SamoaSāmoa

Lapita voyagers reached Samoa around 1000 BC, and over the following centuries a distinct Polynesian culture took shape here and in Tonga, from which the islands further east were settled. Oral history recalls centuries of Tongan domination, ended in the 13th century by the brothers Tuna and Fata; the Malietoa title is said to come from the words of the retreating Tongan king.

Great titles, Malietoa, Tupua Tamasese, Mata'afa and Tuimaletau, competed for supremacy through alliances and wars. European whalers and traders came in the 19th century, and in 1830 John Williams of the London Missionary Society landed on Savai'i. Christianity spread fast, carried by Samoan teachers who later took it to other islands.

In the 1880s Germany, Britain and the United States backed rival Samoan claimants. A naval standoff at Apia in 1889 ended when a cyclone wrecked the warships in the harbour. In 1899–1900 the powers split the islands: the western group went to Germany, the eastern (today's American Samoa) to the US, and Britain took compensation elsewhere.

New Zealand seized German Samoa in 1914. In 1918 it allowed a ship carrying influenza to dock, and about a fifth of the population died, while American Samoa, which quarantined, had no deaths. Resentment fed the Mau movement of non-violent resistance; on 28 December 1929, 'Black Saturday', New Zealand police fired on a Mau procession in Apia and killed the high chief Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III among others. New Zealand apologised in 2002.

Western Samoa became independent on 1 January 1962, the first Pacific island state to do so, and dropped 'Western' from its name in 1997. Politics were dominated for four decades by the Human Rights Protection Party until 2021, when the new FAST party won, the outgoing prime minister refused to leave, and courts ruled for Fiame Naomi Mata'afa, the first woman to lead the country. FAST later split, and after a snap election in 2025 La'auli Leuatea Schmidt became prime minister (check).

Every Samoan belongs to an 'aiga, an extended family that can number hundreds, headed by a matai (chief) chosen by the family. The matai holds the family's title and land, speaks for it in the village council (fono) and decides on land use, gifts and disputes. There are around 18,000 matai titles, and a person can hold several.

The village is almost self-governing. The fono makes rules on curfews, dress, Sunday behaviour and fines, which may be paid in pigs, fine mats or cash. Village law is recognised by the Village Fono Act, so a visitor who breaks a rule can be fined, and banishment of villagers still happens.

About 80% of land is customary and cannot be sold. Beaches, pools and waterfalls belong to villages and families, which is why fees are charged at the entrance and why the family who collects them has the final say.

Service is the ideal: tautua, serving the family and the matai, is how young people earn respect and one day titles. Fine mats ('ie toga), woven over months, are the most valuable gifts in weddings, funerals and title bestowals, and count for more than money.

Only matai can stand for parliament, which keeps the chiefly system in national politics. Critics say this keeps women and young people out; supporters say it keeps Samoa Samoan.

Samoa describes itself in its constitution as a Christian nation, a clause added in 2017. Villages often have several churches, larger than the houses around them, and the pastor's house is among the best. Congregations compete in donations, and church giving is a large share of family spending.

Sunday begins with early services and continues with to'ona'i, the family lunch from the umu that young men prepare at dawn. The afternoon is for rest and a second service. Swimming, fishing, loud music and work are discouraged, and in some villages banned.

Each evening, most villages hold sa, a period of family prayer and quiet, marked by a bell, a conch or a struck gas cylinder, usually between 18:00 and 19:00. Young men sometimes stand at the road to stop traffic. Visitors should stop walking or driving, wait silently, and move on when a second signal sounds.

White Sunday in October turns the order upside down: children in white lead the services with recitations and plays, and are served first at the family meal.

The 'ava ceremony is the formal welcome for guests and the opening of important meetings. Dried root of the pepper plant is mixed with water in a wooden bowl (tanoa) by a young woman or man, and a talking chief calls out each person's title in order of rank. Each drinker receives a coconut-shell cup, spills a few drops, says 'manuia' and drinks.

Speeches (lauga) by orators accompany the 'ava and every major event, full of genealogy and proverbs in the formal register of the language.

Food is cooked in the umu, a pile of hot stones covered with leaves. Taro, breadfruit, palusami, fish and pork cook together for about an hour. Tinned corned beef, pisupo, is a prestige gift, and imported mutton flaps have fed a sharp rise in diabetes and obesity.

Cocoa grown in Samoa since German times becomes koko Samoa, a strong, sweet drink, and cocoa and coconut remain important exports.

Samoa kept the tattoo when missionaries suppressed it elsewhere. The pe'a, the men's tattoo, covers the body from the waist to the knees in dense patterns; the malu, the women's, is lighter and runs across the thighs. Both are tapped into the skin with bone combs by a master (tufuga ta tatau) over days or weeks.

Getting the pe'a is a mark of courage and service to family; stopping partway is a lifelong shame. Today many diaspora Samoans come home to receive one.

Siva, the graceful dance, and the fa'ataupati slap dance are performed at fiafia nights, while the fire-knife dance (siva afi) has a world championship in Hawai'i. Siapo, bark cloth printed with carved boards, and fine mats are the main crafts.

Writers such as Albert Wendt, Sia Figiel and Selina Tusitala Marsh have made the Samoan experience central to Pacific literature.

More Samoans live abroad than at home: large communities in Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane, Hawai'i and California send remittances that equal about a fifth of GDP. Seasonal work schemes in New Zealand and Australia take thousands more each year.

Samoa switched from right- to left-hand driving in 2009 to allow cheaper used cars from New Zealand, Australia and Japan. In 2011 it skipped 30 December to move west of the date line and align its business week with its trading partners.

The 2009 tsunami killed 143 people on the south and east coasts of Upolu, and cyclone Evan in 2012 flooded Apia. The 2019 measles epidemic killed 83, mostly children, after vaccination rates fell.

China has funded government buildings, the airport terminal and roads, and Samoa hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in 2024, the first in a Pacific island state.