Wallis

French Republic's tiny Pacific kingdom has trouble

May 20, 2005

By Michael Field

A tiny piece of republican France in the South Pacific is in turmoil over a roy al grandson sentenced to jail for killing a man but who is now sheltered from French justice by his grandfather king.

France , which got rid of its last king in 1848, finds the colonial past catching up with it in obscure Wallis and Futuna which has three kings, and in Tahiti were descendants of a deposed roy al family are trying to re-assert themselves.

The French Wallis and Futuna islands, between Samoa and Fiji , were last in world history in 1841 when the locals killed later canonised French Marist priest Pierre Chanel who had been sent there by Bishop Francois Pompallier.

Today most of its 16,000 people are Catholic living on islands which have a total land area of just 274 square kilometres, slightly less than Great Barrier Island .

Although the islands have three kings, it’s more a matter of translation. Just as British 19^th Century colonists looked for “kings” and found it in the chiefly “tui” position the Wallis kings are more high chiefs than European style monarchs.

One of them, holder of the Le Lavelua title since 1959, is 86-year-old Tomasi Kulimoetoke.

On New Year’s Day one of his grandsons, Tomasi Tu’ugahala, was driving when he hit and killed Setani Heafala. Tu’ugahala, found to be drunk, was later sentenced to 18-months jail after being convicted of involuntary homicide. Instead he fled to the so-called roy al palace and has been hiding out there since.

The king refused to hand him over saying the issue had been settled in a traditional way with the victim’s family.

The week the French administrator, Xavier de Furst, ordered the man be handed over and warned the king he would be stripped of his title, on the basis that he had “lost the confidence of his subjects”.

The three roy al families have been in protracted meetings since and Radio RFO-Wallis reported that extended families were gathering, some wanting to remove the king and others supporting him.

The king’s chief minister and holder of the Kivalu title, Kapeliele Faupala, demanded that de Furst leave the island.

"Since you don't want to revise your position… I ask you to leave the territory", he said.

De Furst refused, saying nobody was above the law.

"In this matter, a man has died and a wife and children are since missing a husband and a father. It seems elementary to me that in matters of this nature, the rule of law should be enforced.

“I am sure that Lavelua himself does not wish to condone a homicide, but unfortunately, he has been taken hostage by a certain number of people who are using him."

Court President Francis Alary angrily waded into the issue telling Wallisians: “if some want to change the status of this territory, let us organise a referendum on independence, right now.

“If the Wallisians want to be independent and want us to leave, as the Kivalu has asked us to pack our suitcase, this is not a problem, we shall leave."

In pre-European times Wallis, known as Uvea, was under Tongan suzerainty and today both countries suffer from a rigid roy alty. While the senior titles in neighbouring Samoa are fiercely contested, missionaries in both Tonga and Wallis elevated titles to those of “kings” and kept them in the same families. The Marists stopped war in Wallis in 1850 and ensured titles passed father-to-son, rather than be contested.

More Wallisians now live in Noumea , New Caledonia , than on their home island, and the territory has been a steady source of soldiers for the French military.

Its only newspaper, Te Fenua Fo’ou, was forced to close in 2002 when the chiefs took exception to its more modern tone.

The kings were particularly outraged by the US National Geographic magazine for an article headed, “Wallis, boredom at the ends of the earth”. A local photographer was forced to issue a public apology for hosting the magazine’s photographer.

Although gambling is technically illegal in Wallis and Futuna bingo is the main form of entertainment.

“By and large, Wallis and Futuna society continues to live on the fringes of modern life and there is a clear-cut difference between national regulations and local practices,” New Caledonian history professor Frederic Angleviel, said in the latest Contemporary Pacific journal in Hawaii .

Meanwhile in French Polynesia descendants of the roy al Pomare family are organising a “customary council” to press France for compensation for what they say were illegally seized land and property. France overthrew the family which lost power in 1880 when King Pomare V gave right of sovereignty to France .

Movement organiser Joinville Pomare told Tahitipresse that by the end of the year they will hold a meeting of all the roy al families.

“Our prime objective is the reunification of the roy al families of the five archipelagos that make up French Polynesia .”

Pomare says under an 1842 treaty France took over commonly held land that France is now attempt to sell. Pomare says it should be returned to the roy al descendants.