Siaosi U. Tukuʻaho/en
Siaosi U. Tukuʻaho would have been installed with the high chiefly title of Tungī, if he had not died before his father. He fell from his horse in Tofoa, a village close to town, on a place marked nowadays by a little monument. The area is still known nowadays as broken gold because of this.
He is the one who reintroduced traditional dancing in Tonga, and is the father of the lakalaka.
- Puha TUPUʻANGA, tangata, fefine : genealogy box, man, woman
- mātuʻa, ʻeiki/tamai & fehuhu/faʻē : parents, father & mother
- tokoua : brothers and sisters (usually including half brothers/sister and adopted, but not those born out of wedlock)
- ʻohoana, ʻaho mali, fānau : spouse, wedding date, children
When Shirley Waldemar Baker was deported, king Tupou I asked the nobles to select a new prime minister, and they took Tukuʻaho. An intelligent guy, had been educated from Moulton's Kolisi Tupou, was the son of Viliami Tungī Halatuituia, who had become the noble Tungī in 1875, despite having been one of the most implacable opponents of king Siaosi. Nevertheless after the death of all his sons, Tupou I had nominated in 1885 the Tungī line as an alternative royal succession line. As Tukuʻaho had been against Baker, he was automatically favoured by the chiefs and foreign traders alike. (Interestingly his monumuent later would be erected by the Europeans in Tonga, not the Tongan population).
Nevertheless Tukuʻaho made a mess of the administration, and it was only the help of Basil Thomson, the British consul which kept some order in the chaos. But the latter left already in August 1891. And then it was the incomptence and laziness of Tukuʻaho again. Admittedly, his staff was even more untrained and inexperienced, and of no help.
When Siaosi Tupou II became king in begin 1893, he saw Tukuʻaho as a potential contender to the throne. He did not have long to wait for an excuse, and towards the end of 1893 he could discredit him and nomiate Siosāteki Tonga Veikune in his place, who had been a friend of Tupou I and Baker.
- I.C. Campbell; Island kingdom; Canterbury press, 2001
