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German Samoa (1900-1914) was also Chinese Samoa.
Apparently, German landowners couldn’t find many local Samoans willing to work for them, so they immigrated almost 4000 Chinese laborers on temporary (usually 3-year) contracts.
This time in our history – plus the upcoming Spanish influenza outbreak (1918) that killed thousands – forever changed the genetic make up of Samoa.
These stories are beautifully preserved in the Museum of Samoa’s online exhibition, To Walk Under Palm Trees – photographs collected from the families of German settlers in Samoa.
The latest addition to this growing exhibition is a chapter about the Garben family, who ran the Franz plantation in Falelauniu, Apia.
Go check it out… but be prepared to get a little lost in those images for a while. It’s a mesmerizing journey into the history of all Samoans.
Thank you for sharing these information. I was born in Apia, Western Samoa, and then immigrated with my family to NZ in 1966. I moved to Alaska in 1983 and have lived here since. My children are afakasi and ask a lot of questions, which I don’t have answers for – so, thank you. And Merry Christmas! From Eseta Sherman and the Sherman Tribe in King Salmon/Naknek, Alaska