Spirit of Aloha | Articles | Books | January/February 2003

Books
By Bob Dye

Loss of a Nation

Jonathan Osorio explores the tumultuous period in Hawai'i history when Western law brought about the loss of political power for Native Hawaiians

Many people remember Jon Osorio as a popular Hawaiian entertainer. Fewer know him as a Hawaiian scholar. But that will change as more and more folks read and discuss his major historical investigation of the role of Western law in Native Hawaiians' loss of political control of their nation.

Titled Dismembering Lahui: A History of the Hawaiian Nation to 1887, the book covers the period from the Constitution of 1840, which provided the basis for representational government, to the Bayonet Constitution of 1887, which stripped King Kalakaua of power.

Although the volume is a solid academic history, Osorio prefers to call it a mo'olelo, a story. He writes: "This is a new mo'olelo, one that has never been told in quite this way before. It is a story of how colonialism worked in Hawai'i not through the naked seizure of lands and governments but through a slow insinuating invasion of people, ideas and institutions ... But ultimately, this is a story of violence, in which that colonialism literally and figuratively dismembered the lahui (the people) from their traditions, their lands, and ultimately their government."

Osorio rescues from obscurity those Native Hawaiian legislators who tried to cope with the kaleidoscopic economic, social and political changes that occurred. No one has better described the political complexities of the period preceding the fall of Kalakaua, brought about by the Hawaiian League, a secret organization of white businessmen, attorneys and physicians, and artisans and laborers.

The author is motivated by patriotic nationalism, but not possessed by it. His examination of the period does not avoid the old, sullen grudges and delusive lies, but deals with them. There is accusation aplenty and guilt galore, so discussion of the book's contents will be lively. It is a compelling work that deserves a careful reading.

The book is well written, well documented and nicely illustrated. Osorio, who teaches history at the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai'i, has provided those aids helpful to serious scholars and history buffs: tables, notes, a glossary, bibliography and index.

Dismembering Lahui: A History of the Hawaiian Nation to 1887 by Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwo'ole Osorio. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2002. $55 cloth, $21.95 paper.

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