Samoa

Samoa

Samoa

Samoa, country in the central South Pacific Ocean, among the westernmost of the island countries of Polynesia.

Map of Samoa

Samoa limits

According to legend, Samoa is known as the “Cradle of Polynesia” because Savai‘i island is said to be Hawaiki, the Polynesian homeland. Samoan culture is undoubtedly central to Polynesian life, and its styles of music, dance, and visual art have gained renown throughout the Pacific islands and the world. The country’s international image is that of a tropical paradise inhabited by tourist-friendly flower-wreathed peoples.

Yet this belies the economic, social, and political challenges of this diverse and evolving Pacific microstate. Samoa gained its independence from New Zealand in 1962 after more than a century of foreign influence and domination, but it remains a member of the Commonwealth. The country was known as Western Samoa until 1997. Its capital and main commercial centre is Apia, on the island of Upolu.

Land

Samoa lies approximately 80 miles (130 km) west of American Samoa, 1,800 miles (2,900 km) northeast of New Zealand, and 2,600 miles (4,200 km) southwest of Hawaii. Samoa, which shares the Samoan archipelago with American Samoa, consists of nine islands west of longitude 171° W—Upolu, Savai‘i, Manono, and Apolima, all of which are inhabited, and the uninhabited islands of Fanuatapu, Namu‘a, Nu‘utele, Nu‘ulua, and Nu‘usafee. (The six Samoan islands east of the meridian are part of American Samoa.) The total land area is smaller than the U.S. state of Rhode Island but about 2.5 times larger than Hong Kong.


Samoa maps

Relief and drainage

Savai‘i, the largest island, covers 659 square miles (1,707 square km) and rises to a maximum elevation of 6,095 feet (1,858 metres) at Mount Silisili, a volcano at the island’s approximate centre. Mounts Māfane, Mata‘aga, and Maugaloa are also imposing peaks. Upolu, the other large island, lies about 10 miles (16 km) to the east across the Apolima Strait. Upolu is more elongated and uneven in shape than Savai‘i and has lower average elevations. It occupies an area of 432 square miles (1,119 square km), including five offshore islets, and rises to 3,608 feet (1,100 metres) at Mount Fito. Manono and Apolima are smaller islands lying in the strait between the two main islands.



Manono Island, Samoa A tour of Manono Island, Samoa

All the country’s rivers are shallow, are limited in extent, and radiate directly from the central highlands to the coast. The islands are rocky, formed by volcanic activity that progressed from east to west within the past seven million years. They are ringed by coral reefs and shallow lagoons except where the shorelines are marked by cliffs formed by lava flows. Mount Matavanu on Savai‘i last erupted intermittently during 1905–11. Samoa’s volcanic soils support lush vegetation but are easily eroded by runoff.


Savai‘i, Samoa: lava field A tour of the lava fields on the island of Savai‘i, Samoa

Climate

The climate is tropical and humid. Precipitation varies from more than 100 inches (2,540 mm) on the northern and western coasts to 300 inches (7,620 mm) inland. Temperatures vary little, averaging 80 °F (27 °C) and ranging between 73 and 86 °F (23 and 30 °C) throughout the year. The southeast trade winds prevail, varying occasionally to northerlies during the wet season (November or December to April), when severe storms are liable to occur. Typhoons occasionally cause widespread damage.

Plant and animal life

Samoa’s lush vegetation includes inland rainforests and cloud forests. Large sections of the coast have been covered with taroplantations and coconut groves. The islands support limited animal life, although more than 50 species of birds are found there, at least 16 of them indigenous, including rare tooth-billed pigeons. The only native mammals are flying foxes, which are endangered, and other species of smaller bats. Rats, wild cattle, and pigs have been introduced. Among the smaller animals found in Samoa are several species of lizards, two snakes of the boa family, centipedes and millipedes, scorpions, spiders, and a wide variety of insects.

