The Politics of Succession


There is a Samoan proverb: ‘o Samoa o le i’a e iviivia’, which translates to ‘Samoa is a fish with many bones’ or ‘Samoa is a bony fish’. This suggests the difficulties associated with analysing Samoa’s traditional custom—of separating the flesh from the bones.

O Tama A ‘Aiga is A Morgan Tuimaleali’ifano’s successful attempt to separate the flesh from the bones, to give some order to the chaos resulting from the many conflicting versions of Samoa’s oral tradition. And in it, he suggests that the created social structures that worked in the past, be left aside as relics of a by-gone age if the present is to prosper peacefully.

It is a fact that a number of Pacific societies with inherited titles and entailed-privileges are facing social and political problems.

In this scholarly work, Tuimaleali’ifano, focusing on his own society of Samoa, discusses one core cause for such problems. Tuimaleali’ifano’s central theme is ‘the symbiotic relationship between two aspects of traditional custom—aganu’u (universal custom) and agaifanua (localised practice)’. Drawing on disputes over Samoa’s four paramount titles, tama’aiga, which in modern times includes the often ineffective mediation of the Land and Titles Court, Tuimaleali’ifano argues that in traditional Samoa, the symbiotic relationship was that of mutualism: both aspects benefit but in modern Samoa, the symbiotic relationship is that of competition: neither aspect benefits and the players suffer.

Tuimaleali’ifano highlights the damaging consequences of the competition-relationship to the whole country. He writes: “The events...recounted in this book suggest that the future of successive generations of Samoans has been mortgaged to maintain an illusory and archaic political past.”

The underlying assumption is that a fair amount of the serious problems Pacific societies are facing are brought about overtly or covertly by those who still believe that the structures of the past, which are to their selfish benefit and absurd glory, be maintained, regardless.

O Tama A ‘Aiga is an example of how much knowledge of the past has to contribute to understanding and guiding life at the present. To political scientists, it offers the necessary advice of practical evidence, without which theories fall short of an encounter with reality. 

O Tama A ‘Aiga, to paraphrase Tuimaleali’ifano, is the work of a person who has remembered a lot of history and benefitted from that memory. O Tama A ‘Aiga, titles, status, prerogatives: What is all the fuss about?; much ado about nothing, argues Tuimaleali’ifano.

–BY FALANI TERRY
Pacific Regional Seminary
Suva, FIJI

O TAMA A’AIGA: The Politics of Succession to Samoa’s Paramount Titles By A. Morgan Tuimaleali’ifano; Publsihed by IPS Publications, Suva, 2006 148 pp. ISBN: 978-982-02-0377-8. $29.95. Book available from IPS Publications, USP Book Centre and select bookshops.