Tonga

• 1. Introduction

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  Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is a Polynesian nation made up of 171 islands scattered across the southern Pacific Ocean. In 1773 Captain James Cook sailed in during the annual ʻinasi festival, when the first fruits of the harvest are presented to the Tuʻi Tonga, the islands' monarch. Cook was invited to join the festivities. The welcome was so warm that Westerners began calling the place the Friendly Islands.

  According to the writer William Mariner, the friendliness hid a darker intention. The political leaders gathered at the festival actually wanted to kill Cook. They held back for one reason only: they could not agree on a plan.

  That near miss raises questions about the people behind the welcome. Who were they, and how far had their power once reached across the ocean? How did a small chain of islands keep its own rulers while much of the Pacific came under outside control? And what happens when a crown that has lasted so long meets demands for a different kind of government?

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• 2. Coral, Volcano, Storm

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  Tonga lies directly south of Samoa, about two-thirds of the way from Hawaiʻi to New Zealand. Its islands fall into three main groups called Vavaʻu, Haʻapai and Tongatapu. Together they stretch along a line roughly 800 km long, running north to south. The land area adds up to only about 750 km2, yet it is spread across roughly 700,000 km2 of ocean.

  Tongatapu, the largest island at 257 km2, holds the capital, Nukuʻalofa, and more than 70% of the people. Fiji and Wallis and Futuna lie to the northwest, and Samoa lies to the northeast. Niue, the nearest foreign territory, sits to the east. New Zealand's North Island is about 1800 km away. Most Tongan islands rest on limestone built from uplifted coral. A few have limestone laid over a volcanic base.

  On the 11th of February 1979, Vavaʻu recorded the hottest temperature in Tonga's history, 35 C. The coldest reading, 8.7 C, came at Fuaʻamotu on the 8th of September 1994. In a normal year the weather splits into two seasons. From December to April it is warm, with temperatures climbing above 32 °C. From May to November it is cooler and rarely passes 27 °C. Tongatapu in the south averages 23 C and 1700 mm of rain, while the northern islands nearer the Equator average 27 C and 2970 mm. Daily humidity averages 80%.

  The tropical cyclone season officially runs from the 1st of November to the 30th of April, although storms can form outside it. The WorldRiskReport 2021 ranked Tonga third in the world for disaster risk, mainly because so many natural hazards threaten it.

  Flying fox bats enjoy unusual protection here. Under a tradition reaching back to legend, they are sacred and belong to the monarchy, so nobody may hunt or harm them. They have thrived on many of the islands as a result. The bird life totals 73 species, and two of them are found only in Tonga: the Tongan whistler and the Tongan megapode. Seven species are globally threatened.

  In January 2022 the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano, 65 km north of Tongatapu, erupted. A tsunami swept over parts of the archipelago, including Nukuʻalofa. The eruption was comparable in size to Krakatoa's in 1883. Its atmospheric explosion was one never before documented in the modern geophysical record, setting aside man-made blasts. Four people died in Tonga, and abnormal waves drowned two women in Peru. Most communications were cut off, and repairing the submarine fibre-optic cable that carries internet and telephone traffic took around five weeks.

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• 3. Lapita Voyagers

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  Tongan mythology credits the demigod Maui with drawing the islands up out of the ocean. The first to appear were Tongatapu, the Haʻapai group and Vavaʻu, which joined to form the Tonga of today. Archaeologists tell a different story. An Austronesian-speaking group linked to the Lapita culture spread from Island Melanesia as far as Samoa. Sometime between 1500 and 1000 BC, its people moved on to settle Tonga.

  Scholars still argue about the exact date. Thorium dating, however, confirms that settlers had reached Nukuleka, the earliest known inhabited town, by 888 BC, give or take 8 years. Tonga's history before outside contact was shared through oral tradition, handed down from one generation to the next.

  Over time these Polynesian settlers developed their own language, culture and strong ethnic identity as the Tongan people. The first Tongan king was ʻAhoʻeitu, and under the rulers who followed, Tonga grew into a regional power. It was a thalassocracy, a state that rules through command of the sea.

