Tomasi Kulimoetoke II

Who is Tomasi Kulimoetoke II?

Tomasi Kulimoetoke II was born on 26 July 1918 in Ha'afuasia, in the Hahake district of Wallis Island. He was elected the 50th Lavelua, or customary king, of Uvea on 12 March 1959, following a six-month period of rule by a council of ministers, and reigned for nearly five decades until his death in 2007, making him the longest-serving of Wallis's modern kings. Early in his reign he supported closer ties with France, recognizing the territory's economic dependence on French subsidies, and his most consequential decision came in 1961 when he signed the agreement transforming the longtime French protectorate of Wallis and Futuna into a full French overseas territory. In 2005 he faced a serious political crisis when his grandson, Tomasi Tuugahala, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after a fatal drunk-driving accident; the king sheltered him inside the royal palace for four months in defiance of French authorities before the grandson eventually surrendered. Despite the standoff, Kulimoetoke retained both his throne and France's recognition of it. He died in Mata-Utu on 7 May 2007, after which a customary six-month mourning period was observed.

Sources: Tomasi Kulimoetoke II, Wikipedia (accessed 2026-07-02) · The Scotsman, "King Tomasi Kulimoetoke" (obituary) · The Diplomat, "Wallis: The Real Game of Thrones" (2016)