Tui Manuûa was the title of the ruler or paramount chief of the Manuûa Islands in present-day American Samoa, which expanded to become the Tui Manuûa Confederacy, sometimes called the Samoan Empire. Samoan expansionism and projected hegemony in Oceania began with the founding of the Tui Manuûa title. Traditional oral literature of Samoa and Manuûa talks of a widespread Polynesian network or confederacy (or "empire").
The Tui Manuûa is the oldest title of ancient Samoa and all Polynesia. According to Samoan oral histories, the first Tui Manuûa was the son of the Samoan supreme god, Tagaloa. In Samoan lore, the islands of Manuûa (Ofu, Olosega, and Taûu) are always the first lands to be created or drawn from the sea; consequently the Tui Manuûa is the first human ruler mentioned. This "senior" ranking of the Tui Manuûa title continues to be esteemed and acknowledged by Samoans despite the fact that the title itself has not been occupied since the American takeover in the early 20th century.
Traditional oral literature of Samoa and Tonga speaks of a wide spread SamoaâÂÂatoa empire that was ruled by the successive Tui Manuûa dynasties. Manuûa genealogies and religious oral literature also suggest that the Tui Manuûa had long been one of the most prestigious and powerful paramounts of the Pacific and the first pre-eminent ruler of all Samoa. Oral history suggests that the Tui Manuûa chiefdom ruled Samoa, Tonga, parts of Fiji, Rarotonga and HawaiâÂÂi. Commerce and exchange routes between the western Polynesian societies is well documented and it is speculated that the Tui Manuûa dynasty grew through its success in obtaining control over the oceanic trade of currency goods such as finely woven ceremonial mats, whale ivory "tabua", obsidian and basalt tools, chiefly red feathers, and seashells reserved for royalty (such as polished nautilus and the egg cowry).
Eventually, the maritime empire began to decline and a new empire rose from the south headed by the first TuâÂÂi Tonga ûAhoûeitu who according to the oral traditions of the noble Ata family in Tonga, was a son of the Tui ManuâÂÂa. Other oral traditions suggest that ûAhoûeitu was the son of Tangaloa âÂÂEitumatupuâÂÂa from ManuâÂÂa and a Tongan woman âÂÂIlaheva VaâÂÂepopua of Niuatoputapu. Around 950 AD, Tuûi Tonga ûAhoûeitu started to expand his rule outside of Tonga. Samoa's Savaii, Upolu and Tutuila islands were to eventually succumb to Tongan rule, and would remain part of the empire for almost 400 years. However, as the ancestral homeland of the Tuûi Tonga dynasty and the abode of deities such as Tagaloa ûEitumatupuûa, Tonga Fusifonua, and Tavatavaimanuka, the Manuûa islands of Samoa were considered sacred by the early Tongan kings and thus were never occupied by the Tongans, allowing for it to remain under Tui Manuûa rule.
By the time of the tenth Tuûi Tonga Momo, and his successor, TuûitÃÂtui, the Tuûi Tonga's empire had grown to include much of the former domains of the Tui Fiti and Tui Manuûa. The expulsion of the Tongans in the 13th century from neighbouring Upolu and Savaii would not lead to the islands returning to Tui Manuûa but to the rise of a new dominant polity in the western isles: the Malietoa, whose feats in liberating Samoa from the Tongan occupants led to the establishment of a new political order in Upolu and Savaii which remained unchallenged for nearly 300 years. Although the Tui Manuûa would never again regain rulership of the surrounding islands, it is permanently held in high esteem as the progenitor of the great Samoan and Tongan lineages.
The Manuûa islands were grouped with Tutuila and Aunuûu as the United States possession now called American Samoa. The presidency of the United States, and the military authorities of the US Navy, supplanted the native administrative role of the Tui Manuûa, through the arrests of chiefs of the Tui Manuûa and two trials of the Tui Manuûa, one on an American warship off the coast of Taûu, called the "Trial of the Ipu". On 6 July 1904 Tui Manuûa Elisala officially ceded the islands of Manuûa to the United States through the signing of the Treaty of Cession of Manuûa. He was relegated the office of Governor of Manuûa for the term of life and the understanding that the Tui Manuûa title would follow him to the grave. He died on 2 July 1909.
After a fifteen-year break, the office was revived in 1924 when Chris Young, a member of the Anoalo clan of the Tui Manuûa family and the brother of Tui Manuûa Matelita who reigned between 1890 and 1895, was named Tui Manuûa by the general assembly of the Faletolu and Anoalo. American officials were worried that the Manuûans were restoring a "king" who would cause trouble for the administration. Governor Edward Stanley Kellogg opposed the bestowal and had the new Tui Manuûa brought to Tutuila where he was prevented from exercising the powers of his office. The Governor did not recognise the title on the basis that a monarchy was incompatible within the framework of the Constitution of the United States, stating that the previous Tui Manuûa had pledged under duress to be the last person to hold the title. The descendants of Tui Manuûa are numerous.