Black Saturday and the Samoan Mau Movement
- Date
- 28 December 1929
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Western Samoa (Apia), Oceania
- Era
- Modern
- Significance
The Mau ("firmly held opinion") was a nonviolent independence movement that arose in Western Samoa against New Zealand's League of Nations mandate administration, drawing on earlier Mau a Pule resistance and uniting Samoan matai chiefs with part-European merchants such as Olaf Frederick Nelson.
On Saturday 28 December 1929, New Zealand military police opened fire on a peaceful Mau procession in Apia that had gathered to welcome home exiled supporters, killing eleven Samoans, including the paramount chief and Mau leader Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III, while one New Zealand constable was clubbed to death in the melee. Shot in the back as he called for calm, Tamasese died the next day urging his people to keep the peace, a plea that preserved the movement's commitment to nonviolent resistance. The episode, remembered as Black Saturday, drove the Mau underground and provoked a heavy-handed manhunt by New Zealand marines but ultimately discredited colonial rule and galvanised Samoan nationalism. The movement's long struggle culminated in Western Samoa becoming the first Pacific Island nation to regain independence in 1962, and in 2002 New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark formally apologised for the killings and other colonial wrongs.
One piece of history in your inbox, weekly
New empires, events and features as they land — one good email a week. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Empires active in 28 December 1929
- Empire of Japan1868 CE – 1947 CE
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- French Colonial Empire (Second)1830 CE – 1962 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Hitler's appointment and Nazi consolidation of power30 January 1933 – August 1934
- Stalin's Great Purge (Great Terror)1936–1938
- The Munich Agreement Cedes the Sudetenland1938
- Treaty of Versailles and the founding of the League of Nations28 June 1919 (in force 10 January 1920)
- Russian Revolutions of 1917March & November 1917 (February & October Revolutions, O.S.)
- Sykes-Picot Agreement partitions the Ottoman Middle East16 May 1916
Further reading
The wider story
A History of the Pacific Islands
The standard accessible overview of Oceania from settlement to the modern era.
Get it on Amazon →As an Amazon Associate, Human Saga earns from qualifying purchases.