Gatoaitele Savea Sano Malifa is a Samoan poet, playwright, writer and newspaper editor. Born in the village of Afega in Samoa on August 12 1948, Malifa attended Samoa College where he first began to demonstrate the makings of a wordsmith, winning essay prizes and dreaming of becoming a writer.
He went on to New Zealand in the late 1960s where he studied mechanical engineering in Wellington. But once a creative, always a creative and the aspiring author left his engineering job to pursue his writing ambition with determination and unbridled curiosity.
It was in the city of Wellington, New Zealand that Malifa immersed himself in the world of literature and began writing his own poetry. He was inspired by the likes of poet James K Baxter, whose eccentric rebellious nature resonated with the young Samoan poet at the time, so much that in his early travels, Malifa went to visit him in Jerusalem New Zealand and the two forged a friendship. One of Malifa’s first published work was “Belching Flame’ an ode to the New Zealand poet following his death.
After spending some time travelling around Aotearoa the wanderlust-filled Poet grew restless again and set his sights on America. His American odyssey began in Hawaii and from there he went through to the American East Coast via Washington D.C and up to New York.
A voracious reader, Malifa was inspired by Jack Kerouac’s “on the road” and was taken with the idea of criss-crossing America. Led by his insatiable inquisitiveness and armed with a Greyhound bus ticket, the young Samoan writer travelled around America for three years seeing and experiencing the country from the sleepy small towns to bustling metropolitan cities.
In 1975 his first book of poems “ Looking Down at Waves” became the first book of poems by a Pacific Islander to be published. The collection of poems chronicled his experiences during his travels from New Zealand to Samoa to America -this period gave him the experience and preparation for writing and journalism and on his return to Samoa in 1977 he worked for the newspaper ‘Samoa Times’ as a reporter.
In 1978, he and his friend eventually started their own newspaper with one manual typewriter and a supply of paper. It was in his friend’s cookhouse that the Samoa Observer was born and today it is Samoa’s leading national newspaper.
In 1992 the Poet and Journalist published a book of his poems ‘Song and Return’ which featured 12 poems inspired by his wife and muse, Jean. It also contained a satirical play, “A Kava Bowl called Paranoia” which was based on the parliament of Samoa at the time.
His first novel “Alms of Oblivion” was published in 1993. It had autobiographical elements to it with the story being set in Samoa but included life in New Zealand and the United States.
During his time as a journalist and the Editor of the Samoa Observer, Malifa won numerous awards for his never-ending efforts to fight for press freedom in Samoa and the Pacific. He was a pioneer in the Pacific in the world of journalism and was recognized for his service by the following prestigious awards:
- Pacific Press Freedom Award by Pacific Island News Association in 1994 and 2000
- Commonwealth Press Union’s Astor Award for Press Freedom 1998
- Gold Winner, International Freedom of the Press Award Supported by Index on Censorship 1998
- Only Australasian to be selected as one of the 50 Press Freedom Heroes from around the world of the last 50 years by the International Press Institute 2000
- Recipient of the Samoa Order of Merit for his services to literature and Press Freedom 2014
Today, Malifa is the Editor in Chief of Samoa’s award winning newspaper, Samoa Observer which is celebrating its 40th year anniversary this year. A lion and leader in the Pacific for journalism that paved the way for Press freedom for Samoa and the region, the writer returns to his first true love of poetry and writing.
He holds the matai titles’, Gatoaitele and Savea of Afega.