O Le Pupu Pue National Park (1978), Samoa’s first national park, occupies some 11 square miles (28 square km) on south-central Upolu. Conservation efforts have been lax in many Samoan communities. Soil erosion, resulting from farming steep slopes and clear-cutting forests, has produced runoff that has damaged many of Samoa’s lagoons and coral reefs. Industrial and residential pollution has become a concern in and around Apia. Wildfires in 1998, which were started by farmers clearing land for cultivation, destroyed nearly one-fourth of the forests on Savai‘i.

People

Ethnic groups

Samoans are mainly of Polynesian heritage, and about nine-tenths of the population are ethnic Samoans. Euronesians (people of mixed European and Polynesian ancestry) account for most of the rest of the population, and a tiny fraction are of wholly European heritage.


Samoa: Ethnic composition

Languages

Samoan is the country’s official language; legislative activity is conducted in both Samoan and English as required by the constitution. Samoan is believed to be among the oldest of the Polynesian tongues and is closely related to the Maori, Tahitian, Hawaiian, and Tongan languages. A large number of Samoan words reflect maritime traditions, including names for ocean currents, winds, landforms, stars, and directions. Some verb forms indicate the relative positions of objects, including directions of movement toward or away from the speaker. English is widely spoken as a second language.

Religion

Samoans traditionally had a pantheistic religion, where family elders performed most rituals; they appear not to have had a dominant priestly class. They readily adopted Christian teachings following European contact, and even the more remote villages built churches, often of grand proportions. The Congregational Christian Church of Samoa (formerly the London Missionary Society) is the dominant religion, with about one-third of the population. Approximately one-fifth of Samoans are Roman Catholics, and Mormons and Methodists each constitute about one-sixth of the population. Pentecostals, Assemblies of God, and other Christian groups have more-limited memberships.

Samoa: Religious affiliation

Samoa: Sunday church service A Sunday service at a Christian church in Samoa

Settlement patterns

Most Samoans have lived in coastal villages since the region was first settled, and about four-fifths of the population is still rural. Apia, on the northern coast of Upolu, is the country’s only town as well as the main port and centre for services and trade; it contains approximately one-fifth of Samoa’s population.


Samoa: Urban-rural

Demographic trends

The birth rate in Samoa has been high since the 1950s, when the population reached about 80,000. Although that number had doubled by the mid-1990s, the population’s rate of increase remained markedly lower than the world average because tens of thousands of Samoans had emigrated to New Zealand, the United States, Australia, and elsewhere. Life expectancy at birth is 67 years for males and 72 for females. About one-third of Samoans are less than 15 years old.


Samoa: Age breakdown

Economy

Close kinship ties within the villages traditionally bound Samoans into a collectivist society, but a cash economy developed following European contact, mainly based on agricultural exports. Tourism, services, and light manufacturing became increasingly important after 1950. Other major sources of capital now include remittances from Samoans living abroad (mainly in the United States and New Zealand), which account for as much as one-sixth of household income, and grants from the United States, the United Nations, the Commonwealth, and other foreign entities.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing

Agriculture accounts for two-fifths of Samoa’s gross domestic product (GDP) and nearly two-thirds of the workforce; however, production does not meet local demand, and large quantities of food are imported. Major crops include coconuts, taro, pineapples, mangoes, and other fruits. Typhoons caused widespread damage in the 1990s to several crops, including taro, which was also devastated by taro leaf blight. Cattle, pigs, and poultry are raised for local consumption. Forestry has made increasing contributions to the economy, partly because of the government’s replanting programs. The Samoan fishing industry remains small, based primarily on catches made from outrigger canoes.

Resources and power

Samoa has few natural resources apart from its agricultural lands, surrounding waters, and pleasant scenery and climate; nearly half of the land area is covered by forests. Hydroelectric power provides most of the country’s energy needs; petroleum-fired thermal generators account for much of the remainder.

