• Solomon Islands
    1992 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • Solomon Islands

      SPREAD like two necklaces of precious pearls across the turquoise-dappled waters of the Pacific lies the Melanesian nation of the Solomon Islands, fondly called “the Happy Isles.” This double chain of volcanic islands and atolls begins with the Ontong Java Atoll just south of the Equator, bordering Papua New Guinea on the west, and stretches for some 930 miles [1500 km] farther southeast to the Santa Cruz Islands, which include the Reef Islands, not far from its southern neighbor Vanuatu. Dense, luxuriant forests cover most of the islands in the Solomons archipelago, and razorback ridges and stiff spurs form mountain ranges, between which run deep, narrow valleys. With a total land area of some 10,600 square miles [27,500 sq km], this isolated country is the second largest, after Papua New Guinea, of the South Pacific island nations.

      The first of the European explorers to step on these sandy-white shores was the Spanish mariner, Álvaro de Mendaña, in 1568. He was seeking the legendary lost gold mines of King Solomon; instead he discovered what he called the Isles of Solomon, but no gold was to be had, other than the alluvial gold in rivers on Guadalcanal.

      A Diverse People With a Common Thread

      The islands are home to a rich diversity of some 300,000 people of skin color ranging from blue-black to creamy-brown, with hair varying from the masses of tightly woven, shiny blond curls to the bright red of the many Melanesians, which attractively contrasts with the sleek, straight black hair of the Polynesian people. Communication is a polyglot affair in the Solomons, with over 90 local languages and dialects being spoken. However, most people use English or English-Melanesian Pidgin when talking with neighbors from different islands and tribal groups.

      The far-flung islands of Ontong Java, Rennell, Bellona, Sikaiana in the Stewart Islands, and Tikopia and Anuta in the Santa Cruz Islands are where the Polynesian population live. Large groups of Micronesian people from Kiribati have gathered and settled on Wagina and Gizo islands in the western Solomons, as well as in Honiara, the capital, on Guadalcanal.