SOUTH
PACIFIC(^0) 50 miles
(^0) 100 kilometres
Nuku’alofa
Nuku’alofa
Fua’amotu
Moto
LATE
TOFUA
TONGATAPU
TONGATAPU
’EUA
VAVA’U
Vava’u
Group
Ha’apai
Group
Tangatapu
Group
Nomuka
Group
About 400 km
from Late to
Ninuafo’oy
(^0) 20 kilometres
0 10 miles
Neiafu
I
n Tonga, wearing black is so common
that foreign visitors could mistake it
for a fashion statement. It is not. As
in many other countries, it is worn as a
sign of mourning. The closer the rela-
tive, the longer you wear black and, if an
immediate family member passes away,
black may be worn for as long as a year.
Black was worn by thousands when the
country’s prime minister and long-time
democracy campaigner ‘Akilisi Pohiva
died in New Zealand/Aotearoa on 12 Sep-
tember. It was the end of an era.
Tonga was first settled 3,000 years ago.
Its royal family traces back its lineage
more than 1,000 years. It was visited
by Captain James Cook, who called it the
Friendly Islands in 1773. In 1826, Wes-
leyan missionaries visited and Taufa’ahau
Tupou, ruler of the Ha’apai Islands, was
among those converted to Christianity.
He united the Tongan islands and in 1845
became King George Tupou I. Although
Tonga was never colonized, from 1890
onwards the archipelago was seen as a
‘protectorate’ of the British crown and did
not celebrate full independence until 1970.
Tonga is a constitutional monarchy but
its royal rulers have exercised much more
political power than their equivalents in
other countries. When Queen Salote III
visited England for Queen Elizabeth’s
coronation in 1953, it rained heavily
on the open carriage and she arrived
soaking wet. She became a household
name overnight. Seven years later she
gave women the right to vote in legisla-
tive elections for the first time.
The pro-democracy movement was
established at a conference organized
by ‘Akilisi Pohiva in 1992. Radio Tonga
was forbidden to mention the event and
overseas speakers were turned back at the
airport on government orders, though
700 people attended. Pohiva founded the
Tonga Democratic Party two years later,
which aimed to challenge the entrenched
power of the monarchy and the aristoc-
racy, and he was imprisoned for contempt
of parliament in 1996.
Popular frustration at the slow pace
of change led to riots in the capital,
Nuku’alofa, in November 2006 in which
8 people died and around 80 per cent
of the central business district was
destroyed.
In the wake of the riots, constitutional
TONGA
COUNTRY
PROFILE
38 NEW INTERNATIONALIST