Sāmoa mō Sāmoa: A Refusal To Be Anyone Else

In 1962, Samoa became the first Pacific nation to win its independence.

The Mau movement was a civil disobedience movement guided by a defining motto: Sāmoa mō Sāmoa. Samoa for Samoans. They insisted on absolute independence because of broken trust with foreign rule, economic and political disenfranchisement and an erosion of our ways. Fa’a Samoa.

People didn’t sign petitions or update their Facebook banners. They stopped paying taxes, they boycotted European stores and they left coconuts to rot on the plantations rather than sell into the copra trade. Our people understood the winds of change, they wanted to be part of it, but not at the cost they paid.

What was the cost? December 1929, police fired on a peaceful march in Apia. Eleven were killed. Mau leader Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III was assassinated. His last words:

“My blood has been spilt for Sāmoa… Do not dream of avenging it, as it was spilt in peace.”

Sāmoa mō Sāmoa was never a demand. It was a refusal to be anyone else. Independence wasn’t handed over in 1962. It was never theirs to give. As the independence celebrations come to a close, we take this as a reminder to insist on who you are.

We aren’t the first to. We won’t be the last.