Palangi Saviour Complex
October 1, 2019 8:57 PM Subscribe
My heart jumped when I saw the kids — they reminded me of my cousins. It was a strange feeling because the pictures also reminded me of aid campaigns for Africa
Kiwi-Tongan poet Simone Kaho writes on the politics, ethics and impact of her time with The Floating Foundation which provided volotourism medical training in Tonga, closed over kidnapping and rape charges against the founder Craig Koning. (Note: palangi is Samoan usually used for foreigner/white, akin to pakeha in NZ)
Kiwi-Tongan poet Simone Kaho writes on the politics, ethics and impact of her time with The Floating Foundation which provided volotourism medical training in Tonga, closed over kidnapping and rape charges against the founder Craig Koning. (Note: palangi is Samoan usually used for foreigner/white, akin to pakeha in NZ)
Minor quibble if I may: palagi isn't spelled with an n (it does have a ng sound though).
Kaho is a treasure.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 12:24 AM on October 2, 2019
Kaho is a treasure.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 12:24 AM on October 2, 2019
OK, but Kaho spells it as "Pālangi" nine times in the article, so....
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:22 AM on October 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:22 AM on October 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
This article is great, and so are her other articles in that publication. I hadn't heard of her before this FPP, but she is a voice I will look for now, thank you for the post.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:29 AM on October 2, 2019
posted by Dip Flash at 6:29 AM on October 2, 2019
Samoan and Tongan orthography is different -- in Samoan, 'g' is always pronounced 'ng', so Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa, is pronounced Pango Pango. In Tonga, as you can tell from from the name of the country, the ng sound is spelled ng.
I know Samoan a little and Tongan not at all except to know that it's closely related with a lot of cognates. Palagi is the way to spell the word for white person or foreigner in Samoan. On the other hand, if the cognate exists in the Tongan language and is pronounced the same way, it would naturally be spelled palangi. If it's a loan word from Samoan, it would still make sense in a Tongan context to spell it with Tongan phonetics. (Not that any of this is important, but the different spelling has always irritated me. In Fijian, you spell the same sound with a 'q'.)
And the article was very good. Back in the early 90s, I spent two years in Samoa with the Peace Corps, and it is maddening seeing the white savior dynamic going on and not being able to figure out how to pull out of it.
posted by LizardBreath at 7:09 AM on October 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
I know Samoan a little and Tongan not at all except to know that it's closely related with a lot of cognates. Palagi is the way to spell the word for white person or foreigner in Samoan. On the other hand, if the cognate exists in the Tongan language and is pronounced the same way, it would naturally be spelled palangi. If it's a loan word from Samoan, it would still make sense in a Tongan context to spell it with Tongan phonetics. (Not that any of this is important, but the different spelling has always irritated me. In Fijian, you spell the same sound with a 'q'.)
And the article was very good. Back in the early 90s, I spent two years in Samoa with the Peace Corps, and it is maddening seeing the white savior dynamic going on and not being able to figure out how to pull out of it.
posted by LizardBreath at 7:09 AM on October 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
I don't have any experience with voluntourism, but her discussion of being caught between casually racist whites and a place she doesn't feel like she belongs resonated very much with me as a biracial person, especially the feeling of complicity and being at a loss for what else to do. I think I completely understand her plight there.
(In Hollywood, being mixed race always means being forced to choose between two cultures. In the real world, it means you don't really fit in either.)
Great writing on her part, and I appreciate the post.
posted by mordax at 1:04 PM on October 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
(In Hollywood, being mixed race always means being forced to choose between two cultures. In the real world, it means you don't really fit in either.)
Great writing on her part, and I appreciate the post.
posted by mordax at 1:04 PM on October 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
On the other hand, if the cognate exists in the Tongan language and is pronounced the same way, it would naturally be spelled palangi. If it's a loan word from Samoan, it would still make sense in a Tongan context to spell it with Tongan phonetics.
It's a cognate, not a loanword - early Polynesians travelled back and forth between Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, and their words went with them. Palagi (S), Pālangi (T), Kai Valagi (F). The Tongan word is pronounced paa-la-ngi.
In Fijian, you spell the same sound with a 'q'.
No, you spell the same sound (soft ng) with a g in Fijian. If you want "ngg", the sound in the English word finger, you use a q. So the island of Beqa, often called "Beaker" by tourists, is pronounced Mbeng-ga.
posted by rory at 3:24 PM on October 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
It's a cognate, not a loanword - early Polynesians travelled back and forth between Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, and their words went with them. Palagi (S), Pālangi (T), Kai Valagi (F). The Tongan word is pronounced paa-la-ngi.
In Fijian, you spell the same sound with a 'q'.
No, you spell the same sound (soft ng) with a g in Fijian. If you want "ngg", the sound in the English word finger, you use a q. So the island of Beqa, often called "Beaker" by tourists, is pronounced Mbeng-ga.
posted by rory at 3:24 PM on October 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
I am delighted to be schooled on this, I would like to say.
I missed Kaho's original spelling because I read that article a few days back .
(I am an E-tangata subscriber. If you want more like this, you should too! Cause they're on a financial knife edge).
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:45 PM on October 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
I missed Kaho's original spelling because I read that article a few days back .
(I am an E-tangata subscriber. If you want more like this, you should too! Cause they're on a financial knife edge).
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:45 PM on October 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
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