Tautai ― Samoa, World History, and the Life of Ta?峴i O. F. Nelson

This is the story of a man who came from the edge of a mighty empire and then challenged it at its very heart. This biography of Ta’isi O.F. Nelson chronicles the life of a man described as the “archenemy” of New Zealand and its greater whole, the British Empire. He was Samoa’s richest man who used his wealth and unique international access to further the Samoan cause and was financially ruined in the process. In the aftermath of the hyper-violence of the First World War, Ta’isi embraced nonviolent resistance as a means to combat a colonial surge in the Pacific that gripped his country for nearly two decades. This surge was manned by heroes of New Zealand’s war campaign, who attempted to hold the line against the groundswell of challenges to the imperial order in the former German colony of Samoa that became a League of Nations mandate in 1921. Stillborn Samoan hopes for greater freedoms under this system precipitated a crisis of empire. It led Ta’isi on global journeys in search of justice taking him to Geneva, the League of Nations headquarters, and into courtrooms in Samoa, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Ta’isi ran a global campaign of letter writing, petitions, and a newspaper to get his people’s plight heard. For his efforts he was imprisoned and exiled not once but twice from his homeland of Samoa.

Using private papers and interviews for the first time O’Brien tells a deeply compelling account of Tai’si’s life lived through turbulent decades. By following Tai’si’s story readers also learn a history of Samoa’s Mau movement that attracted international attention. The author's care for detail provides a nuanced interpretation of its history and Tai’si’s role in the broader context of world history.

The first biography of Ta’isi O.F. Nelson, Tautai is a powerful and passionate story that is both personal and one that encircles the globe. It touches on shared histories and causes that have animated and enraged populations across the world throughout the twentieth century to the present day.