11.16.2004
Take it easy, fi filemu
Alright, been readin' about the Mau.
Its so awesome, I love it.
My mom has told me small snippets of some of this - she told me about the flu of 1918 - a family anecdote about how her father had been called by a... village doctor because there were aitu - spirits or demons - killing everyone, and that he rode with the young men of the village to the capital, and on the way back, only 6 of 50 survived the trip.
I learn now that New Zealand had permitted a ship carrying the flu to dock in Samoa, spreading it there. 19% of the population died during the flu, others say 22% - compared to 5% in New Zealand.
I guess, after the flu, Samoans started a movement for sovereignty. They called it the Mau, and I wonder if that name had any influence from chinese immigrants at the time.
My mom also told me about the Mau - about how peaceful Samoans in the '30s had demonstrated for independance from New Zealand rule, which they achieved in 1962. I've seen a funny UN document discussing the difficulties of dealing with the Samoans, because they were peaceful and the country was completely unanimous, due to their government structure, which relied on a pyramid of discussions resulting in complete consensus that started at the family level, then to the village level, then to the state level.
Anyways, all my mom remembered was that there was a man who was shot by the kiwis, and as he died, he told his fellow demonstrators that they needed to keep the peace otherwise he would have died in vain. But it was Tupua Tamasese, the high chief - the king - who was killed.
Tupua Tamasese Lealofi IV, in a 1978 interview with the New Zealand Herald:
"When we heard the gunfire, my mother and my family were certain something had happened to my father."
"He hated violence but he would stand up to any force. Many times before he had been intimidated with guns and swords. He would just say, 'If you want to shoot us, go ahead, we will just die here.' "
"We have grown to regard New Zealand as aiga," he said.
Tamasese was a leader of the Mau and of Samoa. He played a larger role in the incident than my mother remembered:
Tupua Tamasese arrived at the 'Ifi'ifi-Beach Roads junction as Waterson began using the machine-gun. Frightened Mau supporters were still walking into the intersection, exposing themselves to machine-gun and rifle fire. Dressed in a white jacket and white lavalava, carrying a rolled-up umbrella and holding both his arms high in the air, Tupua Tamasese walked into the open calling out in both Samoan and English, "Filemu Samoa, peace Samoa." Standing between a lamp post and the administration offices in 'Ifi'ifi Road, just back from the intersection, he called up Beach Road to the oncoming Mau, "Uma, uma . . . onosa'i, onosa'i." Another witness said he called out to the Mau, "They are few, we are many, They are guests in our country . . ,".
After he was shot,
"The first person I met was Tamasese who was being conveyed in a vehicle to the hospital. We exchanged greetings. I asked him where he had been shot. He told me and added that he desired the festivities to continue. They continued for a time, but owing to the arrival of the wounded and the lamentations of the women the festivities then stopped."
And in dying:
A friend of Tupua Tamasese, barrister Isi Kronfeld, met the Mau leader at the hospital: "He greeted me with his usual boyish smile, his face beaming with courage." Tupua Tamasese was aware his end was near, and fearful of the consequences of both his death and the events of the day, made a dying appeal: ' My blood has been spilt for Samoa. I am proud to give it. Do not dream of avenging it, as it was spilt in maintainingpeace. If I die, peace must be maintained at any price.'
Nice. The bit about Tamasese wanting the festivities on the boat to continue is quite funny, but definitely believable. A few years ago, in Pago Pago, there was a luau for some political candidate. Shockingly, the candidate was assasinated at the party. The headlines the next day read: 'And the band played on, but it just wasn't the same.' The article described how the festivities continued, but people did not enjoy them as much.
One more: A Mau chant:
"Samoa! Samoa! the military police are coming,
The military police are coming to have a war with us,
We are frightened, we are frightened,
O Samoa! O Samoa!"
I love it.
OK. Night all.
Its so awesome, I love it.
My mom has told me small snippets of some of this - she told me about the flu of 1918 - a family anecdote about how her father had been called by a... village doctor because there were aitu - spirits or demons - killing everyone, and that he rode with the young men of the village to the capital, and on the way back, only 6 of 50 survived the trip.
I learn now that New Zealand had permitted a ship carrying the flu to dock in Samoa, spreading it there. 19% of the population died during the flu, others say 22% - compared to 5% in New Zealand.
I guess, after the flu, Samoans started a movement for sovereignty. They called it the Mau, and I wonder if that name had any influence from chinese immigrants at the time.
My mom also told me about the Mau - about how peaceful Samoans in the '30s had demonstrated for independance from New Zealand rule, which they achieved in 1962. I've seen a funny UN document discussing the difficulties of dealing with the Samoans, because they were peaceful and the country was completely unanimous, due to their government structure, which relied on a pyramid of discussions resulting in complete consensus that started at the family level, then to the village level, then to the state level.
Anyways, all my mom remembered was that there was a man who was shot by the kiwis, and as he died, he told his fellow demonstrators that they needed to keep the peace otherwise he would have died in vain. But it was Tupua Tamasese, the high chief - the king - who was killed.
Tupua Tamasese Lealofi IV, in a 1978 interview with the New Zealand Herald:
"When we heard the gunfire, my mother and my family were certain something had happened to my father."
"He hated violence but he would stand up to any force. Many times before he had been intimidated with guns and swords. He would just say, 'If you want to shoot us, go ahead, we will just die here.' "
"We have grown to regard New Zealand as aiga," he said.
Tamasese was a leader of the Mau and of Samoa. He played a larger role in the incident than my mother remembered:
Tupua Tamasese arrived at the 'Ifi'ifi-Beach Roads junction as Waterson began using the machine-gun. Frightened Mau supporters were still walking into the intersection, exposing themselves to machine-gun and rifle fire. Dressed in a white jacket and white lavalava, carrying a rolled-up umbrella and holding both his arms high in the air, Tupua Tamasese walked into the open calling out in both Samoan and English, "Filemu Samoa, peace Samoa." Standing between a lamp post and the administration offices in 'Ifi'ifi Road, just back from the intersection, he called up Beach Road to the oncoming Mau, "Uma, uma . . . onosa'i, onosa'i." Another witness said he called out to the Mau, "They are few, we are many, They are guests in our country . . ,".
After he was shot,
"The first person I met was Tamasese who was being conveyed in a vehicle to the hospital. We exchanged greetings. I asked him where he had been shot. He told me and added that he desired the festivities to continue. They continued for a time, but owing to the arrival of the wounded and the lamentations of the women the festivities then stopped."
And in dying:
A friend of Tupua Tamasese, barrister Isi Kronfeld, met the Mau leader at the hospital: "He greeted me with his usual boyish smile, his face beaming with courage." Tupua Tamasese was aware his end was near, and fearful of the consequences of both his death and the events of the day, made a dying appeal: ' My blood has been spilt for Samoa. I am proud to give it. Do not dream of avenging it, as it was spilt in maintainingpeace. If I die, peace must be maintained at any price.'
Nice. The bit about Tamasese wanting the festivities on the boat to continue is quite funny, but definitely believable. A few years ago, in Pago Pago, there was a luau for some political candidate. Shockingly, the candidate was assasinated at the party. The headlines the next day read: 'And the band played on, but it just wasn't the same.' The article described how the festivities continued, but people did not enjoy them as much.
One more: A Mau chant:
"Samoa! Samoa! the military police are coming,
The military police are coming to have a war with us,
We are frightened, we are frightened,
O Samoa! O Samoa!"
I love it.
OK. Night all.
