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50 free Samoa trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Forty-four questions on Samoa, the Polynesian nation that jumped across the International Date Line and switched sides of the road in the same decade. Geography covers Apia, Upolu and Savai'i, Mount Silisili, the Saleaula lava fields, To Sua ocean trench and the eight islets. History runs from the Lapita landings at Mulifanua, Roggeveen and Bougainville's 'Navigator Islands', the 1889 hurricane that wrecked three navies in Apia harbour, the Tripartite Convention, German Samoa, the 1918 flu carried by the SS Talune, Black Saturday and the Mau, to 1962 independence, the 1997 name change and Fiame Naomi Mata'afa's first female premiership. Culture rounds cover fa'a Samoa and the matai, the 'ava ceremony, the pe'a and malu tattoos, fa'afafine, the siva and slap dance, the fale, Nafanua and Sina and the Eel, the tala, the Southern Cross flag, Robert Louis Stevenson as Tusitala at Vailima, the Baha'i temple, and rugby's Manu Samoa. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its islands and its people, and the sentence that establishes it is quoted under each explanation. Suits a pub quiz, a Pacific studies class or anyone with a ticket to Faleolo.
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Q 01What are Samoa's two main islands?
Savai'i and Upolu
Together they hold 99 percent of the land; Manono and Apolima are the two smaller inhabited islands and Tutuila belongs to American Samoa.
Q 02What is the capital of Samoa?
Apia
It sits on Upolu, home to nearly three-quarters of the population; Pago Pago is the capital of American Samoa.
Q 03Which people discovered and settled the Samoan Islands about 3,500 years ago?
The Lapita
Their earliest remains were found at Mulifanua on Upolu; their pottery trail runs across the western Pacific.
Q 04Early European explorers called the Samoan archipelago what, in tribute to local seafaring skill?
The Navigator Islands
Bougainville coined it in 1768; the Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen had been the first outsider to sight the islands in 1722.
Q 05A storm on 15 March 1889 ended a stand-off in Apia harbour between which three navies?
Germany, Britain and the United States
The hurricane wrecked or damaged the fleets and postponed the carve-up; the Tripartite Convention followed in 1899.
Q 06Under the 1899 Tripartite Convention the larger, westerly islands became a colony of which empire?
Germany
Wilhelm Solf was the first governor; the eastern islands became American Samoa and Britain took Tonga and the Solomons in compensation.
Q 07Which country's troops seized the German colony without a shot on 29 August 1914?
New Zealand
Britain asked for the 'great and urgent imperial service'; New Zealand then ran the islands under League and UN mandates until 1962.
Q 08The 1918 flu reached Samoa aboard which ship, allowed to berth in breach of quarantine?
SS Talune
About a fifth of the population died; Helen Clark, prime minister of the administering power, formally apologised in 2002.
Q 09Roughly what fraction of Samoa's population died in the 1918-19 influenza epidemic?
One fifth
Ninety percent were infected; 30 percent of adult men died, and Samoans asked to be transferred to American or British rule.
Q 10The non-violent independence movement that colonial police fired on in Apia in 1929 was called what?
The Mau
Paramount chief Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III was shot in the back on 'Black Saturday'; the movement's name means 'strongly held opinion'.
Q 11Samoa became independent, the first small-island Pacific state to do so, on 1 January of which year?
1962
Oddly, independence is celebrated on 1 June; the country joined the Commonwealth in 1970 and the UN in 1976.
Q 12Until 1997 the country was officially known as what?
Western Samoa
American Samoa protested the change; the old name lives on in the .ws internet domain.
Q 13On 7 September 2009 Samoa became the first 21st-century country to do what?
Switch to driving on the left
The change aligned it with Australia and New Zealand, where many Samoans live and from where cheap used cars come.
Q 21Tusitala's 1892 book on the great powers' scramble for Samoa is titled what?
A Footnote to History
Its subtitle is 'Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa'; he warned chiefs that if they did not use their land, others would.
Q 22The traditional male Samoan tattoo covering the body from knees to ribs is called what?
Pe'a
A man who bears it is a soga'imiti; women receive the malu from knee to upper thigh.
Q 23Samoan males born who take on a feminine gender role are known as what, literally 'in the manner of a woman'?
Fa'afafine
Contrary to Western myth, they are not raised as girls for lack of daughters; Tonga's fakaleiti is a cognate term.
Q 14Which date never happened when Samoa crossed the International Date Line at the end of 2011?
Friday 30 December
Jumping from UTC-11 to UTC+13 turned 21 hours behind Sydney into three hours ahead, easing trade with Australia and New Zealand.
Q 15Who became Samoa's first female prime minister in 2021 after a constitutional crisis?
Fiame Naomi Mata'afa
Her father was the country's first prime minister; her FAST party ended Tuila'epa's 22-year rule and four decades of HRPP government.
Q 16Only holders of what traditional title may stand for the Samoan seats in the Fono?
Matai chiefly titles
There are more than 25,000 of them, about 5 percent women; universal suffrage only arrived in 1990 and at least 10 percent of MPs must be women.
Q 17What is Samoa's head of state called in Samoan?
O le Ao o le Malo
Only paramount chiefs have held it; two chiefs served as joint heads of state for life from independence.
Q 18Samoa's flag is a red field with a blue canton bearing five white stars in what pattern?
The Southern Cross
Two paramount chiefs designed it with four stars in 1948; a fifth was added the next year.
Q 19What is Samoa's currency?
The tala
Introduced in 1967 at two to the pound, its name is the Samoan cognate of 'dollar' and it divides into 100 sene, or cents.
Q 20Which Scottish author settled at Vailima, was called Tusitala and was buried on Mount Vaea in 1894?
Robert Louis Stevenson
'Teller of Tales' built the islands' first two-storey house; Samoans carried his coffin up the mountain on their shoulders.
Q 24The traditional Samoan way of life, encompassing custom, chiefly politics and language, is called what?
Fa'a Samoa
Developed over 3,000 years, it centres on va fealoa'i, the relationships between people, governed by respect, or fa'aaloalo.
Q 25What is the traditional Samoan house, open-sided with no walls, called?
Fale
Coconut-frond blinds are dropped at night or in bad weather; the tufuga fai fale are the master builders.
Q 26The Samoan male 'slap dance', made by striking parts of the body in rhythm, is called what?
Fa'ataupati
The gentle storytelling siva and the drum-driven sasa are the other signature dances.
Q 27Which goddess of war in Samoan mythology was deified and courted by successive rulers?
Nafanua
She was the daughter of Saveasi'uleo, ruler of the spirit realm Pulotu; Salamasina was a real 16th-century queen.
Q 28The Samoan legend of 'Sina and the Eel' explains the origin of what?
The first coconut tree
The eel's buried head sprouted the tree; Tagaloa is the creator god of the wider mythology.
Q 29What is the highest point in Samoa, at 1,858 metres?
Mount Silisili
It stands on Savai'i, the only still-active volcanic island; Matavanu's 1905-11 eruptions left 50 square kilometres of lava at Saleaula.
Q 30Savai'i ranks where among Polynesian islands by size?
Sixth largest
Only New Zealand's three main islands and Hawaii's Big Island and Maui are bigger; it is the South Pacific's largest shield volcano.