Kapeliele Tufele III was a king of Uvea, who ruled from 17 April 1950 until 17 November 1953. He was preceded by Pelenato Fuluhea, and succeeded by

Aloisia Brial Aloisia Brial (died 1972) was a queen of Uvea, ruling from 1953 until 1958.Guillaume Lachenal, Le médecin qui voulut être roi. Sur les traces d'une utopie coloniale, Editions du Seuil, 9 février 2017 (ISBN 978-2-02-114258-7 She was preceded b ...

Rise to power

In April 1950, dissension appeared within the Wallisian leadership, “relaying the social problems of the time: authoritarianism of certain civil servants; generational divide in the local clergy; return of Wallisians sensitized to “union” ideas”. Faced with opposition, particularly from the

Hihifo District Hihifo ( Uvean for "West") is one of the 5 districts of Wallis and Futuna, located in Wallis Island, in the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Chiefdom of ʻUvea. Geography Located in the northern side of the island, Hihifo borders with the distric ...

, King Pelenato Fuluhea resigned on 11 April. On 13 April, the chiefs elected Emmanuel Brial, a French merchant and son of Aloisia Brial (thus attached to a royal line). However, the appointment was opposed by the French resident as he did not want a Frenchman to become king of Wallis. Kapeliele Tufele, aged 70, was then elected on 17 April as a “transition king”.

Reign and resignation

According to Gildas Pressensé, “Kapeliele Tufele, known as Setu – much older han his predecessor was very conservative and very attached to his customary prerogatives, often ignoring the presence of the Resident of France”. Relations become very tense with the resident, the latter attempting three times to have him dismissed. Bishop Alexandre Poncet successfully opposed his dismissal for the first time, but the customary chiefs decided to ignore the second time, which for Frédéric Angleviel represented the mark of "political maturity" in the face of the influence of the clergy in Wallis. Kapeliele Tufele abdicated on 17 November 1953. After negotiations between the royal families and with the approval of France's High Commissioner to the Pacific Ocean,

was elected Queen of Uvea on 22 December 1953.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tufele Iii, Kapeliele Wallis and Futuna monarchs