Manufacturing

Samoa’s diversified light manufactures include beer, cigarettes, coconut products (mainly creams and oils), corned beef, soap, paint, soft drinks and juices, and handicrafts. Most are produced for local markets. A Japanese-owned electric assembly plant, which opened in the 1990s, is Samoa’s leading employer after the national government.

Finance

The currency of Samoa is the tala, which consists of 100 sene (“cents”). The money supply is controlled and regulated by the Central Bank of Samoa, which was established in 1984. Samoa also has several commercial banks. Banking and finance account for only a tiny fraction of employment, although numerous companies have registered in Samoa since offshore banking services were initiated in 1988.

Trade

Samoa has a persistently negative balance of trade. Major trading partners include New Zealand, China, Australia, the United States, and Japan. Food, industrial supplies, machinery, consumer goods, and petroleum products are the main imports. Coconut products, copra, cacao, and beer account for a majority of exports.

Samoa: Major import sources

Samoa: Major export destinations

Services

Government (including education) and tourism are the foundations of Samoa’s service sector. Tourism has been an increasing source of foreign exchange, with a steady supply of visitors from American Samoa and growing numbers from New Zealand, Australia, the United States, and Europe. Popular tourist sites, in addition to Samoa’s white-sand beaches, include Mulinu‘u, where the parliament and traditional meeting and burial grounds are located; Fuipisia Falls, which descends some 180 feet (55 metres); and Vailima, where the head of state now resides in the last home of the 19th-century Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson.

Labour and taxation

Nearly two-thirds of Samoans are farmers or agricultural workers. About one-fifth of the population works in government, tourist, or other service sectors, and the central government is Samoa’s single largest employer. There are several trade unions in Samoa, though only a small percentage of the country’s workforce are members. The majority of the country’s workforce are men, but women are expected to play an increasing role. In 1991 the Ministry of Women’s Affairs was established to encourage and promote women’s employment.

More than half of the government’s revenue comes from taxes, and nearly one-third is from grants. In 1994 a value-added taxon goods and services was introduced amid great protest.

Transportation and telecommunications

International flights connect the islands with American Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan. Regular shipping services link with ports abroad, including those in Hawaii and California to the northeast and Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia to the southwest. About two-fifths of Samoan roadways are paved, including many coastal highways and the major streets of Apia. There are no railways.

Samoa has several thousand telephones in use, as well as international phone connections via undersea cable and satellite. The number of cellular phones in use has increased rapidly since the mid-1990s.

Government and society

Constitutional framework

In 1962 Samoa promulgated its constitution as the first independent microstate in the Pacific region, and in 1970 it joined the Commonwealth. Samoa has a parliamentary government that blends Samoan and New Zealander traditions. The constitution originally provided for a constitutional monarchy under two coheads of state, with the provision that when one died (as happened in 1963), the other would continue as sole monarch and head of state for life, after which future heads of state would be elected by the Legislative Assembly(Fono Aoao Faitulafono) to five-year terms. The prime ministeris elected by the assembly and appoints a cabinet from among its members. The Legislative Assembly has 49 members. Two are directly elected by the country’s non-Samoan and mixed ethnic groups. The remaining 47 are directly elected from among candidates who are Samoan matai (chiefs).

Local government

Samoan local government is the responsibility of more than 360 villages in 11 administrative districts, five of which are based on Upolu—A‘ana, Aiga-i-le-Tai (with Manono and Apolima islands), Atua, Tuamasaga, and Va‘a-o-Fonoti—and six on Savali—Fa‘asaleleaga, Gaga‘emauga, Gaga‘ifomauga, Palauli, Satupa‘itea, and Vaisigano. Each of Samoa’s several thousand aiga (extended families) designates at least one matai to lead and represent it; the matai, in turn, form village councils to administer local affairs.

