Tonga

The Kingdom of Tonga! Today is Tonga’s National Day. Celebrations ensue…

Some things about Tonga:

The capital: Nuku’alofa
The government: Tonga is the only sovereign monarchy in the island nations of the Pacific. Also, a pro-democracy movement, wanting better representation of commoners in the Parliament. House of Commons anyone?
The King: George Tupou V
The Prime Minister: Dr Feleti Sevele
Independence: Tonga is also the only island nation of the Pacific that was never formally colonised, though it was a British Protectorate from 1900until 1970.
The name: Tonga means “south” in Tongan.
Europeans: First the Dutch—in 1616, Willen Schouten and Jacob Le Maire, and in 1643 Abel Tasman. Later, Captain Cook, a few times in the 1770s. Alessandro Malaspina in 1793. Oh, and missionaries.
Land: Cannot be sold to foreigners—though foreigners may lease it.
Agriculture: Well, coconuts, vanilla beans, bananas and root crops are the major money makers.
Diaspora: Many Tongans have headed to Australia, New Zealand and even the US to seek a high standard of living.
Apropos—well, nothing: Apparently Tongan women are known to be skilful jugglers.

And yes, there are poets in this corner of the Pacific…

Today I bring you Epeli Hau’ofa’s “To the Last Viking of the Sunrise.” I found it in Nuanua: Pacific Writing in English Since 1980.

To the Last Viking of the Sunrise

Since you left, captain,
We’ve missed the man
Who sliced the blue-black sea
To get to Lifuka
Before the water boiled.

You’ve gone, Tevita,
And the wet-winged tern from Minerva
Has flown to the rock
Where Sina sits waiting for the word
You will never send.

Moana’s calling you
Who slipped the midway reef,
Set bow for the foamy straits,
Beating the wind, the wooden gods
Giving way to no one, north or west.

Oh, tell us again
Of the day you raked the coral head
Then crashed the coast of Kandavu
Whence the mountains heard that he who dared
Had tamed the sea.

You’ve gone, red-eyed sailor,
So have our fathers forever.
I mourn not you, not them,
But us you’ve left adrift,
Derelicts becalmed.

—Epeli Hau’ofa
from Nuanua: Pacific Writing in English Since 1980