Who Will Be The Next Malietoa?

Samoa's Head of State...90-year-old Malietoa Tanumafili.

A deadly predicament is facing Samoa that will test it in a way last seen in the 19th century. Civil war was the bloody consequence then and the passions and vested interests that dominated at that time are paramount now.

Few people will talk about the pending crisis; it's the dark family secret that touches on the very soul of fa'a Samoa, the essence of any Samoan, which could destabilise the nation.

It's a double-headed question of succession: who will be the next head of state and, more importantly, who will be the next Malietoa, one of the royal titles of Samoa?

The reason why one has to go back to the 19th century to see the last such battle is largely to do with one remarkable man, the current Head of State, 90-year-old Malietoa Tanumafili II, the fifth longest serving world leader. His longevity, and that of his father before him, kept the issue of succession off the agenda for a century.

Samoa has four tama-a-aiga or royal titles, heads of extended families.

When Samoa was negotiating with New Zealand for independence and drafting a constitution, the question of head of state, or the O le Ao o le Malo, was potentially vexatious. But they came up with a joint life-term Head of State. One was Malietoa, the other was another tama-a-aiga, Tupua Tamasese Meole.

Under the constitution, the Fale Fono or Legislative Assembly will elect the next head of state. The presumption, not stated in the constitution, is that the post will go to a tama-a-aiga.

But it has never been tested. Independence came in 1962 and a year later Tupua Tamasese died. Malietoa lives on, healthy, happy, wise and a very much-loved man. Incorruptible, humble and funny, he is a marked contrast to the leadership in the south, his relatives in Tonga's Royal Palace.

When he dies the Malietoa title will be vacant, effectively leaving only three possible candidates to be head of state.

The most likely holder will be Tupua Tamasese Efi, son of the first co-head of state. In the 1970s he served as prime minister, under the Tupuola Efi title, and has collected a slew of paramount titles. Although he says he does not want the job, he is not his own man: he must serve the thousands who eventually bestowed the royal title on him.

That will be the easy bit; head of state is a ceremonial title in which the holder must act on the advice of government. Not so the next Malietoa, awesomely powerful with control of much of Samoa's lands. The title came about nearly a thousand years ago when Samoa was under Tonga's suzerainty. Led by two chiefs, Samoans were able to drive the occupiers off, who left with a shouted chant across the waters: "Malie tau, malie toa" (splendidly fought, brave warriors!). As a result, it became one of the central titles and when Europeans showed up later, it was perhaps the most interfered with of them all. This was aided by the arrival in 1830 of London Missionary Society's John Williams at Sapapali'i, Savai'i, where the paramount chief Malietoa Vaiinupo was engaged in a bitter and violent power struggle to become Tafa'ifa, the combined chief and effectively ruler of all Samoa. He succeeded, became Christian and as a consequence, so did all of Samoa in short order.

Through the 19th century the colonial powers Britain, Germany and the United States, strongly interfered with the business of chiefly titles and once with their favourite candidate in place, pushed them on to assume the kingship of Samoa which was an alien concept. The Malietoa titleholders tended to be pro-British‹and consequently several were taken into exile by Imperial Germany and detained in diverse places like the Cameroon or the Northern Marianas.

Two titleholders dominated the 20th century; both called Malietoa Tanumafili, father and son. The first was a loyal supporter of New Zealand when it took over the islands in 1914. Somewhere in Parliament in Wellington there is a delicate and precious fine mat presented to the people of New Zealand by that Malietoa in the 1930s.

The longevity of both men has meant that there are a few people in Samoa today with first-hand experience of succession in such a crucial title.

It will be a two-stage process. The first will involve defining those who have the authority within the Sa Malietoa, the extended family, to name a successor. By tradition, authority rests with the nine senior matai or chiefs in the village of Malie, west of Apia, in the district of Tuamasaga on the island of Upolu. In theory, they must also consult the district of Safotulafai in Savai'i and the island of Manono.

But it will not be simple as the Sa Malietoa is large and diverse, and those excluded can be counted on going to the Lands and Titles Court at Mulinu'u, on the western side of Apia harbour. There, some brave judge will make the decision on who can make the next decision.

Thus empowered, the matai will go off and consider who will be so blessed. Nothing is automatic, and titles do not always pass to the first born of the next generation. One factor to consider will be the deathbed statement of the departed titleholder. As it is, the current Malietoa does not appear to have groomed a successor.