The Complicated History Of the Ukulele

 Today, August 23, is recognized as the day that the Portugeuse ship, the SS Ravenscrag, arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii with woodworkers and cabinet makeres Manuel Nunes, Augusto Dias, and Espirito Santo. There are many versions of the story out there, but they all go something like this: these wood workers from Portugal brought with them some of the traditional Portugeuse stringed instruments like the machete, cavaquinho, and timple, and they delighted the Native Hawaiians with their nightly street concerts. Somewhere along the line, these cabinet makers removed a string and kept the re-entrant tuning style, and TA-DA!, the ukulele was born.

Of course, it wasn't called the ukulele, not at first. Again, the original story may have been lost to time, but the legend goes that this new sweet little instrument was warmly embraced by King "David" Kalakaua, and was soon to be found at every Hawaiian royal event including dinners and art performances. It was reportedly named after Englishman Edward William Purvis, one of the King's officers, for his small stature and jumpy nature. 

At any rate, it took a few years for the ukulele to catch on with the rest of the world, first in Japan, and then making its way over to the U.S. where for decades, it was one of the most popular instruments among amateur (and some professional) musicians. 

But why were there Portugeuse immigrating to Hawaii in the first place? 

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The Hawaiian islands were settled by Polynesians as far back as 124 AD, according to some archeaologists, anthropoligists, and geologists. For centuries, Hawaiian culture was isolated from the rest of the world as plagues and kingdoms rose and fell throughout Europe, and the European colonizers explored the world off the edge of their maps. 

Ah, the colonizers. 

British explorer and colonizer James Cook first arrived in the Hawaiian islands in 1778. Within five years, the British staged a coup and installed a king, Kamehamea I, to "unify" the islands under a common leader. Less than 20 years later, the Kingdom of Hawaii was created. 

According to some sources, Cook was greeted as a "god" when he first arrived in the Hawaiian islands, but things quickly changed direction. When he returned in 1779, the Hawaiians were relieved to see him go - no big surprise there. However, after just four days, Cook and his men were forced to return in order to make some repairs of their ship's mast. Apparently, a boat was stolen off the ship while the repairs were being made, and Cook being Cook decided to try and take the King hostage. 

Well, you can imagine that didn't go over so well with the Hawaiians, and in an "altercation", they stabbed and killed Cook. 

This new Kingdom was strategically important due to its location along trade routes that were primarily dominated by the Spanish at the time. And of course, the British saw dollar signs at the thought of commercial agriculture on the island, and they quickly started clearing land for sugar plantations. 

As it always happened with colonization in the 18th and 19th centuries, economics also brought disease and death and suffering to the indigenous people of the land being colonized, and of course, this was bad for the economy. 

So what was the solution? Immigration!

The King of Hawaii in the mid 1800s, King Kalakaua, took a trip around the world to encourage world leaders to send people to the Kingdom of Hawaii to work in the sugar plantations. Several countries took him up on his offer, including the King of Portugal. 

And that's how the Portuguese immigrants, and the ukulele, came to be in Hawaii.

During the the late 1800s while the United States was in the process of conquering and annexing the Kingdom of Hawaii, the ukulele played an instrumental role in the protests of Native Hawaiians against the U.S. imperialists. (See what I did there?)

Protestors wrote beautiful songs about their love for Hawaii in support of their queen, Queen Lili'uokalani. Sadly, the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in January of 1893 in a coup led by the son of a missionary (how very Christian of them). A few years later, the territory of Hawaii was annexed by the United States.

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In researching all of this, it occurred to me that there's a lot to unpack here when it comes to the history of the ukulele as we know it. We associate the ukulele so closely with Hawaii, and to be fair, the ukulele did encourage a renaissance of traditional Hawaiian music. It did, in many ways, educate a great number of people about the history and beautiful culture of Hawaii. 

For an instrument that some people refer to as "the happiest instrument in the world", it certainly did come from a complicated history.