Osea Gavidi

Ratu Osea Gavidi (born October 1943, died 3 April 2015 in Suva) was a Fijian politician and indigenous chief. He was prominently involved in defending the interests of the indigenous people in the western part of Fiji, seeking to establish their political autonomy, then (at the end of his life) their independence.

He was elected to Parliament as MP for Nadroga-Navosa Province, in the western part of the island of Viti Levu, in the two general elections of 1977, representing the Alliance Party. In 1981 however, he launched the Western United Front (WUF), a political party claiming that the interests of the indigenous inhabitants of the western part of Viti Levu had been neglected by the Alliance Party government. For the 1982 general election, the WUF formed an electoral coalition with the predominantly Indo-Fijian National Federation Party, but fared poorly; Gavidi himself was defeated by the Alliance Party candidate in his own constituency, and the Alliance remained in power. It had been a purely tactical arrangement to try to defeat the alliance; the WUF and the NFP had very different, often antagonistic political views. Following the election, the WUF appeared, in the words of historian Brij V. Lal, as "somewhat of a spent force".

The 1992 general election was held in the aftermath of the racist, anti-Indian military coups of 1987, and the adoption of a Constitution favouring indigenous control over politics. Gavidi stood for Parliament as a candidate for the Fijian Nationalist United Front Party, an indigenous nationalist party. He was returned to his previous seat as MP for Nadroga-Navosa.

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