This article was written by Thomas H. Booth
Western Samoa-still not a big tourist destination-claims the largest proportion of full-blooded Polynesians in the world. At last count there were 162,000 of them, a collection of robust, often tattooed, sometimes obese, lava lava clad folks who live on the two main islands of Savai'i, and Upolu. Here too, for many of these people, the tempo, the style of life is much the same now as it was in 1889, when Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny first appeared-and for some of these folks the conditions of island happiness remains the same. It's a happiness based on a healthy wife, plenty of children, a Fale for cooking in, some coconut trees, bananas, taro, breadfruit trees, a church, a canoe and a few pigs.
But fortunately or unfortunately, independent Western Samoa is beginning to stir. A new airport has been built, new hotels too, and when word gets out about her beaches, mountains and general beauty the tourist onslaught will begin. Added to this, Western Samoa is beginning to consider entry into international life, and into a world community that may offer more than subsistence living.
Still, for Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny, who in 1889 first saw these islands, it was the traditional way of life, coupled with its verdant beauty that first caught their attention. All of this was further enhanced by the presence of the small port town of Apia, which offered a few western style amenities, and a handful of amiable
expatriates.
Advertisement:
