Mau: Samoa's Struggle Against New Zealand Oppression by Michael Field

"On 29 August 1914 New Zealand troops landed in German Samoa. With support from other Allied countries they established a colonial rule that was to last for almost fifty years. It is a period largely forgotten and ignored in New Zealand, but for the people of Samoa the memories remain. They include the influenza epidemic of 1918, whick killed 22 per cent of the Samoan population as a direct result of the negligence of the New Zealand authorities. There was a widespread distortion of justice, which led the police on one occasion to claim that a prsioner had hanged himself while chained to the wall. And there was Black Saturday, 29 December 1929, when the police opened fire with rifles and a machine gun on a peaceful demonstration, killing nine and wounding a further fifty. This book is the story of the deeply racist attitudes of a colonial power - New Zealand - whose Smoan Administrtor claimed in 1931 that Samoans were "destitute of reasoning power" and able to learn only with the "quickness of that great imitator the ape... and not that of the human species. " But more than that, it is the story of a courageous and non-violent independence movement. A movement that claimed the support of 95 percent of the population ad was able successfully to defeat all attempts at subjugation without firing a single shot. A movement known as Mau. "--Jacket. This 1984 A. H. & A. W. Reed Hardback is in good condition. DJ; Ex Library. Ex Air Force Library; dust jacket in mylar cover; bottom of boards rubbed.

ISBN: 9780589014926 SKU: 1575327 This image is of the actual book.

Location: Pacific