Su’esu’e Manogi: In Search of Fragrance

Book excerpt: This book is a celebration of His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi Efi’s intellectual and cultural legacy to Samoa, providing Tui Atua’s writings and thoughts on Samoan indigenous knowledge. It was first compiled and published as a festschrift in commemoration of his seventieth birthday. Tui Atua is Samoa’s Head of State and is currently the only holder of one of Samoa’s four pāpā (aristocratic chiefly) titles – Tui Atua. The book also contains responses from fourteen of Samoa’s leading and emerging scholars (including two Rhodes Scholars), based within and outside Samoa. The book searches for the best of what His Highness terms ‘the Samoan indigenous reference’ and enlarges our contemporary understandings of indigenous knowledge.