Manu'a Islands

Manuʻa, or the Manuʻa Islands Group (Samoan: Manuʻa tele), in the Samoan Islands, consists of three main islands: Taʻu, Ofu and Olosega. The latter two are now connected by a bridge over the shallow 137-meter-wide Asaga strait. The islands are located some 110 kilometres (68 miles) east of Tutuila and are a part of American Samoa, an unincorporated territory of the United States; their area is 56 square kilometres (22 square miles) with a population of 1,400. Taʻu is the biggest island with its 44 square kilometres (17 square miles), and harbours the highest point of the Manuʻa at 931 metres (3,054 feet).

Politically, the islands form the Manu'a District, one of the three administrative divisions of American Samoa.

All three islands are high islands: volcanic remnants rising out of the sea 14° south of the equator. In contrast to most places in the world, the population of these islands has been decreasing steadily for decades. In the 1930s some 20% of the population of American Samoa lived in the Manuʻa Islands. By the 1980s, only 6% were located there. Emigration is the consequence of a lack of economic opportunities and a desire of young people to participate in the more modern lifestyle offered on Tutuila (Office of Tourism, 2005). All the land of Manuʻa is owned communally by Samoan families of Manuʻa. This includes the National Parks lands which are only leased to the US National Parks system for 50 years.

Samoan oral historical traditions state that Manu'a was a ruling centre of a large Polynesian empire which included all of the Samoan archipelago, and other nearby islands such as Tonga. The traditional capital of Manuʻa is the village of Taʻū, on the island of Taʻū. The Manuʻa Group is now part of the US Protectorate of American Samoa. Samoa aligned its interests with the U.S. in a Deed of Succession, signed by the Tui Manuʻa (supreme chief of Manuʻa) on July 16, 1904 at the Crown residence of the Tuimanuʻa called the Faleula in the place called Lalopua (from Official documents of the Tuimanuʻa government, 1893; Office of the Governor, 2004).

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