Fakaofo
| Fakaofo | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
| archipelago | Tokelau | |
| Geographical location | 9 ° 22 ′ S , 171 ° 13 ′ W | |
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| Number of islands | 62 | |
| Main island | Fale | |
| Land area | 4 km² | |
| Lagoon area | 50 km² | |
| Residents | 506 (2016) | |
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Fakaofo (formerly D'Wolf's Island or Bowditch Island ) is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean consisting of several small islands , which together with the two atolls Nukunonu and Atafu form the group of Tokelau Islands.
geography
Fakaofo is the southernmost and second largest of the three atolls of Tokelau. The 62 motus of the atoll are distributed around the central lagoon (50 km²) and together have a land area of 4 km².
Only two of the islands in the atoll are inhabited. Most of the residents of Fakaofo live on the main island of Fale . This is where the meeting house, bank, post office and the atoll's only grocery store are located. Fale's area roughly corresponds to that of 5 soccer fields. Visitors to the atoll can only land here, as Fakaofo's landmass is surrounded by coral reefs and only Fale has a small berth to the open sea.
On the island of Fenua Fala , north of Fale, a new settlement was founded in 1960 to relieve the overpopulated island of Fale. The Fenuafala Hospital and the school are located there . A school ship, which commutes between the two islands several times a day, takes care of the transport of the students. Fenua Fala is larger in area than Fale, but the population here is lower.
history
In February 1835 the whaler General Jackson from Bristol , Rhode Island , under the command of Captain Smith, first passed Duke of York's Island (Atafu) and Duke of Clarence's Island (Nukunonu) and reached Fakaofo a few hours later. Captain Smith named the island "D'Wolf's Island", after William and James DeWolf, the owners of General Jackson , but did not go ashore there because he was chased away by about 30 canoes. The initially controversial discovery was confirmed four years later by Stephen R. Crocker (* October 1807 in Barnstable ( Massachusetts ); † November 12, 1888 there), who, now captain of the same General Jackson , landed on the island on February 14, 1839 and drew a first map of her.
On January 29, 1841, the atoll was rediscovered by William Levereth Hudson, who explored the Pacific in the Phoenix Islands as part of the United States Exploring Expedition led by Charles Wilkes with the USS Peacock and the USS Flying Fish . When the Peacock Fakaofo approached, the crew observed 18 canoes, each with four or five people, fishing outside the reef with a line and hook. Wilkes named the island "Bowditch Island" at Hudson's request, after mathematician, astronomer and physicist Nathaniel Bowditch , and wrote in his report:
“The officers landed on the southwest point of the island, with four or five canoes accompanied them. The islet was found covered with cocoa-nut trees, but there were no houses upon it. "
“The officers landed on the southwest tip of the island, where they were accompanied by four or five of the canoes. We found the islet covered with coconut trees, but there were no houses on it. "
Population and religion
According to the 2016 census, Fakaofo officially has 506 people, of whom only 399 were present at the time of the census. Of those present at the census, 62.7% supported the Congregational Church . This is a decrease compared to 2006, when more than 70% of the population belonged to this religious community. The proportion of those who professed to be part of the Roman Catholic Church rose from 22.2% to 32.6% over the same period.
Web links
- Fakaofo - Chiefly Island of Tokelau. Official website of the municipalities in Fakaofo (English and Tokelau).
- Fakaofu Island, Tokelau. Map and historical information. In: Jane's Tokelau Islands Home Page. Jane Resture (English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Foua Toloa et al .: Traditional marine conservation in Tokelau: Can it be adapted to meet today's situation? Ed .: Pacific Community . August 1, 1991, Introduction, pp. 2 (English, online [PDF; 1.4 MB ]). online ( Memento of the original from September 12, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ David Stanley: South Pacific Handbook . 7th edition. Avalon Travel Publishing, Emeryville, CA 2000, ISBN 1-56691-172-9 , Tokelau: The Tokelau Islands - Fakaofo, pp. 518 (English, online ).
- ^ Judith Huntsman, Antony Hooper: "Who really discovered Fakaofo ..."? In: The Journal of the Polynesian Society . tape 95 , no. 4 , December 1986, pp. 461-467 (English, online ).
- ^ Judith Huntsman, Antony Hooper: Tokelau - A Historical Ethnography . Auckland University Press, Auckland 1996, ISBN 1-86940-153-0 , pp. 254–259 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
- ^ Tokelau. Chronology. In: World Statesmen.org. Retrieved September 18, 2017 (English).
- ^ Charles Wilkes: Voyage round the world, embracing the principal events of the narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, in one volume. Illustrated with one hundred and seventy-eight engravings on wood . George W. Gorton, Philadelphia 1849, Chapter XXXIII: Cruise of the Peacock and Flying-Fish, pp. 538-539 (English, online ).
- ↑ Fakaofo atoll profile: 2016 Tokelau Census of Population and Dwellings. (PDF; 916 kB) Data from the 2016 census. In: tokelau.org.nz. Government of Tokelau - Tokelau National Statistics Office, March 13, 2017, p. 8 , accessed September 13, 2017 .
- ^ Profile of Tokelau: 2016 Tokelau Census of Population and Dwellings. (PDF; 2.4 MB) Religion maintains importance. In: tokelau.org.nz. Government of Tokelau - Tokelau National Statistics Office, May 2, 2017, p. 28 , accessed September 13, 2017 .
