APIA, Samoa, Oct 24, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - King Charles III took part in a traditional kava-drinking ceremony before a line of bare-chested and heavily tattooed Samoans Thursday, as he readied to be made a "high chief" of this Pacific island paradise.

The British monarch is on an 11-day tour of his Australian and Samoan realms -- the first major foreign trip since his cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

Wearing a cream safari-style suit, the 75-year-old king sat on a stage at the head of a carved timber longhouse, where he was presented with a polished half-coconut filled with the mildly narcotic brew.

The peppery, slightly intoxicating root drink is a key part of Pacific culture and is known locally as "ava".

The ceremony began with a symbolic debate among "talking chiefs" over who would prepare the drink.

The kava roots were paraded around the marquee, and finally prepared by the chief's daughter and filtered through a sieve made of the dried bark of a fau tree.

Once ready, a Samoan man screamed as he decanted the drink, which was finally presented to the king.

Charles uttered the words: "May God Bless this ava" before lifting it to his lips. The ceremony concluded with claps.

Charles' wife, Queen Camilla sat beside him, fanning herself in the stiffling tropical humidity.

- High Chief -

Many Samoans are excited to host the king -- his first-ever visit to the Pacific Island nation that was once a British colony.

Later Thursday, the royal couple will visit the village of Moata'a, where Charles will be made "Tui Taumeasina" or high chief.

The title represents the area where the king will visit and, according to local legend, is where the coconut originated.

"Everyone has taken to our heart and is looking forward to welcoming the king," said Lenatai Victor Tamapua, a local chief who will bestow the title on Charles.
"We feel honoured that he has chosen to be welcomed here in our village. So as a gift, we would like to bestow him a title."

Tamapua added he would raise the issue of climate change with the king and queen and show them the local mangroves.

"The high tides is just chewing away on our reef and where the mangroves are," he told AFP, adding that food sources and communities were being washed away or inundated.

"Our community relies on the mangrove area for mud crab and fishes, but since, the tide has risen over the past 20 years by about two or three metres (up to 118 inches)."

The king is also in Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which is taking place in Apia.

- Colonialism and Climate -

The legacy of empire looms large.

Commonwealth leaders will select a new secretary-general nominated from an African country -- in line with regional rotations of the position.

All three likely candidates have called publicly for reparations for slavery and colonialism.

One of the three, Joshua Setipa from Lesotho, told AFP that the resolution could include non-traditional forms of payment: such as climate financing.

"We can find a solution that will begin to address some injustices of the past and put them in the context happening around us today," he said.

Another issue that features heavily on the agenda is climate change, with world leaders to deliberate on an Ocean Declaration to safeguard a healthy and resilient ocean.

Pacific island nations -- once seen as the embodiment of palm-fringed paradise, are now among the most climate-threatened areas of the planet.