Justice and security

The justice system is headed by a Supreme Court, whose chief justice is appointed by the head of state on the advice of the prime minister. Supreme Court judges also preside over the Court of Appeal. Among the lower courts are the Magistrate’s Court, which hears most criminal cases, and the Lands and Titles Court, which handles civil matters.

Samoa has a police force but no standing military. New Zealand is bound by treaty to provide military assistance upon request.

Political process

Universal suffrage for Samoans age 21 years and older was instituted in 1990. Political parties first appeared in Samoa in the late 1970s, and by the turn of the 21st century there were more than five. The major parties are the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) and the Samoan National Development Party (SNDP). Women participate in government but hold few elected offices.

Health and welfare

Immunization programs since the late 20th century have greatly reduced the incidence of disease, particularly among children; however, there are few doctors, and the quality of hospital care is limited. Obesity and poorly balanced diets are leading health concerns. The leading causes of death are congestive heart failure, cancers, cerebrovascular diseases, accidents, pneumonia, and septicemia. Water shortages are common because of the islands’ porous soils and limited watersheds; wells and cisterns are the only water source for much of the rural population.

Education

Nearly all Samoans are literate. Education is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 14; however, only a small fraction of the population has completed secondary school. Selected pupils receive higher education at government- or mission-run secondary, vocational, or teacher-training institutions. The University of the South Pacific has its School of Agriculture at Alafua, near Apia. Some students attend the National University of Samoa (1984) and Avele College (1924), but most enroll at overseas institutions such as Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, the University of Hawaii, and Brigham YoungUniversity–Hawaii.

Cultural life

Although some Samoan values and customs have changed markedly since European contact, particularly in Apia, Samoans have strived to preserve the fa‘a Samoa (“Samoan way of life”); thus, many traditions and outward features of rural life have remained virtually unchanged.

Daily life and social customs

Most Samoan villages have a church and a meetinghouse, which doubles as a cultural centre. Clustered around the village green are several fale—traditional oval-shaped houses with open sides and thatched or corrugated tin roofs supported by wooden pillars. Rolled palm-leaf mats can be let down at the sides of each house to offer protection from the elements. Many fale have been replaced by rectangular houses of timber or concrete blocks with walls and windows. Kitchens are often located in separate cookhouses.


Samoa: fale A visit to a fale (traditional open-sided house) on the island of Savai‘i, Samoa

Typical foods, grown or caught locally, include taro, yams, breadfruit, fish, and shellfish. Chicken and pork dishes are also eaten. Imported foodstuffs have become increasingly common, including Asian rice, frozen meats, and packaged foods and beverages from other parts of the world. Kava, a traditional nonalcoholic, euphoria-producing drink, is prepared from a tropical pepper plant and consumed at social events, mainly by matai, who customarily pour a small amount on the ground before and after drinking. Related customs include sitting cross-legged in a home before addressing one’s host and refraining from eating while standing indoors or walking outdoors.

The arts

Music, dance, tattooing, and oral literature are significant art forms in Samoa. Males at age 12 or 13 visit a local tufuga (tattoo artist) for tattooing from waist to knee, a prolonged and often painful process that is considered a rite of passage. Christian missionaries in the 19th century, believing that tattooing was contrary to biblical teachings, eliminated the practice from many Polynesian islands, but Samoans maintained the tradition and helped revive it among Tahitians and other groups in the late 20th century. Few early works of siapo (bark cloth) art, basketry, and featherwork have survived, and handicrafts are now produced only in limited numbers.



Samoa: tattoo An overview of traditional Samoan tattooing

Music has always been central to Samoan life. Vocal music is predominant, both in religious services and social gatherings, and is accompanied by rhythmic percussion and wind instruments. Dances often presented for tourists include sāsā (a sitting dance performed mainly through arm movements) and fa‘ataupati (in which men rhythmically slap their limbs and torsos). Samoans often entertain one another at weddings and other family gatherings with ula, in which two groups alternate between singing and dancing. The pese is another popular song style.

