Synopsis

SAMOA is an epic saga spanning 3,000 years.

SAMOA is the story of the islands and their people – of Ratu the ancient mariner, leading his people on a voyage of discovery; of Moana, the canoe builder and navigator; of Manu, the keeper of the Sacred Myths, and missionary Evan Surrey, who overcomes the deep-seeded prejudices of the Christian Church to change the course of Samoa’s religious and political history in the mid-nineteenth century.
It is through the eyes of Surrey’s grandson, Mika Sanderson, that the story of Samoa is told. Mika, a historian/anthropologist, chronicles the long and glorious history of this little-known part of the world.

Throughout the 19th century, adventurers, colonialists, murderers and missionaries, the best and worst of Europe and America, sail to Samoa where they find a wise and proud people steeped in ancient culture and beliefs.

Mika documents the rivalries of colonial powers that thrust Samoa’s people into bloody civil war – Theodore Weber, whose one goal is to make Samoa a German colony, and the German-Samoan woman Anna, a Samoan patriot who fights the nation of her father’s birth.
Mika carefully traces the rise of the great Samoan leader Mata’afa, who unites Samoa’s political factions in the war against Germany, leading to the great battle between the German and Samoan armies.

Robert Louis Stevenson, author of “Treasure Island,” finds Samoa to be his own treasured land. Stevenson adopts Samoa and finds true contentment for the first time in his life.

The dawning of the 20th century finds Samoa reeling under the great flu epidemic of 1918. Following World War I, Samoans again find themselves under the stifling colonial administration of New Zealand, giving rise to two Samoan patriots, Olaf Nelson and Tupua Tamasese.

World War II finds the United States Marines in American Samoa, where young Marine lieutenant Daniel LaMont falls in love with a village princess. Following the war, winds of change sweep across the Pacific. In the mid-1960s, young Manu, a direct descendant of Manu of the Sacred Myths, joins the U.S. Marines and finds himself on the battlefields of Vietnam.