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Samoans or Samoan people (Samoan: tagata Sāmoa) are the Indigenous Polynesian people of the Samoan Islands, an archipelago in Polynesia, who speak the Samoan language.The group's home islands are politically and geographically divided between the Independent State of Samoa and American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States of America.
In 2006, having been made the first Pacific and first Samoan Cardinal, he died at the age of 82. [10] [11] In 2007, in a ceremony organized by the Catholic Church, the Samoan head of state asked for divine forgiveness of his country's sins. [12] At World Youth Day 2008, "up to a thousand" Samoan youths participated in the activities in Sydney. [13]
The earliest history of Samoa concerns a political center in the easternmost Samoan islands of Manu'a, under the rule of the Tui Manu'a. In the Cook Islands to the east, the tradition is that Karika, or Tui Manu'a 'Ali's, came to the Cook Islands from Manu'a; suggesting that the rest of Polynesia was settled from Manu'a and Samoa.
Samoa, [note 1] officially the Independent State of Samoa [note 2] and known until 1997 as Western Samoa (Samoan: Sāmoa i Sisifo), is an island country in Polynesia, consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono and Apolima); and several smaller, uninhabited islands, including the Aleipata Islands (Nuʻutele, Nuʻulua, Fanuatapu and Namua).
According to Samoan oral histories, the first Tui Manu'a was a direct descendant of the Samoan supreme god, Tagaloa. In Samoan lore, the islands of Manu'a (Ofu, Olosega, and Ta'u) are always the first lands to be created or drawn from the sea; consequently the Tui Manu'a is the first human ruler mentioned. This "senior" ranking of the Tui Manu ...
Nafanua was a historical aliʻi (chief/queen) and toa (warrior) of Samoa from the Sā Tonumaipeʻa clan, who took the four pāpā (district) titles, the leading aliʻi titles of Samoa. [1] After her death she became a goddess in Polynesian religion .
Apia Cathedral. Christianity is the official and largest religion in Samoa, with its various denominations accounting for around 98% of the total population. [1] The article 1 of the Constitution of Samoa states that "Samoa is a Christian nation founded of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit".
Samoan culture tells stories of many different deities. There were deities of the forest, the seas, rain, harvest, villages, and war. [1] There were two types of deities, atua, who had non-human origins, and aitu, who were of human origin. Tagaloa was a supreme god who made the islands and the people. Mafuiʻe was the god of earthquakes. [2]