Wallisian customary crisis
The crisis, which began in the 1990s, manifested itself in 2005 in a dispute over the succession to the title of customary king [fr] (lavelua) of the Kingdom of Uvea after the very long reign of Tomasi Kulimoetoke.
This crisis continued during the reign of Kapeliele Faupala, then resumed in 2016 with the enthronement of two rival lavelua (Tominiko Halagahu and Patalione Kanimoa, the latter finally recognized by the French state).
[1] It highlighted the deep divisions that ran through Wallis society and created tensions between the customary chieftaincy and representatives of the French state, who were taken to task and witnessed.
[2] The crisis began in January 2005, when a grandson of Uvea King Tomasi Kulimoetoke II was sentenced to 18 months in prison for manslaughter after killing a motorcyclist while driving drunk.
This choice divided the aristocratic families, split between customary solidarity (with the grandson and the king) and loyalty to the French tutelary power (the territory's economy depended in part on state aid, and the administration employed many people).
[3] In response, the latter suspended payment of the lavelua's rent, as well as the customary chiefs supporting him[3] (including the Prime Minister, Kapeliele Faupala).
[2] Tensions grew between the two camps, as well as between the royalists and the prefect, who had transferred the compensation paid by the French state to the renovationist chiefs.
[2] However, as the September 25 enthronement ceremony approached, the institutional conflict almost turned into a confrontation: the king's supporters took up arms, occupied the airport, and set up roadblocks despite the presence of 120 gendarmes.
[1][2] The situation was finally resolved the following day when a French mediator sent from Nouméa recognized the authority of King Tomasi Kulimoetoke II.
[2] A delegation led by Aloisio Sako, president of the Oceanian Democratic Rally, traveled to Wallis to reaffirm its allegiance to Tomaski Kulimoetoke.
[2] On September 22, a demonstration in Nouméa brought together 600 supporters of the King, who accused France of wanting to change the 1961 statute, a charge denied by the Prefect.
[3] On March 12, 2007, the Mata Utu Administrative Court [fr] examined some fifty appeals lodged by the Kingdom of Uvea to overturn the prefectoral decrees issued by Xavier de Fürst.
[11] Incidents on the island, mixing customary law and republican authorities, continued when, in 2010, King Kapeliele Faupala and his supporters seized EEWF (Électricité et Eau de Wallis-et-Futuna), a subsidiary of GDF-Suez.
In 2015, ten years after the 2005 crisis, reconciliation between the two sides seemed “unlikely, given that the mutual wounds from the 2005 conflict are still raw”[15] and the island remained divided.
[23] As the “republican” option (abolition of the monarchy and integration of customary chiefs into political parties as territorial elected representatives, as in New Caledonia) wasn't favored neither by the Wallisians (including “reformers”) nor by Paris, the Prefect had to arbitrate between the two camps.
