Bula! How kava is drunk in Fiji
· 5 min read
On the islands of Fiji it is hard to walk a few dozen metres without hearing the call of bula. The word appears as a greeting in the street, in a shop, on a bus, but it only takes on its full meaning at the kava bowl, where it accompanies almost every portion drunk.
To an outsider it might look like a plain courtesy formula, but in the context of Fijian culture bula is something more: an affirmation of the bond between people who, at that moment, are sharing space, time and, very often, kava itself. Understanding this word is a good starting point for understanding the whole ritual that has been built around it.
What bula actually means
Literally, bula (pronounced roughly boo-lah) simply means life. As a greeting it carries a wish for health: the full, formal version "ni sa bula vinaka" means roughly I wish you happiness and good health. Bula is also used in situations where an English speaker might say bless you, for example when someone sneezes. It is a word with many layers of meaning, but all of them lead back to a single root: an affirmation of life and good energy towards another person.
The ritual: what drinking kava in Fiji actually looks like
The traditional kava ceremony in Fiji, called sevusevu, follows a fixed, repeated sequence. The kava root is first formally presented to the host or chief as a gesture of respect, after which the infusion is prepared in front of those gathered, usually in a large wooden bowl called a tanoa. The person preparing the drink, here yaqona, pours a portion into a vessel made from half a coconut shell, called a bilo, and hands it to each participant in turn.
Etiquette here matters just as much as the drink itself. The person receiving a portion claps once, says bula, drinks the contents in a single gulp, and then claps three more times. Once the vessel is empty, the person pouring says maca, meaning finished, and the other participants clap together. The order in which portions are served usually reflects the social hierarchy: the chief or the highest-ranking person present receives kava first, and only then does the drink continue to circulate among those gathered.
The sevusevu ceremony itself is usually preceded by a formal exchange of words between the host and the visitors, in which the guests express respect and gratitude for being received, and the kava root is a physical symbol of those intentions even before it is prepared for drinking. This gives the whole gathering a framework within which even strangers can feel part of the community, rather than mere observers of someone else's custom.
Kava as a tool for easing disputes
Drinking kava together has long served a function on the Pacific that goes beyond an ordinary social gathering. The classic academic work by Vincent Lebot, Mark Merlin and Lamont Lindstrom, published by Yale University Press under the title Kava: The Pacific Drug, describes how the drink was traditionally used to ease disputes and facilitate negotiations between parties who might otherwise have found it difficult to discuss sensitive matters.
This custom has survived to this day even at the level of state diplomacy. In July 2023, during a visit by French president Emmanuel Macron to Vanuatu, the first visit by a sitting French president to an independent Pacific state, Vanuatu's prime minister Ishmael Kalsakau and Macron together drank kava during talks on settling a border dispute over islands in the south of the country. According to local custom (kastom), such a gesture is meant to symbolise goodwill and a wish to reach agreement. It is a good example of how a local custom is sometimes deliberately worked into official diplomatic protocol, rather than being treated purely as folkloric decoration for the talks.
More than a drink: conversation, trust, openness
For generations, people in Fiji and other Pacific islands have described drinking kava together as an opportunity for conversations that would otherwise be hard to bring up: personal difficulties, conflicts, matters that are usually kept quiet. The longer a gathering around the bowl goes on, the easier it is said to be to build trust and loosen tongues. Kava is also sometimes used as a gesture of apology: sharing a portion after a disagreement is meant to symbolically close the dispute and restore the relationship. It is a kind of ritual reset, in which the very act of taking part, rather than words, becomes the declaration of goodwill. Many accounts of such gatherings stress that the longer an evening at the bowl lasts, the easier it becomes for people to talk about things they usually stay silent about, especially men, from whom many communities expect emotional restraint.
Not every kava is the same
The character of a kava gathering is also linked to the specific cultivar, or chemotype, of the root used. Cultivars with a higher kavain content, which include the Fiji favourite Melo Melo, are often described as encouraging conversation, openness and breaking down barriers, unlike cultivars with a more calming, sedative profile, which work better in the evening, in a smaller group, than at a lively social gathering. You can read more about the classification of cultivars and their characteristic profiles on the kava cultivars page and in the article how kava works.
Bula as a philosophy, not just a greeting
Bula is also a kind of invitation not to take everyday life too seriously. In a culture where many things lie beyond one's control, this attitude is sometimes described as a way of making peace with uncertainty and enjoying whatever the day brings. Whether you drink kava as a traditional ritual or simply brew it at home, it is worth keeping in mind the context it comes from: community, respect and a shared moment of pause with another person, which is what the whole custom rests on. If you want to learn more about the history of kava on the Pacific islands, take a look at the article the history of kava, and for how to prepare it in keeping with tradition, see how to prepare kava.