  Accounts of its reach are sweeping. In the west, it controlled parts of the Solomon Islands and the whole of New Caledonia and Fiji. In the east, its influence ran to Samoa, Niue and even parts of modern French Polynesia.

  By the 12th century, the Tuʻi Tonga had a reputation stretching from Niue and Samoa to Rotuma, Wallis and Futuna, New Caledonia and Tikopia. That is why some historians speak of a Tuʻi Tonga Empire. Its economic, ethnic and cultural influence stayed strong even after the Samoan revolution of the 13th century. Peace at home was not guaranteed either, since civil wars are known to have broken out in the 15th and 17th centuries.

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• 4. Strangers and Sovereignty

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  The Dutch ship Eendracht, captained by Willem Schouten, made a brief call in 1616, hoping to trade. It was the first time Tongans met Europeans. Another Dutch explorer, Jacob Le Maire, visited the northern island of Niuatoputapu. Abel Tasman stopped at Tongatapu and Haʻapai in 1643.

  Cook returned in 1774 and again in 1777. The Spanish naval explorers Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa and Alessandro Malaspina arrived in 1781 and 1793. The first Protestant missionaries came in 1797, and the Wesleyan Methodist minister Walter Lawry followed in 1822. The United States Exploring Expedition called in 1840.

  Whaling ships were among the earliest regular visitors. The first on record is the Ann and Hope, reported among the islands in June 1799. Whalers favoured Ata, ʻEua, Haʻapai, Tongatapu and Vavaʻu, and sometimes they recruited Tongan men as crew. The last known whaling visitor, the Albatross, arrived in 1899 looking for water, food and wood.

  In 1845 a young Tongan warrior, strategist and orator named Tāufaʻāhau united the islands into a kingdom. He held the chiefly title Tuʻi Kanokupolu. Methodist missionaries had baptised him in 1831 with the name Siaosi, which means George.

  In 1875, with help from the missionary Shirley Waldemar Baker, he declared Tonga a constitutional monarchy. He adopted a Western royal style and freed the serfs. He also set down a code of law, rules on land tenure and freedom of the press, and he limited the power of the chiefs.

  On the 18th of May 1900 Tonga became a protected state under a Treaty of Friendship with Britain. European settlers and rival chiefs had just tried and failed to oust the man who succeeded Tāufaʻāhau as king. Britain looked after Tonga's foreign affairs, but the treaty posted nothing higher than a consul, who served from 1901 to 1970. Tonga never gave up its sovereignty. It remained the only Pacific nation to keep its monarchy, with an unbroken line of hereditary rulers from a single family.

  A ship from New Zealand brought the 1918 flu pandemic to the islands. It killed 1,800 Tongans, a mortality rate of about 8%.

  Queen Salote Tupou III set up the arrangements that ended the treaty and Tonga's protected status, and she died in 1965. Those arrangements took effect in 1970. That year Tonga joined the Commonwealth, an unusual case because it had its own monarch rather than sharing the British one. Tonga became a member of the United Nations in September 1999.

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• 5. Crown and Critics

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  King Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV reigned from 1965 to 2006. Following the precedent of Queen Sālote and the advice of numerous international advisers, his government monetised the economy and opened the medical and education systems to the wider world. Commoners gained access to houses, cars, education and overseas travel.

  Democracy activists, among them former prime minister ʻAkilisi Pōhiva, accused the king and his government of wasting millions of dollars. Many of the schemes were attempts to raise national revenue. In the mid-1990s the crown prince floated the idea of making Tonga a nuclear waste disposal site. The government also sold Tongan Protected Persons Passports. That eventually forced Tonga to naturalise the buyers and stirred ethnicity-based concerns at home.

