Mau movement
Encyclopedia
The Mau was a non-violent
movement for Samoa
n independence from colonial
rule during the early 1900s. The word 'Mau' means 'opinion' or 'testimony' denoting 'firm strength' in Samoan
. The motto for the Mau were the words Samoa mo Samoa (Samoa for Samoa).
The movement had its beginnings on the island of Savai'i
with the Mau a Pule resistance in the early 1900s with widespread support throughout the country by the late 1920s. As the movement grew, leadership came under the country's chiefly elite, the customary matai
leaders entrenched in Samoan tradition and fa'a Samoa
. The Mau included women who supported the national organisation through leadership and organisation as well as taking part in marches. Supporters wore a Mau uniform of a navy blue lavalava
with a white stripe which was later banned by the colonial administration.
The Mau movement culminated on 28 December 1929 in the streets of the capital Apia, when the New Zealand
military police fired on a procession who were attempting to prevent the arrest of one of their members. The day became known as Black Saturday. Up to 11 Samoans were killed, including Mau leader and high chief Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III
with many others wounded. One New Zealand constable was clubbed to death by protesters.
The Mau movement eventually led to the political independence of Samoa in 1962.
, United States
and Germany
, vying for control of the Pacific nation. The country became German Samoa
(1900–1914) followed by New Zealand
colonial rule during which the Mau gathered national support.
A key event occurred in 1908, in a dispute between the German
colonial administration and the Malo o Samoa, or Samoan Council of Chiefs, over the establishment of a copra
business owned and controlled by native Samoans.
The dispute led to the eventual formation of a resistance movement called Mau a Pule on Savai'i by Lauaki Namulauulu Mamoe
, one of the Samoan leaders from Safotulafai
who was deposed by the German Governor of Samoa, Wilhelm Solf
. As well as deposing members of the Malo o Samoa, Solf called in two German warships as a show of strength. Faced with this demonstration of military force, and with the movement divided, Lauaki surrendered. In 1909, Lauaki and the other senior leaders of the Mau a Pule were exiled to the German colonies in the Marianas (North West Pacific) where they were to stay until 1914, when New Zealand took over Samoa as part of its Empire duties at the outbreak of World War One. Many of those exiled died before returning to Samoa. Lauaki died enroute back to Samoa in 1915.
The Samoan independence movement would not gain strength again until after New Zealand
forces, unopposed by the German rulers, annexed Western Samoa in 1914, at the beginning of World War I
. Military rule continued after the war ended, and in 1919, some 7,500 Samoans, around 22 per cent of the population, died during an influenza
epidemic. It was already known that Samoans were susceptible to the smallest European diseases, as they had never encountered them before. When the ship SS Talune
arrived in Apia with its crew and passengers obviously sick with influenza, they were allowed to dock by the New Zealanders.
Two days later the first deaths were reported. No attempt was made by the New Zealand administrators to quell or contain the spread, and after one week it had spread through the whole of Samoa. Whole families were killed, with such alarming speed that corpses lay around for weeks without being buried. They were either thrown in mass graves or left in houses which were torched. However, in American Samoa, where quarantine precaution measures had been adequately taken, there were no deaths. Upon learning of the current situation in Western Samoa, the American Governor offered help to Colonel Logan who was in charge; Logan was British born and hated Americans. He destroyed the telegram and cut off any other contact to American Samoa. The Americans had a large medical team who could have saved many lives.
This catastrophic event was to lay a new foundation for discontent with an administration already perceived as incompetent and dishonest by many Samoans. The clumsy handling of Samoa's governance, the slow and deliberate erosion of traditional Samoan social structures by successive administrators, and a general failure to understand and respect Samoan culture also sowed the seeds for a revitalised resistance to colonial rule. Logan was replaced by Colonel Robert Tate.
, the heads of families in Samoa's traditional socio-political structure. Family and chiefly title connections, a central part of Samoan culture, were used to harness support. The success of the Mau in gathering national support showed that fa'a Samoa was still strong despite colonialism
.
Samoans of mixed parentage, facing discrimination from both cultures but with the advantage of cross-cultural knowledge, also played a key role in the new movement.
