Kiribati

Kiribati is an island republic in the central Pacific, spread across both the equator and the 180th meridian. It has 32 atolls and the raised coral island of Banaba, and Tarawa, a chain of islets joined by causeways, is the capital and home to more than half the people, who speak Gilbertese.

The islands stretch from Banaba in the west to Kiritimati in the east, and the International Date Line bends around them so that the Line Islands share a day with the Gilberts, in the earliest time zone on Earth, UTC+14. The name Kiribati, pronounced Kiribass, is the local form of Gilberts, after the British captain Thomas Gilbert, who sighted some of the islands with John Marshall in 1788. Settlers from Samoa later brought Polynesian traditions that mixed with the Micronesian clans already there.

Britain declared a protectorate over the Gilbert Islands in 1892, added the Northern Line Islands, including Kiritimati, in 1919 and the Phoenix Islands in 1937. Japan held Tarawa, Butaritari and other northern islands from 1941 until late 1943. Independence came on 12 July 1979, when the government of Ieremia Tabai chose the name Kiribati, and the country joined the United Nations in 1999.

Phosphate from Banaba was once the main export, and many Banabans settled on Rabi in Fiji. Fishing, farming for local needs and copra drive the economy, and licence fees from foreign fishing fleets fund much of the government. No atoll in the world covers more land than Kiritimati, and after the date line moved in 1995 the Line Islands were the first place to greet the year 2000. Songs and dances are held in high regard, among them the standing dance Te Kaimatoa and the hip dance Te Buki, and the parliament is called the Maneaba ni Maungatabu.