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Where We Once Belonged
Sia Figiel
Novel, 1996
A Samoan girl's coming of age in a village, showing fa'a Samoa, church authority, gossip and the pressures on girls.
Books set in Samoa
Four books by writers from Samoa, set there, that give a real sense of the place, starting with Where We Once Belonged and Leaves of the Banyan Tree.
About the literature of Samoa
Samoa's best-known writer is Albert Wendt, whose novel Leaves of the Banyan Tree traces a village family from colonial times to independence. Modern Samoan fiction is largely written in English, but it draws on an older oral culture of storytelling and the formal speeches of orators. Samoa was ruled by Germany and then New Zealand before independence in 1962, and its writers often return to village custom, church authority and ambition.
Wendt's Pouliuli portrays an elderly matai, or family chief, who turns his back on his life and duties in a rural village. His collection Flying-Fox in a Freedom Tree gathers short stories of village and town life. Sia Figiel's Where We Once Belonged centres on a girl growing up in a Samoan village, among gossip, church authority and the expectations placed on girls.
By writers from Samoa
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Leaves of the Banyan Tree
Albert Wendt
Novel, 1979
A multigenerational saga of a Samoan family and village, tracing land, chiefly titles and ambition from colonial times to independence.
Pouliuli
Albert Wendt
Novel, 1977
An elderly village matai rejects his life and duties, exposing the weight of family obligation and custom in a rural Samoan community.
Flying-Fox in a Freedom Tree
Albert Wendt
Short stories, 1974
Short stories of village and town life in Samoa, dealing with tradition, church, colonial legacy and conflict between generations.
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