1. Iroijlaplap Amata Kabua was the first President of the Marshall Islands from 1979 until his death in 1996.
16 Facts About Amata Kabua
1. 2.
Amata Kabua is the son of high chiefess Tarjikit of the Eastern and rumoured to be a Japanese administrator by his political opponents.
3.
Amata's father Chief Lejolan Kabua was the son of Paramount Chief Iroij Bwio Jeimata Kabua of Northern Ralik Chain.
4.
Jeimata Amata Kabua was the son of King Amata Kabua the Great with Leroij Bwio LiWodin.
5.
Amata Kabua is known as King John, who, on behalf of his father Iroij Bwio Jiba, led diplomatic relations between Germany and the Marshall Islands in 1885 through the Treaty of Friendship.
6.
Amata Kabua's mother, Leroij Dorothy Tarjikit, was a paramount chieftain of Majuro with royal connections to the Rimwejoor and Raano clans who ruled the entire Ratak chain but later lost Mejit.
7.
Jeimata's parents Leroij Pwieo Worin and Iroij Bwio Amata Kabua were first cousins as were Tarjikit's parents Laelan and Maria.
8.
Amata Kabua began his career as a school teacher then as a Superintendent to Schools along with Chief Clerk for the House of Iroij in the 1950s.
9.
Amata Kabua was elected to the Council of Micronesia as a Representative and later as Senator to the Congress of Micronesia in 1963 where he served one term as president for the Congress of Micronesia.
10.
Amata Kabua was the first president of the Marshall Islands in 1979 when its first constitution was implemented.
11.
Amata Kabua later became the first president of the Marshall Islands when the nation received full independence in free association with the United States through the compact.
12.
Amata Kabua had been a principal participant in the negotiations to gain independence for the Marshall Islands and is regarded as the founding father of the modern nation by Marshallese.
13.
Amata Kabua wrote the words for the national anthem, "Forever Marshall Islands".
14.
Amata Kabua was the son of a paramount chief of the Ralik Chain and a paramount chieftain of the Ratak Chain.
15.
Amata Kabua died in office after a long illness, on December 19,1996, in Hawaii.
16.
Amata Kabua chose to be buried in his family property in Long Island so his wife Emlain Kabua who is a commoner of the Ijidrik clan can be buried next to him because as a commoner, she will never be allowed to be buried in the royal cemetery in Laura, but her great-grandmother Limurelok was buried in Bouj, Ailinglaplap in the Kabua cemetery.