Abemama (Apamama)[1] is an atoll, one of the Gilberts group in Kiribati, and is located 152 kilometres (94 miles) southeast of Tarawa and just north of the Equator.

[2] The village of Kariatebike serves as the government center for the atoll[1] which includes an administration building, the police station and a hospital.

The island resembles an incomplete “G” letter, with two reef passages; one is located in between Abatiku and Tabiang village at the north-western end.

Most of the important food crops in Kiribati such as coconut, giant taro, pandanus and breadfruit grow well in Abemama.

[2] Captain Charles Bishop happened upon Abemama in 1799 and referred to it on his map as Roger Simpson Island, after one of his friends.

[7] Some European sources describe the chiefly family of Abemama as "the Gilbert Islands ruling family"[8] but local sources recognise that the unimwane wield much of the power even on Abemama, and governing the whole of the Gilbert Islands as a single unit is a logistical challenge even in modern times.

[citation needed] Abemama is known as the island where the declaration of a British Protectorate was first proclaimed by Captain Edward Davis of HMS Royalist (1883) on 27 May 1892.