Momo' was the 10th Tui Tonga, a dynasty of mighty kings in Tonga, and lived somewhere in the 11th, maybe 12th century CE. He was named after one of the original gods of Tonga, a trio known as Kohai, Koau, mo Momo. It was under his reign that the Tui Tonga maritime empire started to blossom. King Momo had his court in Heketā, near the village of Niutōua', so named because a red and a white palm grew from the same hole. His people were known as the Haa-mene-uli ', because in order to honour him they had to keep their head lower than his, and thus shuffled around on their bottoms instead of their feet. One day the kingfellin love with a beautiful girl and sent his envoy, Lehauli, to her father, Loau, the Tui-Haamea ' with the request to beg him for a yam for his plantation. Loau understood the real meaning of the request and answered that he was unable to help as one yam was still immature and the other had already sprouted. He meant to say that his youngest daughter was still too young while his older daughter, named Nua, had already brought forth a child and was therefore an old woman.. Her husband was Ngongokilitoto from Malapo, chief of the Haangongo tribe. Momo had to think for a moment, but next day he sent his envoy back to Loau with the famous words: Fena kā ko Nua '. And so Loau had to go to Malapo to ask Ngongokilitoto to give up his wife. It was hard as the two really loved each other, but they knew who was boss. At last Nua became Momo's wife. Their son would be the greatest Tui Tonga of that period, Tuitātui. And his elder stepbrother, Fasiapule, would later become a kind of governor. It is not sure where Haamea was located. Some claim the centre of Tongatapu, near Matangiake, in which case Loau was only a minor prince. It is also possible that the name is a variant of Haamoa ', in which case Loau was a mighty king too. Then this marriage may be a mythical way to tell about an alliance between Tonga and Samoa, and the start of the empire. An alliance which would only last one generation.
