"Who are you to tell us our history?" Kultur och religion i ... - Anpere

Tusentals hawaiianer hade samlats vid hennes hus redan då hon låg döende och i
samma stund de meddelades om hennes död utbrast massorna i ett öronbedövande
klagoskrik. Missionärerna Richards och Stewart skriver: ”The thousands about the house
immediately commenced their frightful wailings. The scene exceeds our powers of
description. We had often seen and heard weeping before; but of heathen wailings we had
formed no idea. To every Christian such a scene would be shocking in the extreme.” 276
Budet om hennes död spreds runt öarna och hawaiianer kom långväga för att sörja. Några
erbjöd sig även bli hennes moe pūloa, följare i döden. 277 Hoapili lät meddela folket att
Keōpūolanis önskan var att de inte, enligt hawaiiansk sed, skulle ägna sig åt mānewanewa,
dvs. att genom extrema och våldsamma handlingar uttrycka sin sorg. Hon hade givit sig
själv till Gud. Kamakau skriver: ”Blessed was Ke-opu-lani [Keōpūolani] to put her faith in
God and save so many innocent people from death, those who owed nothing to her and
had not benefited by her wealth, but by old custom offered themselves to die with her.” 278
Keōpūolani fick en kristen begravning som hon önskat, men trots att de tusentals
hawaiianerna visade respekt för hennes önskan övergav de inte helt det sedvanliga
förfarandet vid en högt ansedd ali‘is död. Hennes bår pryddes av traditionella kāhili,
fjäderprydda standar, och i veckor samlades hawaiianer vid hennes grav och sörjde
högljutt. Hennes liv och död symboliserade det tydliga mötet mellan hawaiiansk och
västerländsk kultur. Marjorie Sinclair sammanfattar:
Tough-minded, determined, regal, she could act swiftly in the old manner when it was
necessary, and she could select what she considered good from Western culture. In the last
years of her life, she blended in her fashion the old and the new. Though she remains
mysterious because we have only fragments of her history, she emerges from these
fragments a figure of power and wisdom. 279
not the best? What is the harm? My mother gave herself to Jesus Christ before she was sick.
Why may she not have water sprinkled on her in the name of God, like the people of Christ?
Shall she be denied because she must soon die?’ This he said with tears in his eyes, and with an
emphasis which reached our hearts.”
276 “Letter from messrs. Richards and Stewart to the correspondent secretary, December 1,
1824” i MH, april, 1825 (21): 102. William Ellis (1828: 225) ger också detaljerad beskrivning
sin upplevelse av dessa hawaiianers klagoskrik:
“The word which they pronounce in wailing is “auwe” – “auwe” – “alas!” – “alas!” –
prolonging the sound of the last syllable, sometimes, for many minutes, with trembling and
agitated shaking of the voice. The tones in which it is uttered by different persons, vary from
the lowest to the highest key – and from that which is most plaintive, to that which is more
shrill. There being no uniformity in the time of beginning or ending the word, the confusion
and discord thus created terrific. The attitudes of figure are as various as the tones of voice.
Some stand upright, casting their arms and faces towards heaven, with the eyes closed, and
mouth widely distended. Others, instead of throwing their arms upwards, clasp their hands
braced against their knees, or violently pressed into their sides, as in excruciating internal agony
– others clench their hands into the hair of each side of their heads, as if to tear it out by the
roots: and all seem to emulate one another, an attempt at the most hideous grimaces and
painful distortions, while torrents of tears flow from their heads to their feet.”
277 Kamakau 1992a: 255. Han använder ”moepu‘‘ för ”death companion”. Moe hoa eller
moepūlua – att erbjuda sig som en följare in i döden– var en rituell gest, menar Pukui. Se Pukui,
m.fl. 1983 (vol. 1): 133.
278 Kamakau 1992a: 255. Charles Stewart (1818: 223) skriver att Keopuolani hade förbjudit
”wailing” eller klagorop och samtliga andra traditionella seder och bruk kring dödsfall av en ali‘i
nui.
279 Sinclair 1971: 21. Keōpūolani visade sig intresserad av mycket av den västerländska kulturen
och bl a bar hon västerländska kläder och hade västerländska möbler i sitt hem. Likaså
uppmanade hon sina barn att lära sig att läsa och skriva. Se hela Sinclairs artikel ”The Sacred
Wife of Kamehameha i Keopuolani” i HJH 1971(5): 3–21. Se också ” Nāhi‘ena‘ena, Hawaiian
Princess” i HJH 1969(3): 3–30, och senare bok Nāhi‘ena‘ena, Sacred Daugher of Hawai‘i av
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