Momo ''(meaning: crumb)'' was the 10th king in the
Tui Tonga dynasty of
Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...
, who lived in the 11th or 12th century CE. He was named after one of the original gods of Tonga, a trio known as
Kohai, Koau, mo Momo. The
Tui Tonga maritime empire began to expand during his reign.
King Momo had his court in Heketā, near the village of
Niutōua ''(doubly planted coconuttrees)''. His people were known as the Haa-mene-uli ''(dirty bottoms Clan)'', because in order to honour him they had to keep their heads lower than his, and thus shuffled around on their bottoms instead of their feet.
Marriage
One day the king fell in love with a beautiful girl and sent his envoy, Lehauli, to her father, Loau, the Tui-Haamea ''(Haamea king)'' with a request for a
yam for his plantation. Loau understood the real meaning of the request, and responded that he was unable to help as one yam was still immature and the other had already sprouted. He meant that his youngest daughter was still too young while his older daughter, Nua, had already had a child and was therefore an old woman. Her husband was Ngongo kilitoto from
Malapo, chief of the Haangongo Clan (The clan of Ngongo).
The next day, Momo sent his envoy back to Loau with the words: Fena kā ko Nua ''(sprouted, but still it is Nua)'', and so Loau went to Malapo to ask Ngongokilitoto to give up his wife, which he did. Nua became Momo's wife, and their son became the greatest Tui Tonga of that period,
Tuitātui. His elder stepbrother, Fasiapule, later became a kind of governor.
The location of Haamea is not certain. Some claim it was the centre of
Tongatapu
Tongatapu is the main island of Tonga and the site of its capital, Nukuʻalofa, Nukualofa. It is located in Tonga's southern island group, to which it gives its name, and is the country's most populous island, with 74,611 residents (2016), 70.5% o ...
, near
Matangiake, in which case Loau was only a minor prince. It is also possible that the name is a variant of Haamoa ''(
Samoa
Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...
)'', in which case Loau was also a powerful king, meaning the marriage story was a mythical way to represent the alliance between Tonga and Samoa, and the start of the empire, although the alliance would only last one generation.
References
* I.C. Campbell, ''Classical Tongan kingship'', 1989
* E. Bott, ''Tonga society at the time of Captain Cook's visit'', 1982
* O. Māhina, ''Images from the history and culture of Tonga,'' 2006
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Monarchs of Tonga
11th-century monarchs
12th-century monarchs