Biographical entry: Taki, Allan (c. 1935 - )

Born
c. 1935

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Allan Taki was born circa 1935 in a mountain village in Kwara'ae on Malaita to a SSEC family. He completed school to Standard IV and joined the public service in 1960, where he worked as an accountant until 1975. He suffered prejudice from white colonialists and decided to stand for the West Kwara'ae seat in the Legislative Assembly (q.v.) in 1975. Taki established the 'Ailako Cooperative Society with headquarters at Kilusakwalo. The business prospered and an 'Ailako store and two trucks were added. The Reverend John Richardson Gerea (q.v.) defeated him in the 1976 general election, but in 1978 Gerea resigned and Taki regained the seat, which was now in the National Parliament. Taki was famed in Honiara for wearing a bright lava-lava and a colourful shirt, or just a lava-lava and no shirt with indigenous ornaments including shell money. He was interested in kastom and its relationship to modernization. He believed that the Kwara'ae should become a separate province and introduced a Bill to this effect in the National Parliament, which failed. His second concern was rural development, and his third was to obtain high office. To this end he was nominated for both the Prime Minister and Governor-General positions. His reasoning for seeking the latter was based on his belief that his people were descended from Moses or King Solomon; he also proclaimed himself to be Prince of Kwara'ae. Taki was defeated in the 1984 national election and returned to Malaita to set up development projects, but he began to suffer serious delusionary episodes. In 1989 he announced that, due to the selection of a new Prime Minister, the Holy Spirit had told him that everything had to be renewed, including the stock in the 'Ailako store, which was sold off. He also burned down his new home. (Gegeo and Watson-Gegeo 1996)

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Published resources

Book Sections

  • Gegeo, David W., and Watson-Gegeo, Karen Ann, 'Priest and Prince: Integrating Kastom, Christianity, and Modernization in Kwara'ae Leadership', in Richard Feinberg;Karen Ann Watson-Gegeo (ed.), Leadership and Change in the Western Pacific: Essays Presented to Sir Raymond Firth on the Occasion of His Ninetieth Birthday, The Athlone Press, London and Atlantic Highlands, NJ, 1996, pp. 298-342. Details

Images

Title
Alan Takki, Member for West Kwara'ae, Honiara, 1978
Type
Image
Date
1978
Source
Clive Moore

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