Oral literature in Samoa dates from earliest settlement. Genealogies, legends, chants, and spells have all been passed down and elaborated through the generations, and matai are still expected to deliver rhythmic and poetical orations at council meetings and other major events. Many of these traditions have been translated into written form since the 19th century. International acclaim has been garnered by some Samoan writers, including Albert Wendt, who has explored aspects of the fa‘a Samoa—including power struggles, social restrictions, and family relations—in works such as Pouliuli(1977) and The Birth and Death of the Miracle Man and Other Stories (1999).

Cultural institutions

Samoa has few major cultural institutions apart from the School of Agriculture, Avele College, and the National University of Samoa. The Robert Louis Stevenson Museum (1990) and the Nelson Memorial Public Library (1959) are located in Apia.


Apia, Samoa: Robert Louis Stevenson Museum A tour of the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum in Apia, Samoa

Sports and recreation

The main holidays include Independence Day (usually celebrated for three days: June 1–3), Christmas, and New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Although Samoan music and dance styles remain popular, radio stations often broadcast imported Hawaiian and other Polynesian music, as well as rock. American and Chinese films, the latter with English subtitles, are commonly viewed.

Rugby football is a popular sport among Samoans, who have long played for New Zealand and Samoan national teams. Australian Rules football is also increasingly popular. Entire communities sometimes play kirikiti, which is similar to cricket but involves teams of unrestricted size; games are social as well as sporting events, with spirited cheering and singing by spectators and unlimited food and drinks provided by the host village. Samoans and other Polynesians have used outrigger canoes since establishing their first island settlements. Most of the canoes are confined to lagoons, but many are also paddled in ocean races. Footracing, cockfighting, tiak (darts), and spear throwing are also traditional Samoan sports. Select groups participate in tennis, golf, bowling, and other competitions. Samoa has competed in the Olympic Games since 1984.

Media and publishing

The country’s newspapers include The Samoa Observer, the Samoa News, Savali, and the Samoa Weekly; each has a limited circulation—from a few hundred to a few thousand copies. Samoa has three radio stations. Its first full-time television broadcaster began operating in 1993, offering locally produced programs and satellite transmissions from overseas. (For further discussion of Samoan cultural life, see Oceanic arts and Polynesian culture.)

History

The following discussion focuses on Samoa since European contact. For additional treatment in a regional context, see Pacific Islands, history of.

Early period

Polynesians traveling in outrigger canoes arrived in the Samoan archipelago about 1000 bc, as indicated by Lapita pottery shards found in Mulifanua Lagoon on Upolu. Characteristics of the Samoan language indicate that the settlers probably came from Tonga. Local pottery manufacturing ceased by about ad 200, by which time Samoa had become central to much of the settlement of eastern Polynesia. Contact between Samoans, Tongans, and Fijians continued and was recorded in hundreds of legends and genealogies that were passed down through oral literature. Like other Polynesian peoples, Samoans were master navigators, boatbuilders, and fishers; every aspect of their society was related in some way to maritime life. Basic agriculture was also developed, including the cultivation of yams, taro, breadfruit, bananas, sugarcane, and coconuts. Most Samoans lived in villages ruled by councils of matai (chiefs), and numerous fortified villages of 30 or more houses grew up along the coast. Extended blood ties traditionally linked family groups and villages, with the major families striving for supremacy and regularly plunging the islands into warfare.