  Foreign ships registered under the Tongan flag proved to be engaged in illegal activities, including shipments for al-Qaeda. Revenue from geo-orbital satellite slots seems to belong to the Princess Royal rather than the state. A long-term charter on an unusable Boeing 757, left sidelined at Auckland Airport, led to the collapse of Royal Tongan Airlines. The government even approved a factory to export cigarettes to China, against the advice of Tongan medical officials.

  The king also proved vulnerable to speculators with big promises. He reportedly lost US$26 million to Jesse Bogdonoff, a financial adviser who called himself the king's court jester.

  Criticism carried a price. Police imprisoned pro-democracy leaders. The government repeatedly confiscated The Tongan Times, which was printed in New Zealand and sold in Tonga, because its editor was vocal about the king's mistakes. The Keleʻa, which Pōhiva produced in Tonga specifically to critique the government, was not banned during that time. Pōhiva was instead harassed with frequent lawsuits, a practice known as barratry.

  In mid-2003 the government passed a radical constitutional amendment to "Tonganize" the press. It licensed and limited newspapers in order to protect the image of the monarchy. Royalists defended it on the basis of traditional cultural values. One licensing criterion demanded 80% ownership by Tongans living in the country. By February 2004 the papers denied licences included the Taimi ʻo Tonga, the Keleʻa and the Matangi Tonga. Those permitted were uniformly church-based or pro-government.

  Opposition was loud. A protest march of several thousand people filled the capital. The Tuʻi Pelehake, a prince, a nephew of the king and an elected member of parliament, urged Australia and other nations to press Tonga to democratise its electoral system. A legal writ calling for a judicial investigation gathered some 160 signatures, including seven of the nine elected People's Representatives.

  In 2005 the government spent several weeks negotiating with striking civil-service workers before reaching a settlement. Protests outside the king's New Zealand residence made headlines. On the 11th of February 2006 Prime Minister Prince ʻAhoʻeitu ʻUnuakiʻotonga Tukuʻaho, who is now King Tupou VI, resigned suddenly. The elected labour minister, Feleti Sevele, replaced him in the interim.

  On the 5th of July 2006 a driver in Menlo Park, California, caused the deaths of Prince Tuʻipelehake ʻUluvalu, his wife and their driver. The prince was 55 and cochairman of the constitutional reform commission.

  George Tupou V succeeded his father in September 2006, and the public expected change. On the 16th of November 2006 rioting broke out in Nukuʻalofa, as parliament seemed ready to adjourn for the year without advancing democracy. Activists burned and looted shops, offices and government buildings. More than 60% of the downtown area was destroyed, and as many as six people died. Tongan Security Forces and troops from a New Zealand-led Joint Task Force ended the disturbances. Chinese-owned businesses were the main targets. Of the 3,000 to 4,000 Chinese living in Tonga in 2001, only about 300 remain.

  On the 29th of July 2008 the palace announced that George Tupou V would give up much of his power and leave day-to-day government to the Prime Minister. The royal chamberlain said: "The Sovereign of the only Polynesian kingdom... is voluntarily surrendering his powers to meet the democratic aspirations of many of his people." The government added that the king had sold state assets that had contributed to much of the royal family's wealth. In 2010, after legislative reforms, Tonga held its first partial representative elections and became a semi-constitutional monarchy.

  The pro-democracy movement does not seek to overthrow the monarchy, which keeps popular support. It asks for better representation of commoners in Parliament and better accountability in matters of state. Criticism of the monarch is still held to be contrary to Tongan culture and etiquette.

  On the 15th of March 2012 George Tupou V contracted pneumonia and was brought to Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong, where he was diagnosed with leukaemia. He died at 3:15 pm on the 18th of March 2012. His brother Tupou VI succeeded him and was crowned on the 4th of July 2015.

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• 6. Remittances and Alliances

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  Tonga has a population of 104,494 as of 2021. More than double that number live overseas, mainly in the United States, New Zealand and Australia. In 2018 there were 82,389 Tongans in New Zealand. As of 2000-36,840 were living in the United States, and more than 8,000 live in Australia.

