POLYNESIA

"Alvaro de Mendana, discoverer of the archipelago, and – who knows? – possibly a distant ancestor of Marie-Claire, 'baptized' these islands as the 'Marquesas' to pay homage to the Marquessa of Mendoza, who had financed his evangelical expedition. The venture was a resounding success: the Marquesas population is made up of fervent Catholics, like the inhabitants of the Gambier Islands.

Meanwhile, Society Islanders tend to be protestants, while the atolls of Tuamotu and other scattered isles, undoubtedly too sparsely populated to be thought worthwhile by the 'big guns', have been handed over to the Mormons, the Community of Christ, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other recent, mainly American, denominations."

Extract from Zoé Zoé, Femmes du mondes, 2007, Éditions Gallimard