Isokelekel

Who is Isokelekel?

Isokelekel is the central figure of Pohnpeian oral tradition's founding legend, remembered as a semi-mythical warrior said to be the son of the thunder god Nansapwe, who sailed to Pohnpei from a distant land called Katau with a company of roughly three hundred followers. According to the many variant accounts recorded by later historians, at least thirteen differing versions of the story have been published, Isokelekel led an invasion that ended the centuries-long, increasingly oppressive rule of the Saudeleur dynasty, whose rulers governed from the artificial stone islets of Nan Madol. Archaeological dating places the events of this overthrow at roughly 1628. Following his victory, Isokelekel is credited with dismantling the Saudeleurs' centralized rule and instituting a decentralized system of autonomous chiefdoms, each headed by the paired titles of nahnmwarki, the paramount chief, and nahnken, the "talking chief" who manages administration on the paramount chief's behalf. This nahnmwarki-nahnken structure, later expanded to Pohnpei's five present-day chiefdoms, still governs traditional Pohnpeian social and political life today, making Isokelekel's legend a foundational reference point for Pohnpeian identity and law even though no contemporary written record of his life survives.

Sources: Glenn Petersen, "Lost in the Weeds: Theme and Variation in Pohnpei Political Mythology" (University of Hawai'i, Center for Pacific Islands Studies, 1990) · David Hanlon, "Upon a Stone Altar: A History of the Island of Pohnpei to 1890" (University of Hawai'i Press, 1988)