TONGA: THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

I’m not typically a sports fan. Yeah, I’ll admit live games are more entertaining than watching them on television. But there is one sporting event that I am mildly interested in, and that’s the Olympics. But more specifically, the Opening Ceremonies. At the opening of the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, there was one athlete who took us by surprise as he carried the flag. And that was Pita Taufatofua. It wasn’t that he was one of the only Tongans to compete or that he was there for taekwondo. It was because he got the attention of every woman (and probably a few men) as he waved the Tongan flag while wearing a ta’ovala (traditional mat worn in formal situations) bearing his oiled, chiseled shirtless torso. He basically stole the show. They could’ve just shut it down and went home from there.

Tonga means “southward” in the Tongan language as well as other Polynesian languages. It’s based on its location as one of the southernmost island groups in central Polynesia. However, after James Cook landed on the island, he called it the Friendly Islands after they invited him to a celebration that was already taking place.

This island country consists of 169 islands where only 36 of them have people living on them. (Actually a new island was just formed in 2014 after a volcanic eruption. And it only took four years for a significant number of plants, birds, and owls to make it their home.) They’re divided up into three groups, from north to south: Vava’u, Ha’apai, and Tongatapu. Fiji and the French islands of Wallis and Fortuna lie to the northwest while Samoa, American Samoa, and Niue lie to the northeast. The north island of New Zealand is to the southwest quite a ways. Most of the islands are either limestone on top of coral or limestone on top of a volcanic base. They have distinct warm and cooler seasons. But temperature and rainfall can vary somewhat depending on which island you’re on.

The first people who arrived to live on these islands were Austronesians making their way there between 1500-1000 BC. The 12th century Tongan chief Tu’i Tonga basically had a reputation that preceded him and pretty much everyone in the South Pacific knew of him. The Tongans didn’t encounter any Europeans until the 1600s when several Dutch trading and exploration ships made pit stops in the Tongan islands, including Abel Tasman. British and Spanish explorers also made their way through Tonga during the 1700s as well as the US during the 1800s. Not only were explorers stopping by unannounced but missionaries and whaling vessels were also coming by. In 1845, there was a young warrior-turned-chief known as Taufa’ahau who really changed things up. He united Tonga as a kingdom, and 30 years later, declared it as a constitutional monarchy based on western styles. They became a protected state of Britain as part of a treaty. Tonga was allowed to continue on with its sovereignty during this time, and they are one of the few Pacific countries that has had an uninterrupted monarchy. During 1918, a ship from New Zealand brought the Spanish flu to the islands and killed over nearly 1800 of them -- that’s about 8% of their population at the time! Their protectorate with Britain ended in 1970, when they joined the Commonwealth and the UN.

The capital city is Nuku’alofa, situated on the north side of the island of Tongatapu, which is in the southernmost group of islands. This city of only about 23,000 is the center of government, housing both where the Parliament meets and the Royal Palace. It’s also the central transportation hub for the islands. There is a central market and business district but a lot of it was destroyed during the riots that took place in November 2006.

Tonga largely depends on remittances sent home from people working abroad. One of the problems is that the royal family owns quite a few of the industries in Tonga, like telecommunications. Agriculture carries part of their economy, especially in crops like vanilla beans, squash, coconut, coffee beans, sweet potatoes, cassava, and taro. Tourism has never really been that strong, but it’s growing somewhat. Cruise ships stop in Vava’u for whale watching, surfing, fishing, and just plain ol’ hanging out on the beach. Tonga’s colorful stamps are also apparently a hot ticket item among stamp collectors around the world.

Officially, Tonga doesn't have an established religion. Practically though, Christianity is ingrained in all the aspects of their lives. Because Queen Salote Tupou III was a member of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga, she established that as the state religion of Tonga back in 1928. However, that was later revised out in 1998. But because of that, they do still have a majority of the people following that denomination. Other Christian that are found in Tonga include The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Roman Catholics, and The Free Church of Tonga.

The official language is Tongan, a Polynesian language that is closely related to Wallisian, Hawaiian, Samoan, Tahitian, Maori, and Niuean. English is also an official language. Known as lea fakatonga in Tongan, it’s interesting because it has a verb-subject-object sentence order (whereas English has a subject-verb-object order).

One thing I came across in reading about Tonga is the sacred flying fox bats. These small bats are protected, and no one in the general public can touch, harm, or kill them (only the royal family can harm or hunt them apparently). In fact, they’re practically tame at this point, or at least extremely docile. On some of the islands, there’s a growing ecotourism where people come to observe them (although they’re known in Tonga, these bats are also found in nearby islands of Niue and the Samoas). It seems odd that these bats are solely the property of the king, but in a way, maybe it’s not necessarily a bad thing that they’re protected from the majority of people. Humans are essentially it’s main predator.