Olaf Frederick Nelson
, one of the leaders of the new Mau movement, was a successful merchant of mixed Swedish
and Samoan heritage. Nelson was the richest man in Samoa at the time and well-travelled. He was frustrated by the colonial administration's exclusion of native and part-Samoans from governance. Notably, he was one of many who had lost a child to the influenza epidemic of 1919 in addition to his mother, sister, only brother, and sister in-law. Although classified as a European, he considered himself Samoan "by birth blood and sentiment."
In 1926, Nelson visited Wellington
to lobby the New Zealand government on the issue of increased self-rule. During his visit, the Minister for External Affairs, William Nosworthy
, promised to visit Samoa to investigate. When Nosworthy postponed his trip, Nelson organised two public meetings in Apia, which were attended by hundreds, and The Samoan League, or O le Mau, was formed.
The Mau published the Samoa Guardian newspaper as a mouthpiece for the movement. To demonstrate the extent of popular support for the Mau, Nelson organised a sports meeting for movement members on the King's Birthday, in parallel with the official event, and held a well-attended ball at his home on the same night. Movement members had begun to engage in acts of noncooperation: neglecting the compulsory weekly search for the rhinoceros beetle
, enemy of the coconut
palm, thereby threatening the lucrative copra industry.
In 1927, alarmed at the growing strength of the Mau, George Richardson, the administrator of Samoa, changed the law to allow the deportation of Europeans or part-Europeans charged with fomenting unrest. This action was presumably taken on the assumption that the growing movement was merely a product of self-interested Europeans agitating the native Samoans.
In reality, however, the Mau was built upon the traditional forms of Samoan political organisation. In each village that joined the movement, a committee was formed, consisting of the chiefs and "talking men". These committees formed the basic element of an alternative system of governance, and the tendency of Samoans to unite under traditional leadership meant that by the mid- to late 1920s, around 85% of the Samoan population was involved in open resistance.
Following another visit to New Zealand to petition the Government, Nelson was exiled from Samoa along with two other part-European Mau leaders. The petition, which lead to the formation of a joint select committee to investigate the situation in Samoa, quoted an ancient Samoan proverb: "We are moved by love, but never driven by intimidation."
to oppose the New Zealand administration. They boycotted imported products, refused to pay taxes and formed their own "police force", picketing stores in Apia to prevent the payment of customs to the authorities. Village committees established by the administration ceased to meet and government officials were ignored when they went on tour. Births and deaths went unregistered. Coconuts went unharvested, and the banana plantations were neglected.
As the select committee was forced to admit, "a very substantial proportion of Samoans had joined the Mau, a number quite sufficient, if they determined to resist and thwart the activities of the Administration, to paralyse the functions of government."
Richardson sent a warship and a 70-strong force of marines to quell the largely non-violent resistance. 400 Mau members were arrested, but others responded by giving themselves up in such numbers that there were insufficient jail cells to detain them all, and the prisoners came and went as they pleased. One group of prisoners found themselves in a three-sided "cell" which faced the ocean, and were able to swim away to tend to their gardens and visit their families.
With his attempt at repression turning to ridicule, Richard offered pardons to all those arrested; however, arrestees demanded to be dealt with by the court, and then refused to enter pleas to demonstrate their rejection of the court's jurisdiction.
Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III
, who had led the movement following the exile of Nelson, was arrested for non-payment of taxes and imprisoned for six months.
On 28 December 1929 — which would be known thereafter as "Black Saturday" — New Zealand military police fired upon a peaceful demonstration which had assembled to welcome home A.G. Smyth, a European movement leader returning to Samoa after a two year exile. Reports of the massacre are sketchy because the official cover-up for the incident was so effective. Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III had rushed to the front of the crowd and turned to face his people; he called for peace from them because some were throwing stones at the police. With his back to the police calling for peace he was shot in the back; another Samoan who rushed to help him was shot in both legs while cradling his head. Another who had attempted to shield his body from the bullets was shot. Two more rushing to help were killed before they could reach him.
Shooting stopped at around 6.30 am. Eight had died, three would later die, and about 50 were wounded. One policeman had also been clubbed to death.
Among the wounded were terrified women and children who had fled to a market place for cover from New Zealand police firing from the verandah of the station, one of them wielding a Lewis machine-gun.
As he lay dying, Tamesese III made this statement to his followers;
My blood has been spilt for Samoa. I am proud to give it. Do not dream of avenging it, as it was spilt in peace. If I die, peace must be maintained at any price.