  Money sent home by these emigrants holds up a large part of the economy. Much of it goes to relatives, often elderly, who prefer to stay in Tonga. Remittances have been declining since the 2008 global economic crisis. The government created a department in the Prime Minister's Office to cater for Tongans abroad. In 2007 Parliament amended citizenship laws to allow dual citizenship.

  At home, the economy has a large nonmonetary sector. The royal family and the nobles dominate and largely own the monetary sector, particularly telecommunications and satellite services. Forbes magazine named Tonga the sixth-most corrupt country in the world in 2008. Manufacturing consists of handicrafts and a few very small industries, contributing only about 5% of GDP. The country's first commercial trading bank, the Bank of Tonga, opened in September 1974. Tonga became a full member of the World Trade Organization on the 27th of July 2007.

  Agriculture, forestry and fisheries provide the majority of employment, foreign exchange and food. Farmers grow bananas, coconuts, coffee, vanilla, cassava, sweet potato and taro. As of 2001, two-thirds of farmland was planted in root crops. Processing coconuts into copra was once the only significant industry and the only commercial export. Falling world prices and a lack of replanting brought it to a complete standstill.

  The traditional feudal land system gave farmers no reason to plant long-term tree crops on land they did not own. In the late 20th century, kava and vanilla from larger plantations became the main exports, along with squash. Squash exports to Japan began in 1987 and brought relief to a struggling economy. Farmers soon grew wary of price swings and the huge financial risks.

  Most of Tonga's energy comes from imported diesel. As of 2018, about 10% of its electricity came from renewable sources. A roadmap for 2010-2020, developed with IRENA, aimed to cut diesel imports by 50%. In 2019 Tonga announced a 6-megawatt solar farm on Tongatapu, which would be the second-largest solar plant in the Pacific. Tourism brings under 90,000 visitors a year, and cruise ships often stop in Vavaʻu, known for whale watching, game fishing and surfing. Tonga's postage stamps, including heart-shaped and banana-shaped designs, are popular with collectors.

  As of 2021, China holds two thirds of Tonga's foreign debt. It has financed infrastructure projects, including a new royal palace. Matangi Tonga described Tonga's foreign policy as "Look East", meaning closer ties with Asia, which actually lies to the northwest. The United Kingdom closed its High Commission in 2006 and reopened it in January 2020 after 14 years. Relations with Australia and New Zealand are good, and relations with the United States are cordial.

  Tonga also sends its people abroad as soldiers. In late 2004 it deployed more than 40 soldiers to Iraq as part of an American force, and they returned home on the 17th of December 2004. More contingents followed in 2007 and 2008, with no reported loss of life. In 2010 the commander of His Majesty's Armed Forces signed an agreement in London committing at least 200 troops to the mission in Afghanistan. That task finished in April 2014, and Britain presented Operational Service Medals at a parade in Tonga.

  In 2023 Tonga joined Fiji, Niue, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu in launching the "Port Vila Call for a Just Transition to a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific". The call urges a phase-out of fossil fuels and the introduction of the crime of ecocide.

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• 7. Language, Kin, Faith

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  The word tonga comes from fakatonga, which means "southwards" in many Polynesian languages. The archipelago got its name because it is the southernmost group of the islands of western Polynesia. The word is cognate with the Hawaiian kona, meaning "leeward", which gave the Kona District in Hawaii its name. Tongan and English are the two official languages. Tongan belongs to the Tongic branch of Polynesian languages, alongside Niuean and Niuafoʻouan. It is more distantly related to Hawaiian, Samoan, Māori and Tahitian.

  In Tongan families, the highest-ranking member is the sister of one's father. This lies at the heart of fahu, a social order built on the bond between a person and their father's sister and paternal cousins. The paternal side outranks the maternal side. Sisters are treated as sacred superiors to their brothers. Before Western contact, fahu governed relations among chiefly kinship groups. Its political force has faded, but it remains part of everyday life.

