By Mike Kinney

The Richmond Standard

On Thursday, Oct. 10, Fijian Americans and their neighbors throughout the Bay Area celebrated Fiji Independence Day, including in Richmond.

Bula Auto Sales at 4201 Macdonald Ave., owned by Fijian American Aminesh Rohit, hosted a community gathering to commemorate the end of British colonial rule on Oct. 10, 1970.

“This marked the end of nearly a century of British control, dating back to the establishment of the Colony of Fiji in 1874,” said Pastor Mesake Joji of the Patterson Federated Church.

The Republic of Fiji is an island nation in the South Pacific about 1300 miles northeast of New Zealand, with just under 1 million inhabitants. Many Fijians have immigrated to the Bay Area for better economic opportunities and to flee political instability in their homeland.

Of the 70,000 to 80,000 Fijians living in the United States in 2010, some 30,000 have settled in the Bay Area, largely in South San Francisco and, increasingly, Hayward, Newark, Fremont, San Leandro, and surrounding cities, U.S. Census sources say.

“The Fijian diaspora in California maintains strong cultural ties to their homeland, preserving Fijian traditions while contributing to the multicultural fabric of the Bay Area,” Joji said.

Retired Fijian Army Major Mitieli Mocehe served as guest speaker at the event. Moce’s Fijian Army Unit was part of the United Nation’s International Peacekeeping Force when the U.S. Embassy and Marine Barracks were bombed by terrorists in Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 23, 1983.

“On that tragic day, 220 Marines lost their lives,” he recalled.

Moce says celebrating Fijian Independence Day helps to encourage a future of democratic self-rule.

“The importance of Fijian Independence Day was getting out of the bondage of British rule,” he said, “It shows that the Republic of Fiji can have a democratic government and our own national sovereignty.”

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