Following the massacre, male Mau members fled to the mountains, the traditional retreat of those defeated in war. The resistance continued by other means, with the emergence of a women's Mau to continue the councils, parades and symbolic protests that the men now could not. For the women's movement, even the game of cricket
represented an act of defiance inviting official harassment.
The day after his funeral, his village was raided by New Zealand military police; they ransacked houses, including those of the Tamasese's mourning widow and children. Colonel Allen requested reinforcements from New Zealand after he claimed 2000 Mau had caused a riot. On 12 January 1930 the Royal New Zealand Navy flagship Dunedin brought marines to hunt down members of The Mau. The Mau, who were fully committed to Passive Resistance, easily slipped through the jungle; the marines were slow because they were carrying too much weaponry and didn't know the bush like The Mau. The Mau no longer trusted New Zealand police, and this fear only got worse after a 16 year old un-armed Samoan was shot and killed while running away from a marine, whose excuse he thought the boy was going to throw a stone was accepted as an adequate defence and no charges were laid.
A truce was declared on the 12th of March 1930, after another child was killed by New Zealand marines who were now suffering heat exhaustion and tropical infections. The male Mau members returned to their homes, on the condition that they retain their right to engage in non-cooperation. Meanwhile, Nelson and other exiled leaders continued to lobby the New Zealand Government and communicate their progress to the Mau. In 1931, news of the growing resistance to the British rule of India
reached many Samoan villages.
in New Zealand and the subsequent relaxation of repression by the Samoan administration. Under the new Government, there was slow movement towards greater involvement of Samoans in the administration of their own country.
Fiame Mata'afa Faumuina Mulinu’u II
(1921–1975), the son of another high chief and Mau leader Mata'afa Faumuina Fiame Mulinu'u I
, became the first Prime Minister of Samoa
.
In July 1997, the Samoa Constitution was amended to change the country's name to Samoa, and officially the Independent State of Samoa.
, Prime Minister of New Zealand made an unprecedented move and apologised to Samoa for New Zealand's treatment of Samoans during the colonial era. Clark made the apology in the capital Apia during the 40th anniversary of Samoa's independence. The apology covered the influenza epidemic of 1918, the shooting of unarmed Mau protesters by New Zealand police in 1929 and the banishing of matai (chiefs) from their homes.
in the 1920s. This movement received a lot of press in the United States, both favourable and unfavourable. The leader of the movement, Samuelu Ripley of Leone, Tutuila, was in effect exiled from American Samoa, when he was barred by the US Navy authorities from disembarking from a ship returning to Pagopago from California, and he was never allowed to return to his homeland. He eventually became the mayor of Richmond, California. The United States sent a committee to American Samoa in 1930, including US citizens from Hawai'i who had a prominent role in the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom and Queen Lili'uokalani. Their report, favourable to the US position, had a considerable influence on US policy, and the American Samoa Mau was totally suppressed by the US. Its influence however continued to be felt. Today American Samoa is on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories
.
Orator and DJ Rockit V. The Mau was named for the Mau movement. The motto of the group became the same as the motto of the Mau movement; Samoa Mo Samoa, or Samoa for Samoans. The Mau has now reformed as the group Rough Opinion. The group still carries the message of the Mau movement as their theme.
Nonviolence
Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...
movement for Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
n independence from colonial
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
rule during the early 1900s. The word 'Mau' means 'opinion' or 'testimony' denoting 'firm strength' in Samoan
Samoan language
Samoan Samoan Samoan (Gagana Sāmoa, is the language of the Samoan Islands, comprising the independent country of Samoa and the United States territory of American Samoa. It is an official language—alongside English—in both jurisdictions. Samoan, a Polynesian language, is the first language for most...
. The motto for the Mau were the words Samoa mo Samoa (Samoa for Samoa).
The movement had its beginnings on the island of Savai'i
Savai'i
Savaii is the largest and highest island in Samoa and the Samoa Islands chain. It is also the biggest landmass in Polynesia outside Hawaii and New Zealand. The island of Savai'i is also referred to by Samoans as Salafai, a classical Samoan term used in oratory and prose...
with the Mau a Pule resistance in the early 1900s with widespread support throughout the country by the late 1920s. As the movement grew, leadership came under the country's chiefly elite, the customary matai
Fa'amatai
Fa'amatai is the chiefly system of Samoa, central to the organization of Samoan society.It is the traditional indigenous form of governance in the Samoa Islands, comprising American Samoa and the Independent State of Samoa...
leaders entrenched in Samoan tradition and fa'a Samoa
Fa'a Samoa
Fa'a Samoa means literally The Samoan Way which describes the socio-political and cultural way of life for the people of the Samoan Islands....
