THE POWER OF THE STEEL- TIPPED PEN This page intentionally left blank THE POWER OF THE STEEL- TIPPED PEN Reconstructing Native Hawaiian Intellectual History noenoe k. silva With a foreword by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o Duke University Press · Durham and London · 2017 © 2017 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper ∞ Designed by Courtney Leigh Baker Typeset in Trade Gothic and Arno Pro by Westchester Publishing Services Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Silva, Noenoe K., [date] author. | Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, [date] writer of foreword. Title: The power of the steel- tipped pen : reconstructing native Hawaiian intellectual history / Noenoe K. Silva ; with a foreword by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2016046670 (print) lccn 2016049127 (ebook) isbn 9780822363521 (hardcover : alk. paper) isbn 9780822363682 (pbk. : alk. paper) isbn 9780822373131 (ebook) Subjects: lcsh: Kānepu‘u, Joseph Ho‘ona‘auao, 1824– approximately 1886— Influence. | Poepoe, Joseph Mokuʻōhai, 1852–1913— Influence. | Hawaii— Intellectual life—19th century— Sources. | Hawaiian newspapers— History—19th century. | Hawaiian lit er a ture—19th  century— History and criticism. | Hawaii— History—19th century— Sources. | Hawaiian language— Social aspects. | Hawaiian philosophy. | Hawaiians— Songs and music. Classification: lcc du624.5 .s48 2017 (print) | lcc du624.5 (ebook) | ddc 996.9/027— dc23 lc rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2016046670 cover art: Haley Kailiehu, Mo‘okū‘auhau. Courtesy of the artist. For Sam L. Noʻeau Warner and Haunani- Kay Trask This page intentionally left blank Contents Foreword by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o · ix Acknowl edgments · xi “Ke Au Hawaiʻi” by Larry Kauanoe Kimura · xiii Introduction · 1 PART I joseph hoʻonaʻauao kānepuʻu 1 Joseph Hoʻonaʻauao Kānepuʻu · 21 2 Selected Literary Works of Joseph Kānepuʻu · 53 3 Kanaka Geography and Aloha ʻĀina · 82 PART II Joseph Mokuʻōhai Poepoe 4 Joseph Mokuʻōhai Poepoe · 105 5 Singing (to) the ʻĀina · 150 6 Moʻolelo Hawaiʻi Kahiko · 174 Conclusion · 211 Appendix A: Kānepuʻu Selected Bibliography · 215 Appendix B: Poepoe Selected Bibliography · 217 Notes · 221 Glossary · 241 Bibliography · 247 Index · 263 viii · Contents Foreword ngũgĩ wa thiong’o The popu lar African proverb that u ntil the lions have their storytellers, the story of the hunt w ill always glorify the hunter, applies to the two connected binaries of the colonizer and the colonized, the oppressor and the op- pressed. Telling tales is part of the whole realm of a people, any people, naming the world. To name is also to claim a par tic u lar relationship to the named. Language is a vast system of naming the world, which expresses that community’s total relationship to their environment, their economic activities, their po liti cal and social relations, and ultimately their view of themselves in the world. Oppressors and their oppressing system understand that it is not enough for them to seize p eople’s land, impose their rule, but they go further and control the culture and the value system of the conquered. Economic and po liti cal control are incomplete without cultural control. The entire edifice of economic, po liti cal, and cultural control remains shaky without control of the mind of the conquered. Hence, in history, the conqueror has always felt it imperative to control the mind of the conquered. The easiest route to that conquest is language. Colonization of a people’s naming system is an integral part of an oppressing system. The story of Hawaiian is the strugg le of many marginalized languages in the world today, which have been buried under or sidelined by conscious laws and education programs. Prior to conquest and annexation, Hawaiian had been the root center of Hawaiian being. But from 1898 to 1978, it was pushed to the margins through laws banning it and educational programs that forcibly put En glish at the center. But Hawaiian orature survived the onslaught: so also some of the writings in the language. Re sis tance to oppression includes reclaiming a p eople’s land, politics, and culture, for economic and po liti cal liberation can never be complete