Emma and Paul Kolbe, 1896

Emma Eliza Coe (September 26, 1850, in Apia – 1913, in Monte Carlo) was a noteworthy businesswoman and plantation owner of mixed American/Samoan descent, also known as Emma Forsayth, Emma Farrell, and Emma Kolbe.

Biography

Emma Coe was born in what is now American Samoa to Jonas Myndersse Coe, a United States commercial representative, and Joana Talelatale, a Samoan belonging to the Malietoa dynasty. Her mother’s bloodline was related to the Moli tribe, and Emma was recognized by the Malietoa as a princess.[1] In 1869, she married James Forsayth, a Scottish seaman, and they set up a shipping and trading business in American Samoa. Emma Coe participated in island politics with her father but fell out of favor with the local population after he was deported in 1876. Around this time, her husband was said to be lost at sea, but there was no confirmation that he was dead.[1]

In 1878, she left American Samoa with an Australian lover, James Farrell, who was known as a blackbirder, captain, and trader for the Duke of York Islands in between New Britain and New Ireland. There they traded mainly copra with the local population for beads, tobacco, knives and mirrors. The area where Emma and Farrell traded was largely unsettled by Europeans, in part due to resistance from the local population.

Emma and Farrell were to assist people who were involved in the Marquis de Rays incident, when over 500 people were swindled out of their life savings to form a new colony at the southeastern tip of New Ireland. Four ships sailed from France between January 1880 and August 1881: the Chandernagore, Genil, India, and Neu-Bretagne. This practically marooned the colonists while the founder reported the progress of the colony in an extremely positive light in his newspaper, La Nouvelle France, in Paris. Emma and Farrell assisted the marooned colonists in moving to Australia. De Rays was later tried and found guilty of fraud in France.

In 1881, Emma became interested in land around the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain and differed with Farrell, who continued trading. Emma bought the land from the local chiefs and with the assistance of her Danish brother-in-law, Richard Parkinson, set up a large coconut and cocoa plantation around Kokopo, East New Britain. During this period, Emma Coe achieved great success and earned a reputation for her charismatic personality and extravagant parties, which she sometimes organized with the help of her nieces. She was the envy of the German colonists who started to move into Kokopo around 1890 and were passing trade ships. It was during this period that she became known as the “Queen of New Guinea”. Commercially, from 1880–1900, her enterprises in Kokopo surpassed most in the region and the Pacific.

In 1893, Emma married Paul Kolbe, a German colonial official and former army captain who was nearly fifteen years her junior.[2] Her commercial empire was still in full swing when she learned of increasing tensions between Germany and Britain in the colonies and Europe towards the end of 1907. Emma sold off most of her assets in c. 1910 to Heinrich Rudolph Wahlen of Hamburgische Südsee AG.[3][4]

She died in Monte Carlo in 1913, and her ashes were subsequently buried in New Guinea.[5]

Legacy

Forsyth is portrayed by Barbara Carrera in the 1988 television serial Emma: Queen of the South Seas, which was directed by John Banas for Australia's Network 10. She is featured in Christian Kracht's 2012 novel Imperium, which focuses on August Engelhardt.

References

  1. 1 2 "Queen Emma, a legend in her lifetime". Papua New Guinea Post-Courier. 10 September 1971. p. 26,31. Retrieved 29 June 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ Salesa 2014, p. 160.
  3. ↑ "Once a King on Maron: Heinrich Rudolph Wahlen expects to live to be One Hundred". Pacific Islands Monthly. 28 (11). p. 79, col. 3. 1 June 1958. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  4. ↑ Salesa 2014, p. 161.
  5. ↑ "Strange Death and Strange Burial of "Queen Emma" of N. Guinea". Pacific Islands Monthly. Vol. XXVI, no. 6. 1 January 1956. p. 80-81. Retrieved 29 June 2023 – via National Library of Australia.

Sources

  • Salesa, Damon (2014). "Emma and Phebe: Weavers of the Border" (PDF). The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 123 (2): 145–167. doi:10.15286/jps.123.2.145-167.
  • Parkinson, Richard (2000). White, J. Peter; Dennison, John (eds.). Thirty years in the South Seas : land and people, customs and traditions in the Bismarck Archipelago and on the German Solomon Islands. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-2245-5.
  • Robson, Robert William (1971). Queen Emma: The Samoan-American girl who founded an empire in 19th century New Guinea (4th ed.). Sydney: Pacific Publications. ISBN 0-858-07002-2.
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