. The Mau included women who supported the national organisation through leadership and organisation as well as taking part in marches. Supporters wore a Mau uniform of a navy blue lavalava
Lava-lava
A lava-lava is an article of daily clothing traditionally worn by Polynesians and other Oceanic peoples. It consists of a single rectangular cloth worn as a skirt. The term lava-lava is both singular and plural in the Samoan language.-Customary use:...
with a white stripe which was later banned by the colonial administration.
The Mau movement culminated on 28 December 1929 in the streets of the capital Apia, when the New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
military police fired on a procession who were attempting to prevent the arrest of one of their members. The day became known as Black Saturday. Up to 11 Samoans were killed, including Mau leader and high chief Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III
Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III
Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III was a high chief of Samoa who was a leader of the country's pro-independent Mau movement during the early 1900s...
with many others wounded. One New Zealand constable was clubbed to death by protesters.
The Mau movement eventually led to the political independence of Samoa in 1962.
History
Broadly, the history of the Mau movement can be seen as beginning in the 1800s with European contact and the advent of Western powers, BritainUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Germany
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
, vying for control of the Pacific nation. The country became German Samoa
German Samoa
German Samoa was a German protectorate from 1900 to 1914, consisting of the islands of Upolu, Savai'i, Apolima and Manono, now wholly within the independent state Samoa, formerly Western Samoa...
(1900–1914) followed by New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
colonial rule during which the Mau gathered national support.
A key event occurred in 1908, in a dispute between the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
colonial administration and the Malo o Samoa, or Samoan Council of Chiefs, over the establishment of a copra
Copra
Copra is the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. Coconut oil extracted from it has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake which is mainly used as feed for livestock.-Production:...
business owned and controlled by native Samoans.
The dispute led to the eventual formation of a resistance movement called Mau a Pule on Savai'i by Lauaki Namulauulu Mamoe
Lauaki Namulauulu Mamoe
Lauaki Namulauulu Mamoe was a renowned orator chief and the first leader of the Mau, a resistance movement in Samoa during colonialism. Lauaki was exiled to Saipan in 1909. He died in 1915 as he was taken back to Samoa.He was from Safotulafai, the capital of Fa'asaleleaga political district on...
, one of the Samoan leaders from Safotulafai
Safotulafai
Safotulafai is a traditional sub-district at the east end of Savai'i island with historical and political significance in Samoa's history. It is the traditional centre of Fa'asaleleaga political district....
who was deposed by the German Governor of Samoa, Wilhelm Solf
Wilhelm Solf
Wilhelm Heinrich Solf was a German scholar, diplomat, jurist and statesman.-Early life:Wilhelm Solf was born into a wealthy and liberal family in Berlin. He attended secondary schools in Anklam in western Pomerania and in Mannheim...
. As well as deposing members of the Malo o Samoa, Solf called in two German warships as a show of strength. Faced with this demonstration of military force, and with the movement divided, Lauaki surrendered. In 1909, Lauaki and the other senior leaders of the Mau a Pule were exiled to the German colonies in the Marianas (North West Pacific) where they were to stay until 1914, when New Zealand took over Samoa as part of its Empire duties at the outbreak of World War One. Many of those exiled died before returning to Samoa. Lauaki died enroute back to Samoa in 1915.
Influenza epidemic
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
forces, unopposed by the German rulers, annexed Western Samoa in 1914, at the beginning of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Military rule continued after the war ended, and in 1919, some 7,500 Samoans, around 22 per cent of the population, died during an influenza
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
epidemic. It was already known that Samoans were susceptible to the smallest European diseases, as they had never encountered them before. When the ship SS Talune
SS Talune
Three vessels have been named Talune. This article refers to the first SS Talune, built in 1890 and scuttled in 1925.A second SS Talune was built in 1930 for the Union Steamship company of New Zealand, and sold in 1959 to Transporte de Minerales, Panama, who renamed it the ‘Amos’...
arrived in Apia with its crew and passengers obviously sick with influenza, they were allowed to dock by the New Zealanders.
