![Tafea in Vanuatu](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Tafea_in_Vanuatu.svg)
Tafea is the southernmost of the six
provinces
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...
of
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...
.
The name is an
acronym
An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...
for the five main islands that make up the province: Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna, Erromango and Aniwa.
History
![Tafea Flag](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Tafea_Flag.svg)
Unlike the other provinces of Vanuatu, the territorial integrity of this administrative unit has been unchanged since the times of the
Condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
, when it was called ''Southern District'', or ''Tanna'' after the main island. Only the
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
moved from
Lenakel
Lenakel is the largest town on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. It has a population of 1,473.
It is located on the west coast of the island near the administrative capital of Isangel and serves as a major port of entry.
Language
It is the cente ...
to nearby
Isangel
Isangel is a town in Vanuatu.
Located on the island of Tanna, it is the provincial administrative capital of Tafea Province.
Population
The town has a population of about 1,200, most of them Melanesians; the major languages of the area are Le ...
, less than two kilometers more southeast.
A secessionist movement began in the 1970s, and the Nation of Tanna was proclaimed on 24 March 1974. While the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
were more open to allowing its holdings in Vanuatu independence, it was opposed by the
French colonists and finally suppressed by the
Anglo-French Condominium
New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium (french: link=no, Condominium des Nouvelles-Hébrides, "Condominium of the New Hebrides") and named after the Hebrides Scottish archipelago, was the colonial name for the island group ...
authorities on 29 June 1974.
In 1980, there was another attempt to secede, declaring the Tafea Nation on 1 January 1980, its name coming from the initials of the five islands that were to be part of the nation (Tanna, Aniwa, Futuna, Erromango and Aneityum). British forces intervened on 26 May 1980, allowing the islands to become part of the newly independent nation of Vanuatu on 30 July 1980.
Geography
The province has a population of 32,540
2009 Census Summary release final
- Government of Vanuatu people and an area of 1,628 km2. The main island, though second to Erromango
Erromango is the fourth largest island in the Vanuatu archipelago. With a land area of it is the largest island in Tafea Province, the southernmost of Vanuatu's six administrative regions.
Name
The endonym for Erromango in Erromangan is ''Nelo ...
in area, is Tanna, with some 80 percent of the province population, with the provincial capital of Isangel
Isangel is a town in Vanuatu.
Located on the island of Tanna, it is the provincial administrative capital of Tafea Province.
Population
The town has a population of about 1,200, most of them Melanesians; the major languages of the area are Le ...
, and the largest village of Lenakel
Lenakel is the largest town on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. It has a population of 1,473.
It is located on the west coast of the island near the administrative capital of Isangel and serves as a major port of entry.
Language
It is the cente ...
, both close together on the southwest coast.
The three larger islands are Melanesia
Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea.
The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Va ...
n, but the smaller two, Aniwa and Futuna, also known under the collective term ''Erronan Islands'', are Polynesian outlier
Polynesian outliers are a number of culturally Polynesian societies that geographically lie outside the main region of Polynesian influence, known as the Polynesian Triangle; instead, Polynesian outliers are scattered in the two other Pacific su ...
s. Futuna is sometimes called West Futuna to distinguish it from Futuna Island, Wallis and Futuna
Futuna (; ) is an island in the Pacific Ocean occupying area of with a population of 10,912. It belongs to the French overseas collectivity (''collectivité d'outre-mer'', or ''COM'') of Wallis and Futuna. It is one of the Hoorn Islands or Île ...
.
The island of Tanna has the world's most accessible volcano, Mount Yasur
Mount Yasur is a volcano on Tanna Island, Vanuatu, high above sea level, on the coast near Sulphur Bay, northeast of the taller Mount Tukosmera, which was active in the Pleistocene. It has a largely unvegetated pyroclastic cone with a nearly ...
, with 1,084 meters the highest peak of the province. Aniwa Island
Aniwa is a small island in the southernmost province of Tafea, Vanuatu.
As a coral island (a raised coral atoll), it rises a mere 42 m above sea level. In the northwest is ''Itcharo (Tiaro) lagoon'', which is open to the sea. The nearest large ...
is the only coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...
island, the other four are volcanic
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...
and reach much higher elevations than Aniwa.
Anatom
Aneityum (also known as Anatom or Keamu) is the southernmost island of Vanuatu, in the province of Tafea.
Geography
Aneityum is the southernmost island of Vanuatu (not counting the Matthew and Hunter Islands, which are disputed with New Caledon ...
is the southernmost island of Vanuatu (not counting the remote, tiny and uninhabited Matthew and Hunter Islands
Hunter Island and Matthew Island are two small and uninhabited high islands in the South Pacific, located east of New Caledonia and south-east of Vanuatu archipelago. Hunter Island and Matthew Island, apart, are claimed by Vanuatu as part o ...
, to the southeast, which are disputed with New Caledonia
)
, anthem = ""
, image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg
, map_alt = Location of New Caledonia
, map_caption = Location of New Caledonia
, mapsize = 290px
, subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...
, but which are considered by the people of Anatom Island part of their custom ownership). Its southeastern cape ''Nétchan Néganneaing'' is the southernmost point of land in Vanuatu, more southerly than the southern satellite islet Inyeug
Inyeug Island is a small uninhabited island in Tafea Province of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean. "Inyeug" means "Small Island" in a local language. Inyueg is also called Mystery Island by the cruise ships that regularly visit the island.
The islan ...
. The latter, however, is surrounded Intao Reef, that extends even further south, albeit submerged, thus being the southernmost feature of Vanuatu.
Islands
References
Citations
Footnotes
External links
*
{{Coord, 19, 30, S, 169, 30, E, region:VU-TA_type:adm1st_source:GNS-enwiki, display=title
Provinces of Vanuatu
States and territories established in 1994
Former unrecognized countries
Former countries in Oceania
Island countries