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SAMOA: THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

When I was trying to find recipes for Samoa, I was surprised to find a ton of recipes for desserts based on the Girl Scouts cookie called Samoas. And that was entirely NOT what I was going for, although they are delicious. And the other part was that now there are two Samoas: the island nation of Samoa (I grew up calling it Western Samoa) and American Samoa (a US territory – for more information on this and other US territories, please watch John Oliver’s segment he did on this on his show).

The name Samoa most likely comes from the Samoan words sa meaning “sacred” and moa, meaning “center.” There may be other theories out there, but I couldn’t find anything substantial.

This island nation is located in the south Pacific. It’s slightly northwest of the island of Niue, south of Tokelau, and east of Wallis & Fortuna (belonging to France). There are two main islands (Savai’i and Upolu) along with four smaller islands. The US territory of American Samoa lies southeast of Upolu (American Samoa itself actually refers to five main islands and two atolls.). The climate here is tropical, with a rainy season that lasts from November to April. The islands used to be covered in lowland tropical rainforests, but nearly 80% of those have been lost.

It’s believed that Samoans landed on these islands nearly 3000 years ago, but from where exactly, it’s still somewhat disputed. They share cultures, languages, and genetics with other nearby islands (namely Fiji and Tonga). The Dutch were the first to arrive in 1722, followed by the French in 1768. English missionaries (through the London Missionary Service) and other traders began making their way to the islands during the 1830s. However, the Germans looked upon the islands with more of a commercial purpose in mind, mainly with copra (dried coconut meat) and cocoa production. At the same time, the US started taking interests in the eastern islands as a territory, and several became known as American Samoa. The Samoans entered a civil war, and the British, Germans, and US each began sending in ships to protect and control their interests. A storm hit and destroyed most of the ships, ending the conflict; they signed an agreement giving the eastern islands to the US (American Samoa) and the western side to Germany (German Samoa). During the German’s 14-year rule, an uprising took place. The response was to banish the leader of the uprising to the German-held Northern Mariana Islands. New Zealand then controlled the islands from WWI to 1962, when they became known as Western Samoa. They were hit hard by the global influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 (I didn’t fully realize how widespread this epidemic was). The Samoans weren’t really happy with New Zealand’s control either, and there were several uprisings, some ending tragically for the Samoans. In 1962, they finally gained their independence, making them the first small-island nation in the Pacific to do so. In 1997, they voted to change their name from Western Samoa to just Samoa (something American Samoa wasn’t happy with apparently, thinking it would be confusing and diminishing their own identity).

Located on the northern coast of the island of Upolu, the city of Apia serves as its capital and largest city. Historically, the city also served as the capital of German Samoa as well. It serves as the center of the government as well as center for most other services (financial, education, media, transportation, etc.). The Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson lived out his final years in Apia. The winters are probably WAY better than in Scotland.

Samoa is an economically developing country. Agriculture is still a top exporter, especially in taro root, bananas, cocoa, noni, copra, and coconut cream/coconut oil. There has been some investment in expanding the financial sector along with tourism.

Because of Samoa’s history of being controlled by Christian-dominant countries, it’s no wonder that Christianity has a strong stake here still. The largest denomination is the Christian Congregational Church of Samoa, followed by Roman Catholic and Methodist and several others. Despite the fact that Samoa’s constitution declares Samoa as a Christian nation (a change made only last year), there is also a sizable number of Baha’i followers.

English is the official language along with Samoan (known as Gagana Fa’asamoa). There are actually more Samoan speakers (including second-language learners) than English speakers. Samoan is similar to other Polynesian languages like Hawaiian, Tongan, Maori, Tahitian, and Rapanui. And there is also Samoan Sign Language for the deaf community and a Samoan Braille as well. 

Two things I read about caught my attention: in 2009, Samoa switched to driving on left, something they felt aligned them with other countries in the world. I always wondered what that process looks like in logistically getting everyone to switch over. I just imagine a lot of head-on collisions during the first couple of months. Another thing that amazed me was that in 2011, they moved the International Date Line so that they were in line with Australia and New Zealand. Previously they were 21 hours behind Sydney, the result of being set up in the 1890s to work with Californian businesses. Now, realizing they have much stronger economic ties to Australia and New Zealand, they are only ahead of them by three hours. It certainly makes a lot more sense.

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