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Kingdom of Samoa

Independent State of Samoa, Malo Sa'oloto Tuto'atasi o Samoa

Last modified: 2022-09-17 by peter hans van den muijzenberg
Keywords: samoa | saint george cross (black) | saint george cross (white) | star |
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Kingdom of Samoa, 1873-1900

Kingdom of Samoa flag

Malietoa line flag
[Kingdom of Samoa, 1873-1900] image by António Martins, 1 May 2017

Red flag with a symmetrical white cross throughout and a five-pointed star on the upper hoist quadrant. This flag is shown in an emblem on an 1873 arms.
António Martins, 1 May 2017

[ 1873 arms ] image provided by Nozomi Kariyasu, 18 March 2012

The coat of arms of Kingdom of Samoa used during 1879-1900? has a red flag with white cross and a star and motto "LE FAAMOEMOE LELEI" in Samoan language.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 18 March 2012

The words are "the hope virtue", going by http://books.google.com/books/about/A_Samoan_dictionary.html?id=P9VIDPfc6LQC, The London Missionary Society's Samoan Dictionary, 1862
Eugene Ipavec, 18 March 2012

The red flag with a white cross and star is the Kingdom of Samoa, 1879-1900, flag.
Brendan Hennessy, 7 August 2022


Tuiaana line flag
[Kingdom of Samoa, 1873-1900] image by António Martins, 2 May 2017
Source: Die Welt der Flaggen und die Wappen aller Länder, [cra91d] p. 111

The Kingdom of Samoa existed from 2 October 1873 to 28 January 1886 and from ca.1888 to 27 April 1900. Source: Flags of the United State by Whitney Smith
Željko Heimer, 24 September 1996

Red flag with a symmetrical black cross throughout and a white five-pointed star on the upper hoist quadrant.
António Martins, 2 May 2017


Western Samoa (islands of Savai’i, Upolu, Manono and Apolima, of which consisted before the kingdoms of Tuiaana and Malietoa) was administered by Germany from 1899 to 1920, and then by New Zealand until independence in 1962. According to Crampton’s The World of Flags [cra90], this was "the basic flag of the Malietoa kingdom" ... "prior to 1900" ... "probably inspired by missionaries" while the Tuiaana line, who favored the German cause, used flags with black crosses.
António Martins, 3 July 1997


Tupua Tamasesse

[Tupa Tamasesse] image by António Martins, 1 May 2017

Another flag here from the William Crampton book The Complete Guide to Flags [cra89], 1989. This one was under the Western Samoa section of the book, on page 127.

Tupua Tamasesse (1887-1889). The flag is white with a black St. George’s cross throughout, and a white star in a red canton.

I found that the dates for this flag fit roughly between the two time periods for the Kingdom of Samoa (1873-1886 and 1888-1900).
Randy Young, 1 February 1999

White flag with a symmetrical black cross throughout and with the upper hoist quadrant in red with a white five-pointed star on it.
António Martins, 1 May 2017