Biographical entry: Saemala, Francis Joseph (1944 - )
- Born
- 1944
Details
Francis Joseph Saemala was born in 1944 at Auki on Malaita and was educated at primary schools there and at Buma. He studied for two years at St. Joseph's School at Tenaru before completing his secondary school education in Queensland, Australia. He was a teacher at St. Paul's at Aruligo before, in 1968, he became one of the first Solomon Islands students to attend the University of the South Pacific. He became President of the University's Students' Union in 1970 and was a leader of protests against French nuclear weapons tests. In his first vacation from school he travelled to the United States as part of a study group of students from Asia and the Pacific. Between 1968 and 1972, he studied at universities in Fiji and New Zealand, and graduated with a B.A. After a year's training at Wellington Teachers' College, he returned in 1974 to the Solomon Islands and joined the public service. He was the first local head of the Central Planning Office and was then transferred to the position of Private Secretary to the Chief Minister. In 1978 Saemala became Special Secretary to the first Prime Minister, Peter Kenilorea (q.v.). He was also sent to prison at Rove for two months in 1978 for fighting with his close relative and Leader of the Opposition, Bartholomew Ulufa'alu (q.v.). (NS 31 Mar 1969; Saemala 1979, cover; STT 26 July 1978)
Related entries
Published resources
Books
- Saemala, Francis, Our Independent Solomon Islands, Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific and Solomon Islands Centre, Honiara, 1979. Details