This is a political history of an island in the southern Cook islands, from its social foundation until the advent of Christianity in the 1820s, as described by the 19th-century tribal historian Mamae.

War and Succession in Mangala is a political history of an island in the southern Cook islands, from its social foundations until the advent of Christianity in the 1820s, as described by the nineteenth-century tribal historian Mamae. Mamae's original manuscripts are reproduced, along with translations, and a commentary discussing events surrounding chiefly battles for supreme power.