‘Renegade’ Resistance and Colonial Rule in German Samoa

Abstract

While German Samoa has appeared to some historians as a colony that demonstrates the benevolence of liberal colonial government, this article argues that Germany’s administration of Samoa should not be seen as a benign form of colonial rule that avoided violence because of the anthropological acumen of its culturally adept governors. Rather, it remained a colonial site in which dissent was expressed in both word and deed. While the resistance of Samoa’s political elites has been carefully studied elsewhere, this article examines less well-known forms of dissent, particularly those of young Samoans. Through an examination of several incidents of spontaneous violence, protest, and refusal, it suggests that the structural inequalities of colonial Samoa engendered a number of anti-German acts that offer the contours of what Damon Salesa has termed a ‘renegade history’ of Samoa.