Tupoumoheofo

Who is Tupoumoheofo?

Tupoumoheofo was 12th Tu'i Kanokupolu of Tonga, and the only female to ever hold that title. She was the principal wife to the Tu'i Tonga though she may have been of higher social rank than him because of her matrilineal descent. After a vacancy in the Tu'i Kanokupolu title, she used her status to designated herself successor, reigning on Tongatapu for slightly less than one year starting in perhaps 1792 before being forcibly deposed by her distant relative Tuku’aho. Tupoumoheofo retreated to retirement in the northern Tongan Island of Vava’u under the protection of the 'Ulukalala family.

Most of the primary sources about Tupoumoheofo come from Europeans who often had conflicting accounts, descriptions, timelines, and biases. The absence of consensus makes her a controversial figure. Many of these historiographers were guests of Tupoumoheofo’s enemies, who eventually gained power and defeated her; the descendants of these enemies are Tonga’s current royal family. These sources tend to perceive her negatively as an egregious usurper of power. She is also often accused of using her power to implant her supposed son Fuanunuiava as the Tu’i Tonga. Recent scholarship, however, claims her actions were within historical precedent and acceptable to her social rank. There is also some evidence that suggests that Fuanunuiava was not in fact her son.