Tembinok'

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tembinok’ (or Tem Binoka) was the ruler of Abemama, Aranuka and Kuria, in the Gilbert Islands, during the late 19th century. He was immortalised by Robert Louis Stevenson's description of him in his book In the South Seas.

Stevenson met Tembinok’ and described him as the "one great personage in the Gilberts", the last truly independent and influential king of parts of the islands, at a time when the Gilberts were being increasingly influenced by white settlers and traders. Tembinok’ resided on Abemama, and, unlike the rulers of neighbouring islands, did not allowing outsiders to establish a permanent presence there.

Tembinok’'s grandfather, Tenkoruti (?-1860), was the ruler of a village on Abemama. Tenkoruti extended his authority over the entire atoll, and established a dictatorship, ignoring the traditional authority of a "council of Old Men". Tenkoruti's son Tembinatake conquered Aranuka and Kuria, then delegated absolute authority to his nephew Tembinok’.

Tembinok’ attempted to extend his rule further over a number of islands and atolls; he compelled Maiana to pay tribute, and seized Nonouti, before being driven out by a British warship and forbidden from expanding his kingdom further. Stevenson described his efforts as an embryonic "empire of the archipelago": "Tembinok' figures in the patriotic war-songs of the Gilberts like Napoleon in those of our grandfathers."

Tembinok’ was also a merchant king, controlling his kingdom's commerce, and sending trade ships to lands as distant as New Zealand. His commercial ventures, however, ended in failure.

Despite his relative isolationism, he was, according to Stevenson,

"greedy of things new and foreign. House after house, chest after chest, in the palace precinct, is already crammed with clocks, musical boxes, blue spectacles, umbrellas, knitted waistcoats, bolts of stuff, tools, rifles, fowling-pieces, medicines, European foods, sewing-machines, and, what is more extraordinary, stoves".

Tembinok’ briefly accepted the presence of a Christian missionary on Abemama, then deported him for attempting to set up a copra trading business. In the late 1880s, he granted Robert Louis Stevenson the right to live temporarily on Abemama, on the condition that Stevenson did not give or sell liquor or money to his subjects.