Vanuatu is an island nation in the South Pacific, a chain of around eighty volcanic islands lying east of Australia and northeast of New Caledonia. A Melanesian country of active volcanoes, rainforest, and coral reefs, it is famous for its extraordinary cultural richness, with more languages per person than any other country on Earth, and for living traditions such as the land diving from which the bungee jump descended. Once jointly ruled by Britain and France under a unique shared arrangement, it is also one of the most disaster-prone nations in the world.
The islands were settled by Melanesian peoples some three thousand years ago, developing a remarkable variety of distinct languages and customs across their scattered islands. European explorers, beginning with the Portuguese and later Captain Cook, who named them the New Hebrides, made contact from the seventeenth century. In an unusual colonial arrangement, Britain and France jointly governed the islands as a condominium, with two parallel administrations. The country gained independence in 1980, taking the name Vanuatu, meaning roughly land that stands up or land eternal.
Vanuatu is a Y-shaped chain of mostly mountainous, volcanic islands, several with active volcanoes, including some whose glowing craters can be approached by visitors. The islands are covered in tropical rainforest and ringed by coral reefs, with a hot, humid climate. Lying on the seismically active Ring of Fire and in the Pacific cyclone belt, Vanuatu is exposed to earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and frequent powerful cyclones, which has made it, by some measures, the country most at risk from natural disasters in the world.
The flag of Vanuatu has a black triangle at the hoist bearing a golden emblem, with horizontal red and green bands separated by a thin black, gold-edged line, the whole forming a Y-shape that echoes the layout of the islands. The red represents the blood of unity, the green the richness of the land, and the black the Melanesian people. The golden emblem shows a boar's tusk, a symbol of prosperity, encircling two crossed fern fronds that stand for peace, reflecting the country's traditions.
Vanuatu is predominantly Christian, the result of missionary activity, with the population divided among Presbyterian, Anglican, Roman Catholic, and various other churches that are central to community life. Alongside Christianity, traditional beliefs, known locally as kastom, remain strong, governing custom, land, and ritual in many communities. The islands are also famous for unusual movements blending these strands, including cargo cults such as the John Frum movement on Tanna, which grew out of encounters with the outside world in the twentieth century.
The cuisine of Vanuatu is rooted in the islands' produce: root crops such as taro, yam, sweet potato, and cassava, along with fish, seafood, and coconut. A national dish is laplap, a pudding made of grated root vegetables wrapped in leaves and baked in an earth oven, often with meat or fish and coconut cream. Tropical fruits are abundant, and kava, a calming drink made from a root, holds a central place in social and ceremonial life, traditionally consumed in the evening in village gatherings.
Agriculture is the foundation of life in Vanuatu, with most people living as subsistence farmers growing root crops, fruit, and vegetables in their gardens and raising pigs, which hold great cultural value. The main export crops are copra and coconut products, along with cocoa, coffee, and kava, which has become an important earner. Cattle raising supplies beef for export, and fishing is significant. The economy is small and relies heavily on agriculture, tourism drawn by the islands' nature, and foreign aid.
The era of joint British and French rule under the condominium, an arrangement so cumbersome that the islands were nicknamed the Pandemonium, and independence in 1980 shaped the modern nation. Vanuatu has remained a stable democracy. In recent times it has become known internationally as a leading voice among small island states warning of the dangers of climate change, to which its low-lying communities and cyclone-battered islands are acutely vulnerable, as shown by the devastating Cyclone Pam in 2015.
Vanuatu has a population of around 320,000 people, overwhelmingly indigenous Melanesians known as ni-Vanuatu, with small minorities of other Pacific islanders, Europeans, and Asians. The country is astonishingly diverse: more than a hundred distinct languages are spoken across its islands, the highest density of languages per person anywhere in the world, and so a creole called Bislama serves as a common tongue alongside English and French. The population is largely rural, living in villages, with the largest town the capital, Port Vila, on the island of Efate.
