Acting Governor-General issues Statement on the Passing of Malietoa Tanumafili II, GCMG, CBE.

Statement on the Passing of Malietoa Tanumafili II, GCMG, CBE.

-- Virtual Pensacola, Governor-General's Press Releases.

We offer our condolence to the People and Government of Samoa on the passing of His Highness Malietoa Tanumafili. May God guide the people of Samoa as they mourn his passing. Through his long reign, Malietoa represented and guided Samoans with wisdom, humour and insight. He will be missed by those of us who remain in this world.

My the God of all Comfort teach each heart today, bringing knowledge of the Truth, and Peace that passes understanding.

Bo Register, Marquess of Mobile, Baron Von Servers of Fayette,
Acting Governor-General, His Grace being in Georgia,
in Service to The Dominion of British West Florida

END of Governor General's Statement

Obituary Follows:
Malietoa Tanumafili II, GCMG, CBE, (4 January 1913 – 11 May 2007) (also called Susuga) was one of the paramount chiefs, Malietoa (from 1939), and the head of state (O le Ao o le Malo, a position that he held for life) of Samoa from 1962 to 2007. He was co-chief of state in 1962 and became the sole chief of state on April 15, 1963. [1] At the time of his death, he was the oldest national leader in the world. He descended from Samoa's four princely families (Aiga Tupu) and held the King Title "Mālietoa".

He was born in 1913 as the son and third child of Malietoa Tanumafili I and Momoe Lupeuluiva Meleisea. He became the Mālietoa following his father's death.

Upon Samoa's independence in 1962, he was joint head of state with Tupua Tamasese Mea'ole. When the latter died in 1963, he became the sole head of state.

Malietoa Tanumafili II was a follower of the Bahá'í Faith. He was the second royal (after Queen Marie of Romania) to be a member of that religion. The Bahá'í House of Worship in Tiapapata, eight kilometers from the country's capital of Apia, was dedicated by him in 1984. His wife died in 1986.


Malietoa Tanumafili II died at 6:45 P.M. on Friday 11 May 2007, at the Tupua Tamasese Meaole National Hospital at Moto'otua in Apia, Samoa. He was being treated as a patient for pneumonia at the hospital for approximately a week. The cause of his death has not been released.

His death was announced by Samoan Secretary of State Vaasatia Poloma Komiti on SBC TV1. "It is with deepest regret that we inform you of the passing of our Head of State Malietoa Tanumafili II."

At the time of his death in May 2007, Malietoa Tanumafili II was the world's third longest reigning living monarch after Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has reigned since 1946 and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since in 1952.

Tanumafili is survived by two daughters and two sons. His wife, Lili Tunu, died in 1986.