Evaevaga a Samoa : assertion of Samoan autonomy 1920-1936

Abstract

This study examines Samoan opposition to New Zealand's rule in Western Samoa over the period 1920-1936. During the first five years of this period, opposition was expressed mainly through the imposition of boycotts on stores and bans on copra-cutting as well as petitions to the British government - New Zealand's authority to administer Samoa came through Britain - to remove New Zealand and to let the Samoans run their own country. In late 1926 however, a group of Samoans, in combination with local residents, launched a public campaign demanding changes to government policies and practices which had been introduced to speed up the development of the country in all spheres - political, social, economic - and which they argued would in fact damage Samoan society. When government rejected these demands, the Samoan group, attracting a great deal of support from Samoans, quickly took control of the opposition movement - now called the Mau - and soon after, made Samoan self-government its principal objective. Between 1926 and 1936, the majority of the Samoans in the villages supported this call for self-government and demonstrated it by totally ignoring government authority and conducting their affairs their own way. During this ten year period, the Mau and its supporters virtually controlled Samoan affairs while government was reduced to making ill-judged and therefore futile attempts to bring about a settlement. It was not until the election of the first New Zealand Labour government in 1935 that an end to the confrontation was effected. A central theme which runs through the thesis is that although Samoans were affected by government measures which brought immediate anger and frustration, the fundamental motivation behind their opposition was the belief that they had an inviolate right to control their own lives. The thesis is concluded with the observation that while Samoan opposition during these sixteen years, and particularly during the Mau period, did not bring about self-government, it did force the New Zealanders to abandon their 'progressive schemes', and more important it kept alive and burning in the Samoans the attitude that it was their right to control their own lives. Show more