldrich and Connell, 1998: 246). Nonetheless, the mood had shifted to the extent that it was loosely assumed that even the smallest colonial possessions would eventually become independent, or, at the very least, would take on a much greater degree of self-government.