Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III

Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III in front of the octagonal Mau office in Vaimoso village, near Apia, 1929. (Photograph by Alfred James Tattersall)

Tupua Tamasese Lealofi-o-ā'ana III (4 May 1901 – 29 December 1929) was a paramount chief of Samoa, holder of the Tupua Tamasese dynastic title and became the leader of the country's pro-independence Mau movement from early 1928 until his assassination by New Zealand police in 1929. Inspired by his Christian beliefs, traditional customs and culture of Samoa, Lealofi III became one of the first leaders of the 20th century to employ nonviolent resistance against colonial rule which laid the foundations for Samoa's successful campaign for independence, which it attained in 1962.

He was fatally shot by New Zealand police during a peaceful Mau procession in Apia on 28 December 1929, in what became known as Black Saturday. Mau carrying the coffin of Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III. Standing to the right wearing a single white stripe on his lava-lava, the Mau uniform, is Mata'afa Faumuina Fiame Mulinuʻu I, who later became the President of the Mau.

Mau movement In 1924 Tamasese was banished to Savai'i by Administrator George Spafford Richardson for failing to remove a hibiscus hedge from his land. When he returned to inquire about the length of his banishment, he was imprisoned, deprived of his title, and banished again. This treatment was reported as being one of the main drivers of the Mau movement. When Olaf Frederick Nelson formed the Mau, Tamasese joined, and in 1927 appeared before a commission of inquiry in Apia and argued for Samoan self-government.

Following Nelson's exile from Samoa, Tamasese rose to leadership of the Mau. In early March 1928 Tamasese was arrested along with 400 Mau "police" in an effort by the colonial administration to break a Mau boycott. He acted as their spokesperson when they were put on trial by the colonial administration and during their subsequent imprisonment at Mulinuʻu. Following the prisoners' release, an unsuccessful attempt was made to arrest him. which resulted in another failed attempt to arrest him in early November. He was finally arrested in late November, sentenced to six weeks imprisonment for refusing to pay taxes and six months imprisonment for resisting arrest, and deported to New Zealand to serve his sentence. He was released in June 1929 after serving his full sentence and returned to Samoa, where he was greeted as a hero.

Death

On 28 December 1929 the Mau paraded through Apia to welcome Alfred Smyth home from exile. The colonial administration prepared for the procession by arming the police with revolvers and rifles and mounting a Lewis gun on the police station balcony.

An inquest by a New Zealand coroner found the rifle fire which killed Tamasese to have been unnecessary. Despite this, no-one was prosecuted for his killing.