  Similar social structures have been credited with helping people adapt to threats such as hurricanes and droughts, because they supply a network for moving people and resources. Disturbing the structure can do harm. In the 1980s, market demand for sandalwood upset the fahu hierarchy and heightened local competition. Nearly all of Tonga's sandalwood was depleted within two years.

  In 1928 Queen Salote Tupou III, a member of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga, established that church as the state religion. The Church of Tonga separated from it the same year in opposition. At a coronation, the chief pastor of the Free Wesleyan Church anoints and crowns the monarch, representing the people and the church. The constitution nonetheless provides for freedom of religion.

  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent missionaries in 1891 to visit King Siaosi (George) Tupo, who gave them permission to preach. The constitution protects the Sabbath, so commerce and entertainment stop on Sundays. As of 2013, almost 98% of residents profess Christianity. Estimates for 2016 put Protestants at 64.1% of the population, with 35% in the Free Wesleyan Church. Mormons accounted for 18.6% and Roman Catholics for 14.2%. Islam is a small Sunni minority, and Al-Khadeejah Mosque is a prominent mosque.

  Primary education from ages 6 to 14 is compulsory and free in state schools. Mission schools provide about 8% of primary and 90% of secondary education. The literacy rate is 98.9%, and most higher education is pursued overseas. Tongans hold their scholars in high esteem. The Kukū Kaunaka Collection, archived by Seu'ula Johansson-Fua at the Institute for Education in Tonga, holds every doctoral and master's dissertation written by any Tongan in any country.

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• 8. Rugby and Beyond

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  Rugby union is the national sport, and the national team is the ʻIkale Tahi, or Sea Eagles. Before every match the players perform a war dance called the Sipi Tau, a form of Kailao. Tonga has played in six Rugby World Cups since 1987.

  In 1995 Tonga beat Côte d'Ivoire 29-11, and in 1999 it beat Italy 28-25. The 2007 tournament was better still. Tonga beat the USA 25-15 and Samoa 19-15, then lost 30-25 to eventual winners South Africa. A 36-20 defeat by England ended hopes of reaching the knockout stages. Third place in the pool nevertheless earned automatic qualification for 2011.

  In New Zealand in 2011, Tonga beat Japan 31-18 and fifth-ranked France 19-14, the eventual finalist. A heavy 41-10 loss to the All Blacks in the opener and a 25-20 loss to Canada proved costly. France took the quarterfinal place ahead of Tonga on bonus points and points difference.

  Many players of Tongan descent have played for the All Blacks or the Wallabies, among them Jonah Lomu, Israel Folau and Malakai Fekitoa. Taulupe "Toby" Faletau, a British and Irish Lion and Welsh international, was born in Tonga and is the son of Tonga international Kuli Faletau. His cousins Billy and Mako Vunipola play for England. They are sons of former Tonga captain Feʻao Vunipola, and Mako is also a Lion. Students at Tonga College and Tupou College are regularly offered scholarships in New Zealand, Australia and Japan.

  Rugby league made its first Tongan appearance at the 1995 World Cup, where the team went out in the first stage after narrowly losing to New Zealand. Tonga has appeared in every tournament since. In 2008 it beat Ireland and Scotland. Before the 2017 World Cup, high-profile players led by Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita defected from tier-one nations to represent their heritage. On the 11th of November at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton, Tonga beat New Zealand. The team has since beaten Great Britain and world number one Australia.

  Tonga's only Olympic medal came at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, where Paea Wolfgramm won silver in super heavyweight boxing. Pita Taufatofua competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Tongans have also played in the American National Football League, including Vai Sikahema, Star Lotulelei and Vita Vea.

  A surge of contemporary Tongan artists has emerged in the past decade, most of them based in New Zealand. Tanya Edwards works with ngatu, the bark cloth. Sēmisi Fetokai Potauaine built a five-storey Tongan sculpture in central Christchurch. In 2023 the Bergman Gallery in Auckland hosted Tukufakaholo, Tongan Contemporary, featuring eight Tongan artists.

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