UCLA Football’s Atonio Mafi Praying, Spreading the Word After Disaster in Tonga

In a normal year, Atonio Mafi would have been in Westwood, starting up his winter quarter courses alongside his teammates.

Instead, with UCLA running classes remotely for the first few weeks of January due to a COVID-19 surge, Mafi was still back at home in San Mateo, California, living with his parents. Mafi had another home, though, and it was over 5,000 miles away from the Bay Area.

It had been nearly six years since the Bruins' offensive lineman had been to Tonga, but with his entire family coming from the Pacific island nation, Mafi considers the Kingdom as another key part of his identity. His long-distance relationship with the Motherland didn't cause those feelings and that pride to waver in the slightest, either.

There was unease in the Mafi household when Hunga Tonga erupted in December, but the volcano was declared dormant on Jan. 11 and it seemed the archipelago had dodged a bullet.

Four days later, the volcano erupted again, and Mafi said it was both shocking and solemn when the news came in.

"We were just sitting in the living room and the reports just started flooding in," Mafi said. "Me and my dad just lit a candle and we just said a prayer, then we just kind of sat there."

Mafi said he was glad to be with his parents at the time, but in terms of the rest of his family back in Tonga – his grandmama, aunts, uncles and cousins – it was difficult to imagine what they were going through. In addition to the damage and loss of life the eruption and ensuing tsunami caused, lines of communication were knocked out for days on end, and Mafi didn't know where his family was and what kind of shape they were in.

"That was probably the hardest part," Mafi said. "Just waiting to see if they were ok or not."

When aid and reporters finally arrived from New Zealand, Mafi was able to connect with his family and confirm that everyone had made it inland safely before the tsunami hit.

While sifting through the news and social media with his parents, Mafi realized that his aunt's house was featured in one of the countless videos of the destruction. It was the same house he lived in when he spent his sophomore year of high school in Tonga, living 10 feet or so from the ocean.

The structure was still standing, but everything inside had been destroyed and the trees, fences and windows had all been washed away completely.

"It was pretty gnarly to see it like that," Mafi said. "We had to pause the video cause we were like, 'That's our house right there.' It was pretty rough to experience."

In another life, Mafi might have been in Tonga alongside the rest of his extended family during the natural disaster.

Mafi had initially planned to move back to Tonga to start his rugby career after graduating from Junipero Serra High School in 2018. His football recruitment picked up right as he returned from Tonga for his junior year, though, and after accepting a scholarship offer to suit up for UCLA football, he hasn't been back since.

So instead of helping his family through the tough time in person, he had to watch from afar.

"It kind of sucked, knowing we couldn't really do anything, especially with COVID and travel restrictions," Mafi said. "It's not like we could just fly over there to see our family or anything like that."

Mafi wasn't the only Bruin in that situation, either.

Offensive lineman Siale Taupaki, defensive lineman Jay Toia and defensive lineman Tyler Manoa are all Tongan too, so when Mafi did eventually come back to Westwood, he had a support network built right into his college life as well. Mafi is one of the most experienced veterans on the Bruins' roster – initially playing on the defensive line in 2018 and 2019 before making the move to offensive line in 2020 – and he is one of two players on the roster who has appeared in all 43 of UCLA's games since coach Chip Kelly arrived four years ago.

Mafi has therefore built deep connections with his Polynesian teammates on both side of the ball, and as a group, they decided to come together to support their families back home by spreading the word about food, bottled water and container drives.

"We all said a quick prayer together," Mafi said. "Said a prayer for our island home, and then posted everything on social media."

The team as a whole rallied around Mafi and his fellow Tongans, with coaches and players making sure they were doing alright with so much going on.

"All the boys, they sent me texts, and it wasn't just limited to the Polys on the team either," Mafi said. "The team really did reach out to us and check on us, seeing if we were OK or needed anything."

Tonga has faced a handful of powerful natural disasters in the past, most notably Cyclone Isaac in 1982, an earthquake and tsunami in 2009 and Cyclone Gita as recently as 2018. After each blow, Tonga has rebuilt, but there is another disaster that could prove more difficult to fend off – climate change.

The sea level is rising 6 millimeters per year in Tonga, nearly twice the average global rate, according to the United Nations' Global Sea Level Observing System. So as time goes on, storms and tsunamis won't need to be as severe to cause such widespread destruction, and the more extreme events will be even more dangerous.

Mafi said the way the many different Pacific island communities have bonded together during the most recent disaster is nothing new, and that their deep connection is something the people living there will need to rely on as they continue to face natural disasters in the future.

"Climate change is real, and it's affecting a lot of countries, especially our small island nations," Mafi said. "Polynesians as a whole – Tongans, Samoans – we're all just connected in our community ... so definitely this climate change and rising sea levels, it's all affecting all our people." 

Tonga has already started to rebuild homes and landmarks in the weeks since the eruption and tsunami first hit, but now the island nation is facing a record COVID-19 outbreak with resources drained and so many people displaced.

Mafi said all is well in his family, though, and that good health and safety is all he could have asked for.

"My family, for the most part, is safe, and that's all that matters – a house can be rebuilt," Mafi said. "There wasn't any loss of life, so we're blessed and thankful for that, and now it's just a matter of starting to rebuild and getting life back to normal for them."