King Charles III took part in a traditional coffee-drinking ceremony in front of a line of bare-chested, heavily tattooed Samoans and was proclaimed “Supreme Chief” of his Pacific island empire on Thursday.
The British monarch is on an 11-day tour of Australia and Samoa, the independent nations where he remains head of state — his first major trip abroad since he was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.
Dressed in a white safari-style suit, the 75-year-old king sat at the head of a long house of carved wood where he was presented with a polished half-coconut filled with mildly narcotic kava beer.
A peppery, mildly intoxicating root drink is a key part of Pacific culture and is known locally as “ava”.
Coffee roots were paraded around the tent, prepared by the chief’s daughter and filtered through a sieve made from the dried bark of the fau tree.
When it was ready, the Samoan screamed as he decanted the drink, which was finally presented to the king.
Charles mouthed the words, “God bless this ava” before raising her to his lips. The ceremony ended with applause.
Charles’s wife, Queen Camilla, sat beside him, waving a fan to relieve the stifling tropical humidity.
– high boss –
Many Samoans are excited to host the king — his first visit to the Pacific island nation that was once a British colony.
The royal couple later visited the village of Moata’a where Charles became the “Tui Taumeasina” or High Chief.
According to local legend, the area around Moata’a is where the coconut originated.
“They are all close to our hearts and looking forward to welcoming the king,” local Lenatai chief Victor Tamapua told AFP ahead of the visit.
“We are honored that he has chosen to be welcomed here in our village. That is why we would like to give him the title as a gift.”
Tamapua also planned to raise the issue of climate change with the King and Queen and show them the local mangroves.
“The tide is just chewing up our reef and where the mangroves are,” he told AFP, adding that food sources and communities were being washed away or flooded.
“Our community relies on the mangrove area for mud crabs and fish, but since then the tide has risen in the last 20 years by about two or three meters (up to 10 feet).”
The King is also in Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia.
– Colonialism and climate –
The legacy of empire looms large in that meeting.
Commonwealth leaders will choose a new secretary-general nominated from an African country – in line with regional rotations of the post.
All three likely candidates have publicly called for reparations for slavery and colonialism.
One of the three, Lesotho’s Joshua Setipa, told AFP the resolution could include non-traditional forms of payment such as climate finance.
“We can find a solution that will begin to address some of the injustices of the past and put them in the context of what is happening around us today,” he said.
Climate change is very much on the agenda.
Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Fiji have backed calls for a “fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty” — essentially calling on Australia, Britain and Canada to do more to cut emissions.
Pacific leaders claim that the trio of “big countries” have historically accounted for over 60 percent of the Commonwealth’s fossil fuel emissions.
Vanuatu’s special envoy for climate change, Ralph Regenvanu, called on other nations to join the agreement.
“As a Commonwealth family, we look to those who dominate fossil fuel production in the Commonwealth to stop the expansion of fossil fuels to protect what we love and value here in the Pacific,” he said.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said her gas- and mineral-rich country was working to be cleaner.
“We know we have a lot of work to do and I’ve been honest with every partner in the Pacific,” she said.
The Pacific island nations – once considered the epitome of a palm-fringed paradise – are now among the most climate-vulnerable areas on the planet.
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