Two days later the first deaths were reported. No attempt was made by the New Zealand administrators to quell or contain the spread, and after one week it had spread through the whole of Samoa. Whole families were killed, with such alarming speed that corpses lay around for weeks without being buried. They were either thrown in mass graves or left in houses which were torched. However, in American Samoa, where quarantine precaution measures had been adequately taken, there were no deaths. Upon learning of the current situation in Western Samoa, the American Governor offered help to Colonel Logan who was in charge; Logan was British born and hated Americans. He destroyed the telegram and cut off any other contact to American Samoa. The Americans had a large medical team who could have saved many lives.
This catastrophic event was to lay a new foundation for discontent with an administration already perceived as incompetent and dishonest by many Samoans. The clumsy handling of Samoa's governance, the slow and deliberate erosion of traditional Samoan social structures by successive administrators, and a general failure to understand and respect Samoan culture also sowed the seeds for a revitalised resistance to colonial rule. Logan was replaced by Colonel Robert Tate.
Mau leadership
The groundswell of support among Samoans for the Mau came from the leadership of Samoan mataiFa'amatai
Fa'amatai is the chiefly system of Samoa, central to the organization of Samoan society.It is the traditional indigenous form of governance in the Samoa Islands, comprising American Samoa and the Independent State of Samoa...
, the heads of families in Samoa's traditional socio-political structure. Family and chiefly title connections, a central part of Samoan culture, were used to harness support. The success of the Mau in gathering national support showed that fa'a Samoa was still strong despite colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
.
Samoans of mixed parentage, facing discrimination from both cultures but with the advantage of cross-cultural knowledge, also played a key role in the new movement.
Olaf Frederick Nelson
Olaf Frederick Nelson
Taisi Olaf Frederick Nelson, , also known as Taisi Olaf, was a successful businessman and one of the founding leaders of the Mau movement for Samoan independence from colonial rule....
, one of the leaders of the new Mau movement, was a successful merchant of mixed Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Samoan heritage. Nelson was the richest man in Samoa at the time and well-travelled. He was frustrated by the colonial administration's exclusion of native and part-Samoans from governance. Notably, he was one of many who had lost a child to the influenza epidemic of 1919 in addition to his mother, sister, only brother, and sister in-law. Although classified as a European, he considered himself Samoan "by birth blood and sentiment."
In 1926, Nelson visited Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
to lobby the New Zealand government on the issue of increased self-rule. During his visit, the Minister for External Affairs, William Nosworthy
William Nosworthy
William Nosworthy was a New Zealand politician. He briefly served as Minister of Finance and then Minister of External Affairs in the Reform Government....
, promised to visit Samoa to investigate. When Nosworthy postponed his trip, Nelson organised two public meetings in Apia, which were attended by hundreds, and The Samoan League, or O le Mau, was formed.
The Mau published the Samoa Guardian newspaper as a mouthpiece for the movement. To demonstrate the extent of popular support for the Mau, Nelson organised a sports meeting for movement members on the King's Birthday, in parallel with the official event, and held a well-attended ball at his home on the same night. Movement members had begun to engage in acts of noncooperation: neglecting the compulsory weekly search for the rhinoceros beetle
Rhinoceros beetle
The Rhinoceros Beetles or Rhino Beetles are a subfamily of the scarab beetle family . Other common names – some for particular groups of rhino beetles – are for example Hercules beetles, unicorn beetles or horn beetles...
, enemy of the coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
palm, thereby threatening the lucrative copra industry.
In 1927, alarmed at the growing strength of the Mau, George Richardson, the administrator of Samoa, changed the law to allow the deportation of Europeans or part-Europeans charged with fomenting unrest. This action was presumably taken on the assumption that the growing movement was merely a product of self-interested Europeans agitating the native Samoans.
In reality, however, the Mau was built upon the traditional forms of Samoan political organisation. In each village that joined the movement, a committee was formed, consisting of the chiefs and "talking men". These committees formed the basic element of an alternative system of governance, and the tendency of Samoans to unite under traditional leadership meant that by the mid- to late 1920s, around 85% of the Samoan population was involved in open resistance.
Following another visit to New Zealand to petition the Government, Nelson was exiled from Samoa along with two other part-European Mau leaders. The petition, which lead to the formation of a joint select committee to investigate the situation in Samoa, quoted an ancient Samoan proverb: "We are moved by love, but never driven by intimidation."
