Makogai Leper Colony – by Vicki

Our visit to Makogai provide an opportunity to learn more about the long history of leprosy and the terrible stigma attaching to those with this disease.

Northeast of Viti Levu sits Makogai Island, some 70 nautical miles from Suva. From 1911 to 1969 this island was home to a leprosy hospital, dormitories and villages for lepers from right across the south Pacific. Makogai's remoteness, and isolation from Suva, made the placement of a leprosarium there very attractive to colonial administrators. Now, much of this infrastructure has disappeared or lies in ruins.

The staircase above is all that remains of the hospital (see first photo)

Makogai's patients were housed in separate villages according to their ethnicity, and gender.

At the beginning of the twentieth century there was no cure for leprosy. Treatments only reduced the symptoms and the separation of patients was the primary means for preventing the spread of the disease. The life of a leper on Makogai was not dreadful but still harsh by present day standards. Everyone that could was encouraged to farm the land, there was traditional village life, there were inter-village sports competitions, and there were even cinema evenings.

We were suprised to learn that it was not until 1948 that effective drugs became available. Of the 4500 patients that were sent to Makogai, a lot of people in those day, almost 1500 died and were buried in the cemetery. 3000 survivors were able to return to their country of origin, and their families.

A melancholy scene, row after row of headstones running up the hillside

Makogai has two villages, one centred around the old hospital site and the other across the island where the leprosarium workers lived. Today fruits and vegetables grow amongst the foundations of the dormitories. Elsewhere the vegetation chokes the ruins and large trees have grown up through buildings.

Fireplaces in a cookhouse behind a dormitory and one of the few remaining dormitories

An administration building, the surgery and pharmacy buildings

The closure and abandonment of the leprosarium saw many building materials re-used elsewhere. The island was slowly resettled and became the national centre for a giant clam aquaculture project in 1986 to re-introduce them onto Fiji's reefs (native population lost in the 1960s). The giant clam project is still in operation and been augmented by a Hawkesbill Turtle hatchery – we visited both facilities.



To end our visit to this historic island we snorkeled along the foreshore over the giant clams, some free-standing and some in protective cages. The coral is colourful and diverse, with many soft corals. The fish are small but abundant. We see a huge variety of fish, many that we have not previously seen in the Pacific.

_ _ _