ʻAnaseini Takipō

ʻAnaseini Takipō Afuha'amango was born on 1 March 1893 in Nukuʻalofa. Her father was Tēvita Ula Afuhaʻamango and her mother was Siosiana Tongovua Tae Manusā. From her maternal relation, she was a descendant of the Tuʻi Kanokupolu line. King George Tupou II had rejected her half-sister ʻOfakivavaʻu in 1899 to marry Lavinia Veiongo, a choice that damaged the royal family's relation with the rest of the country and nearly caused a civil war between factions loyal to the family of ʻOfa and the family of Lavinia. Both women died in 1901 and 1902 respectively and the grief-strickened king remained unmarried with only one legitimate daughter Princess Sālote Mafile‘o Pilolevu, who was an unpopular heir with the former supporters of the deceased ʻOfa.[2][3]

In order to appease his subjects and the Council of Chiefs, King Tupou II married ʻAnaseini Takipō, the sister of the rejected ʻOfa, on 11 November 1909. She was sixteen years old at the time of the marriage. It was expected that the King would be able to produce a male heir to succeed him to the throne. Queen Lavinia's daughter Princess Sālote was sent Auckland, New Zealand, as a form of exile.[4][3][1]

Queen Takipō gave birth to two daughters: ʻElisiva Fusipala Taukiʻonelua (1911–1911, known as Princess ʻOnelua) and ʻElisiva Fusipala Taukiʻonetuku (1912–1933, known as Princess Fusipala). Princess ʻOnelua died of convulsion in her infancy and Princess Fusipala died in Australia unmarried.[5][1]

Her husband died on 5 April 1918 and was succeeded by his eldest daughter, who became Queen Sālote Tupou III, the first queen regnant of Tonga.[6][7] Shortly after, Queen Dowager Takipō died at Finefekai, Nukuʻalofa, on 26 November 1918, as a result of the infamous 1918 flu pandemic which killed eight percent of the population of Tonga.[1] After Takipō's death, Sālote assumed the guardianship of her half-sister Princess Fusipala.[8][9][10] She was buried at Malaʻeʻaloa, the chiefly burial ground in Kolomotu'a, instead of Malaʻekula where her husband and daughters were buried.[11]

• Eustis, Nelson (1997). The King of Tonga: A Biography. Adelaide: Hobby Investment. ISBN 978-0-646-33077-8. OCLC 38837175.
• Kaeppler, Adrienne L. (June 2000). "Reviewed Work: Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965 by Elizabeth Wood-Ellem". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. The Polynesian Society. 109 (2): 213–215. JSTOR 20706924.
• Wood-Ellem, Elizabeth (1999). Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965. Auckland, N.Z: Auckland University Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2529-4. OCLC 262293605.
• Wood-Ellem, Elizabeth (2007). Tonga and the Tongans: Heritage and Identity. Alphington, Victoria: Tonga Research Association. ISBN 978-0-646-47466-3. OCLC 174101821.

• Media related to ʻAnaseini Takipō at Wikimedia Commons