kingdom · North America and Oceania

Kingdom of Manuʻa

1000 CE – 1904 CE (approx.) · capital Taʻu

The island realm of the Tuʻi Manuʻa in eastern Samoa, whose title was revered as the oldest and most sacred in Samoan tradition.

Origins

The Manuʻa group, the islands of Taʻu, Ofu and Olosega, lies at the eastern end of the Samoan archipelago. Samoan tradition holds that the god Tagaloa created the islands and that the first Tuʻi Manuʻa was his descendant, so the title predates the great titles of Upolu and Savaiʻi. Its early history is known only from oral genealogies.

Rule and society

The Tuʻi Manuʻa lived on Taʻu and was surrounded by strict taboos: commoners could not look on him directly, and a council of chiefs (fono) handled daily affairs. Villages lived from taro, breadfruit, coconut and fishing. Manuʻa stood somewhat apart from the wars over titles in western Samoa, and its prestige rested on ancestry and ritual rather than conquest. Christian missionaries arrived in the 1830s and most islanders converted.

Decline and legacy

After the Samoan islands were divided in 1899, Tuʻi Manuʻa Elisala signed a deed of cession to the United States in 1904, bringing Manuʻa into what became American Samoa. After his death in 1909 the American authorities discouraged the title, which fell into abeyance.

Lineage

Kingdom of ManuʻaAmerican Samoa 1900 CE – present

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Kingdom of Manuʻa. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kingdom-of-manu-a
MLA
“Kingdom of Manuʻa.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kingdom-of-manu-a. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Kingdom of Manuʻa.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kingdom-of-manu-a.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Kingdom of Manuʻa’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kingdom-of-manu-a (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