Civil disobedience
The Mau remained true to this sentiment, and despite the exile of Nelson, continued to use civil disobedienceCivil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
to oppose the New Zealand administration. They boycotted imported products, refused to pay taxes and formed their own "police force", picketing stores in Apia to prevent the payment of customs to the authorities. Village committees established by the administration ceased to meet and government officials were ignored when they went on tour. Births and deaths went unregistered. Coconuts went unharvested, and the banana plantations were neglected.
As the select committee was forced to admit, "a very substantial proportion of Samoans had joined the Mau, a number quite sufficient, if they determined to resist and thwart the activities of the Administration, to paralyse the functions of government."
Richardson sent a warship and a 70-strong force of marines to quell the largely non-violent resistance. 400 Mau members were arrested, but others responded by giving themselves up in such numbers that there were insufficient jail cells to detain them all, and the prisoners came and went as they pleased. One group of prisoners found themselves in a three-sided "cell" which faced the ocean, and were able to swim away to tend to their gardens and visit their families.
With his attempt at repression turning to ridicule, Richard offered pardons to all those arrested; however, arrestees demanded to be dealt with by the court, and then refused to enter pleas to demonstrate their rejection of the court's jurisdiction.
Black Saturday, 1929
The new administrator, Stephen Allen, replaced the marines with a special force of New Zealand police, and began to target the leaders of the movement.Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III
Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III
Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III was a high chief of Samoa who was a leader of the country's pro-independent Mau movement during the early 1900s...
, who had led the movement following the exile of Nelson, was arrested for non-payment of taxes and imprisoned for six months.
On 28 December 1929 — which would be known thereafter as "Black Saturday" — New Zealand military police fired upon a peaceful demonstration which had assembled to welcome home A.G. Smyth, a European movement leader returning to Samoa after a two year exile. Reports of the massacre are sketchy because the official cover-up for the incident was so effective. Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III had rushed to the front of the crowd and turned to face his people; he called for peace from them because some were throwing stones at the police. With his back to the police calling for peace he was shot in the back; another Samoan who rushed to help him was shot in both legs while cradling his head. Another who had attempted to shield his body from the bullets was shot. Two more rushing to help were killed before they could reach him.
Shooting stopped at around 6.30 am. Eight had died, three would later die, and about 50 were wounded. One policeman had also been clubbed to death.
Among the wounded were terrified women and children who had fled to a market place for cover from New Zealand police firing from the verandah of the station, one of them wielding a Lewis machine-gun.
As he lay dying, Tamesese III made this statement to his followers;
My blood has been spilt for Samoa. I am proud to give it. Do not dream of avenging it, as it was spilt in peace. If I die, peace must be maintained at any price.
Following the massacre, male Mau members fled to the mountains, the traditional retreat of those defeated in war. The resistance continued by other means, with the emergence of a women's Mau to continue the councils, parades and symbolic protests that the men now could not. For the women's movement, even the game of cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
represented an act of defiance inviting official harassment.
The day after his funeral, his village was raided by New Zealand military police; they ransacked houses, including those of the Tamasese's mourning widow and children. Colonel Allen requested reinforcements from New Zealand after he claimed 2000 Mau had caused a riot. On 12 January 1930 the Royal New Zealand Navy flagship Dunedin brought marines to hunt down members of The Mau. The Mau, who were fully committed to Passive Resistance, easily slipped through the jungle; the marines were slow because they were carrying too much weaponry and didn't know the bush like The Mau. The Mau no longer trusted New Zealand police, and this fear only got worse after a 16 year old un-armed Samoan was shot and killed while running away from a marine, whose excuse he thought the boy was going to throw a stone was accepted as an adequate defence and no charges were laid.
A truce was declared on the 12th of March 1930, after another child was killed by New Zealand marines who were now suffering heat exhaustion and tropical infections. The male Mau members returned to their homes, on the condition that they retain their right to engage in non-cooperation. Meanwhile, Nelson and other exiled leaders continued to lobby the New Zealand Government and communicate their progress to the Mau. In 1931, news of the growing resistance to the British rule of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
reached many Samoan villages.
