Kepelino

Name

Kepelino is the Hawaiianized pronunciation of his Christian name Zepherin (written in its French form) or Zephyrin. His names are rendered in many forms. Confusingly, he used the names Kahōʻāliʻi (which was short for Kahōʻāliʻikumaieiwakamoku) and Keauokalani interchangeably as his surname. He signed his names as Zepherin Keauokalani, John P. Zephyrina Kahoalii and other different forms. The most complete name he used was Zepherin Kuhopu Kahoalii Kameeiamoku Kuikauwai.

Biography

He was born at Kailua-Kona around 1830. Named Kahōʻāliʻikumaieiwakamoku which meant "to-be-the-chief-of-the-nine-districts", he was the son of Namiki and Kahiwa Kānekapōlei. His father was a descendant of the priestly lineage of Paʻao, and his mother was a daughter of King Kamehameha I, the founder of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

In 1840, he and his family converted to Roman Catholicism and he adopted the name Zepherin or Kepelino, possibly after the second-century Pope Zephyrinus. Sent to Honolulu, Kepelino was educated by the Catholic missionaries to be a lay teacher and received a basic education in reading, writing, geography, and arithmetic. In 1847, he accompanied Father Ernest Heurtel as an assistant missionary in Tahiti, in hope that he would be able to attract young Tahitians converts. The Tahitian mission was unsuccessful, and he was sent back to Hawaii by Father Heurtel who feared the young Hawaiian would be "lost in this Babylon of ours." Returning to Hawaii, nothing much is known about his life for a period of time. Between 1861 and 1869, he continued his education at the College of ʻĀhuimanu, founded in 1846 by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Learning English, French, Latin, and Greek, he was taught by Bishop Louis Désiré Maigret, the founder of the Catholic mission. From 1860 to 1861, he also wrote for the Hawaiian Catholic newspaper Ka Hae Kiritiano.

A noted cultural historian, Kepelino wrote extensively on the culture and history of his people. Because of his family lineage, he was versed in the traditions of the kahuna (priests) and aliʻi (chiefs) from an early age. Between 1858 and 1860, he wrote Hooiliili Hawaii ("Hawaiian Collection") in a four-part series. The first part of this work were translated and republished by Bacil F. Kirtley and Esther T. Mookini in 1977. In 1868, he wrote his more famous work Moolelo Hawaii, which remained unpublished until it was translated after his death by Martha Warren Beckwith in 1932 as Kepelino's Traditions of Hawaii. His writing combined both Hawaiian and Western Christian elements and indicative of his missionary upbringing portrayed the ancient Hawaiian political system as a form of despotism. Some of his other publications include Ka Mooolelo O na la Havaii (The Story of the Fish of Hawaii) in 1867 and He Vahi Huli-Toa Manu Havaii (A Description of Hawaiian Birds). Kepelino's works place him among the ranks of early Hawaiian writers: David Malo, John Papa ʻĪʻī, Samuel Kamakau and S. N. Haleʻole.

Serving as the private secretary of Queen Emma, Kepelino was a staunch supporter of her right to succeed King Lunalilo in the Royal Election of 1874 against Kalākaua. During the election, he wrote to the King of Italy and Queen Victoria asking for warships to support Queen Emma's claim. These letters were intercepted by Kalākaua in his capacity as postmaster general. After Kalākaua's victory over Emma, Kepelino continued his political support for his employer and the Emmaites or the Queen Emma Party. In the summer of 1874, he started a petition to the French commissioner, Theo Ballieu, requesting French intervention to dethrone Kalākaua. The king had Kepelino arrested for treason. The trial was the first treason trial in the kingdom since the signing of the 1840 Constitution. Despite his counsel's argument that the petition was not a secret and that it had never reached the French official to whom it was addressed, Kepelino was sentenced to death on October 12, 1874 by Supreme Court Justice Charles Coffin Harris. The sentence was commuted, but he served almost two years at Oahu Prison. Through the intercession of Bishop Maigret, King Kalakaua eventually pardoned and released Kepelino on September 23, 1876.

Kepelino never married and died about 1878, shortly after his release from prison, at an age between forty-five and fifty.