Where does Ukulele come from?
The ukulele comes from Honolulu, Hawaii. Woodworkers from Madeira built it there in the years after 1879, turning a small guitar-like instrument from their Portuguese home island into a new instrument with a Hawaiian name.
A ship from Madeira
On 23 August 1879 the SS Ravenscrag reached Honolulu from Funchal with 419 passengers, part of a wave of Madeirans who came to work on Hawaii's sugar plantations. Among them were three cabinet makers, Manuel Nunes, Augusto Dias and José do Espírito Santo, who are generally credited as the first ukulele makers. Two weeks later the Hawaiian Gazette reported that the newcomers were 'delighting the people with nightly street concerts'.
The king's favourite
In Hawaii the instrument got its name: ʻukulele roughly means 'jumping flea', traditionally said to describe the lively way it was played. King Kalākaua, a patron of the arts, brought it into performances at royal gatherings; the Hawaii State Archives call his love of it perhaps the most important factor in making it part of Hawaiian music. Its traditional wood became koa, an acacia that grows only in Hawaii.
Why people say Portugal
The guess is half right. The ukulele's ancestors are Portuguese: it was developed from small guitar-like instruments, Madeira's machete, the cavaquinho and the rajão. But the ukulele itself, its name and its fame were made in Hawaii. Mainland Americans, too, took it up as a Hawaiian instrument: it caught on there after the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, where the Hawaiian Pavilion featured ukulele players.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org › Ukulele ↗ · ags.hawaii.gov ↗ · ukulele.org ↗ · en.wikipedia.org › Portuguese immigration to Hawaii ↗
.jpg/330px-Ballet_Slippers_(Unsplash).jpg)
.jpg/330px-Duckbill_Platypus_(35659024604).jpg)