Moving towards independence
The Mau movement had not gone unnoticed by the population of New Zealand, and the treatment of Samoans at the hands of the administration had become a contentious issue in some New Zealand electorates during the 1929 election. 1936 marked a turning point for Samoa, with the election of a Labour GovernmentNew Zealand Labour Party
The New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party. It describes itself as centre-left and socially progressive and has been one of the two primary parties of New Zealand politics since 1935....
in New Zealand and the subsequent relaxation of repression by the Samoan administration. Under the new Government, there was slow movement towards greater involvement of Samoans in the administration of their own country.
1962 independence
When Western Samoa finally gained its independence in 1962, Tupua Tamasese Meaole, son of the Mau movement leader, became its first co-head of state with Malietoa Tanumafili II.Fiame Mata'afa Faumuina Mulinu’u II
Fiame Mata'afa Faumuina Mulinu’u II
Fiame Mata'afa Faumuina Mulinu’u II, C.B.E. was a paramount chief and the first Prime Minister of Samoa. He was Prime Minister from October 1, 1959 until February 1970 and again from March 1973 until his death in 1975...
(1921–1975), the son of another high chief and Mau leader Mata'afa Faumuina Fiame Mulinu'u I
Mata'afa Faumuina Fiame Mulinu'u I
Mata'afa Faumuina Fiame Mulinu'u I was a high chief of Samoa and a leader of the country's pro-independence Mau movement during the early 1900s...
, became the first Prime Minister of Samoa
Prime Minister of Samoa
This is a list of Prime Ministers of Samoa from the establishment of that office in 1875 until the present day.-List of Prime Ministers of Samoa :-See also:*Samoa**Politics of Samoa...
.
In July 1997, the Samoa Constitution was amended to change the country's name to Samoa, and officially the Independent State of Samoa.
New Zealand apology to Samoa
In 2002, Helen ClarkHelen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ is a New Zealand political figure who was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008...
, Prime Minister of New Zealand made an unprecedented move and apologised to Samoa for New Zealand's treatment of Samoans during the colonial era. Clark made the apology in the capital Apia during the 40th anniversary of Samoa's independence. The apology covered the influenza epidemic of 1918, the shooting of unarmed Mau protesters by New Zealand police in 1929 and the banishing of matai (chiefs) from their homes.
An American Samoa Mau
There was also an American Samoa Mau that took place in Tutuila in American SamoaAmerican Samoa
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
in the 1920s. This movement received a lot of press in the United States, both favourable and unfavourable. The leader of the movement, Samuelu Ripley of Leone, Tutuila, was in effect exiled from American Samoa, when he was barred by the US Navy authorities from disembarking from a ship returning to Pagopago from California, and he was never allowed to return to his homeland. He eventually became the mayor of Richmond, California. The United States sent a committee to American Samoa in 1930, including US citizens from Hawai'i who had a prominent role in the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom and Queen Lili'uokalani. Their report, favourable to the US position, had a considerable influence on US policy, and the American Samoa Mau was totally suppressed by the US. Its influence however continued to be felt. Today American Samoa is on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories
United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories
The United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories is a list of countries that, according to the United Nations, are non-decolonized. The list was initially prepared in 1946 pursuant to Chapter XI of the United Nations Charter, and has been updated by the General Assembly on recommendation...
.
Contemporary influences
A Samoan hip hop group that was founded in 1990 by Kosmo, MC Kha Tha FeelstyleTha Feelstyle
Tha Feelstyle is the stage name of award winning hip hop artist Kas Futialo, a New Zealander of Samoan descent. His first album was Break It To Pieces in 2004. Tha Feelstyle was born in Samoa and moved to New Zealand in the 1980s...
Orator and DJ Rockit V. The Mau was named for the Mau movement. The motto of the group became the same as the motto of the Mau movement; Samoa Mo Samoa, or Samoa for Samoans. The Mau has now reformed as the group Rough Opinion. The group still carries the message of the Mau movement as their theme.
Further reading
- Field, Michael J. (1984). Mau: Samoa's Struggle Against New Zealand Oppression. Reed Publishing. http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1241230
External links
- ‘Guardians and Wards’ : (A study of the origins, causes, and the first two years of the Mau in Western Samoa.) by Albert Wendt
- New Zealand in Samoa (NZHistory.net.nz)
- NZ Prime Minister's apology & Samoa Prime Minister reply
- Album of Photographs of the Mau Uprising, 1930 - 40 online photographs by police officer F J Gleeson in National Library, Wellington (go to Timeframes)