page_title: Savaiʻi
section_title: Politics
hierarchical_section_title: Savaiʻi / Politics
caption_attribution_description: Map of the districts of Samoa, named in English. Made by User:Golbez.
context_page_description: Savaiʻi is the largest and highest island in Samoa and the Samoan Islands chain. The island is the sixth largest in Polynesia, behind the three main islands of New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands of Hawaii and Maui.
  The island of Savaiʻi is also referred to by Samoans as Salafai, a classical Samoan term used in oratory and prose. The island is home to 43,142 people who make up 24% of the country's population.
  The only township and ferry terminal is Salelologa, the main entry point to the island, situated at the east end of Savaiʻi. A tar sealed road serves as the one main highway, connecting most of the villages with local buses reaching most settlements.
  Savaiʻi is made up of six itūmālō. Each district is made up of villages with strong traditional ties of kinship, history, land and matai chief titles. There is also some limited ecotourism development which operates mostly within the villages. The Mau, Samoa's non-violent movement for political independence during colonialism in the early 1900s, had its beginnings on Savaiʻi with the Mau a Pule movement.
  The island is the largest shield volcano in the South Pacific with recent eruptions in the early 1900s.
context_section_description: With the country's independence in 1962, Samoa incorporates both traditional political structures alongside a western parliamentary system. The modern national Government of Samoa, based in the capital Apia with the roles of Prime Minister, Members of Parliament and western styled political structure, is referred to as the Malo. Only Samoans with chief matai titles are eligible to become Members of Parliament.
  Alongside Samoa's national and modern political structure is traditional authority vested in family chiefs (matai). The term Pule is applied to traditional authority in Savaiʻi.
  The word Pule refers to appointments or authorities conferred on certain clans or individuals, sometime in the political history of Samoa. This traditional Pule authority was centred in certain villages around Savaiʻi. In the early 20th century, these Pule areas on Savaiʻi island were Safotulafai, Saleaula, Safotu, Asau, Satupaʻitea and Palauli. Safotu, Asau, Satupaʻitea and Vailoa (Palauli district) gained 'Pule' status at different times in the 19th Century, and together with the two older Pule districts, Safotulafai and Saleaula, became the six Pule centres on Savaiʻi.
  In 1908, the 'Mau a Pule' resistance movement to colonial rule, which grew to become the national Mau movement, began on Savaiʻi and represented traditional authority against the German administration of Samoa. The equivalent term 'Tumua' is associated with traditional authority on Upolu island.
  At the local level throughout Samoa, traditional authority is vested in a chiefs' council (fono o matai) in each village. The fono o matai carry out 'village law' and socio-political governance based on their traditional authority and faʻa Samoa. The authority of the matai is balanced against central government, the Malo. Most of the matai are males, however, the women in each village also have a voice in domestic affairs through the women's committees.
  The main government administration offices of the Malo on Savaiʻi are situated in the village of Tuasivi, 10 minutes north of the ferry terminal and market at Salelologa. There's a district hospital, police station, post office and court houses in Tuasivi.
  Vaʻai Kolone, a matai and businessman from Vaisala, at the west end of the island, became the Prime Minister of Samoa twice in the 1980s.
  Samoa has 11 political districts (itūmālō) and 6 are in Savaiʻi; Faʻasaleleaga, Gagaʻemauga, Gagaʻifomauga, Palauli, Satupaʻitea and Vaisigano.
caption: Districts of Samoa map
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