Before daylight today in one of the most traditional villages of Samoa, Lepea, the life of former church minister Opapo Soana’i Oeti, turned a new leaf.
He has been bestowed the paramount matai title Faumuina.
Dressed in a fine mat with a necklace made of boar’s teeth, and headband decorated with beads and small mirrors, he was carried on a platform by untitled men of the village.
The finest fine mats , some requiring several strong men with long poles made of tree branches to hold them up, were presented by the different clans and relatives of the new Faumuina and his wife.
It started pouring when church ministers of Lepea blessed the new tittle holder.
Many parties holding legitimate claims to the title, have been at logger heads over who should be the holder of the title, traditional head of the village of Lepea, and in the end it was the Land and Titles Court who approved the bestowal on Opapo.
The former Congregational Church of Samoa minister is now a judge of the Land and Titles Court.
He left his ministry after he clashed with CCCS elders over an incident involving one of his daughters in a stigmata claim that went as far as the Vatican.
The title has been vacant for 14 years.