European influence

European navigators, who began to visit Samoa in 1722, were at first welcomed for the technology and goods that they brought. John Williams, a member of the London Missionary Society, arrived to establish a Christian mission in 1830. He made a convert of Malietoa Vainu’upo, who had just conquered all of Samoa, and the rest of the population soon followed suit. A foreign settlement had developed around Apia Harbour by the 1850s. Samoans began to resist, however, as more settlers arrived from the United States, Great Britain, and Germany and tried to persuade their respective governments to annex Samoa. Rival matai played the three foreign powers against each other in pursuit of their factional wars, and they, in turn, frustrated attempts by the Samoans to establish a national government. In 1878 the United States signed a treaty allowing it to establish a naval station in Pago Pago Harbour (now in American Samoa). Great Britain and Germany signed similar agreements the following year. Warfare between the three powers in 1889 was prevented only by a great typhoon, which sank six of their warships. They subsequently signed the BerlinAct to provide for the neutrality of the islands and to avoid further conflict; however, in 1899 the United States annexed eastern Samoa, whereas Germany annexed the western part of the islands—Western Samoa. The division was carried out without consulting the Samoan people, and many of them resented it deeply.

In Western Samoa the drive for political independence began in 1908 with the Mau a Pule, a movement led by the orator chief Lauaki Namulau’ulu. The matai were dissatisfied with the German governor’s attempts to change the fa’a Samoa and centralize all authority in his hands. After the governor called in warships, Lauaki and nine of his leading supporters surrendered, whereupon they were tried and exiled to Saipanin the Mariana Islands.

Rule by New Zealand

Troops from New Zealand occupied Western Samoa in August1914, meeting no resistance from the German or Samoan populations. However, the New Zealand administration was accused of negligence after more than one-fifth of Western Samoans died during the influenza epidemic of 1918–19, and most Samoans united against foreign rule. The League of Nations nevertheless granted New Zealand a mandate over Western Samoa in 1920. The New Zealand-appointed governor made additional attempts to undermine the power of the mataileadership and that of the local business community; in response, an organized political movement called the Mau (“Strongly Held View”) emerged. The Mau was led by Olaf Frederick Nelson, whose mother was Samoan, but New Zealand outlawed the movement, claiming that Nelson and other “part-Europeans” were misleading the Samoans. New Zealand troops were sent in, and Nelson was exiled to New Zealand. During a Mau demonstration in December 1929, the matai Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III and other unarmed Mau supporters were shot and killed by New Zealand troops. This only strengthened the Mau’s determination.

New Zealand’s first Labour government came to power in 1935 and soon recognized the Mau as a legal political organization. Relations between Samoans and New Zealanders improved somewhat, but many Samoans remained dissatisfied. The islands’ economy improved during World War II, when a garrison of U.S. troops was stationed on Upolu and built several roads and an airport. New Zealand allowed a Western Samoan council of state and a legislative assembly to be established in the late 1940s, and a constitutional convention met in 1954. Several government reforms were carried out during the next few years, amid continuing Samoan agitation for independence.

Independence

In 1962 Western Samoa became the first Pacific nation of its size to regain its political independence. The monarch Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II became the cohead of state in 1962 and head of state (O le Ao o le Malo) the following year, a post he held until his death in 2007. Major political figures in the late 20th century included Fiame Faumuina Mataafa, who served twice as prime minister (1962–70 and 1973–75) and Tupuola Taisi Efi, who was prime minister during 1976–82. The religious makeup of Samoa was altered markedly in the late 20th century, as many in the country joined the Mormon church. The tourist trade grew rapidly during the same period, partly because of improvements to Upolu’s transportation infrastructure. Tofilau Eti Alesana, who served as prime minister during 1985–98, had mixed success with the economy and engendered controversy by attempting to censor critics of the government. A referendum in 1990 instituted universal suffrage, and in 1997 the legislature changed the country’s name from Western Samoa to Samoa, despite protests from neighbouring American Samoa. The islands continued to face economic and social challenges at the beginning of the 21st century.

On Sept. 29, 2009, the Samoan archipelago was shaken by an undersea earthquake of magnitude 8.3, centred some 120 miles (190 km) south of Apia in the Pacific Ocean. The quake generated a tsunami that flooded Samoa in several waves, causing extensive damage; villages were flattened throughout the islands, and scores of people were killed.


A young man near Lalomanu, Samoa, looking over the debris left by a tsunami that struck on Sept. 29, 2009