A representative of the donor-funded anti-violence program Spotlight Initiative says Samoa’s ifoga (apology) practice is a deterrence to prevent violence against women and girls.

Lualua Tautu Vaeai, who is the representative for traditional leaders and rural villages in the Samoa Spotlight Initiative National Reference Group, told the Samoa Observer that the community’s use of the ifoga can be a deterrence to preventing and reducing the high rates of violence against women and girls in Samoa.

Using the arrival of Christianity in Samoa and the foundation of its teachings that "Jesus died for our sins", Lualua said it is his view that while the ifoga leads to the forgiveness of one's crimes, by practice the perpetrator has to be physically beaten after the ifoga. 

”When the Gospel arrived in Samoa, we learned that Jesus Christ died for our sins and for everyone at that. In the Ifoga, the family and the village of the person guilty of the crime will have to carry out the ifoga under a large fine mat in front of the victim’s family house, until they are forgiven by them,” he said

“The ifoga will always end in tears of forgiveness. Who wouldn’t have the heart to forgive those under the fine mat? The tradition is such that it compels the family to forgive. However, don’t think that their crime and sin is forgotten."

Lualua said that after the Ifoga, the perpetrator is taken and placed in the middle of the village council where they will proceed to physically beat him as per tradition.

“This is done so it washes away any thought of committing such crimes again. Culture and traditional punishments like these which helped deter criminal behavior in the past are no longer feared.”

Lualua is an advocate for ending violence against women and girls and holds a seat in the CSO NRG overseeing the Samoa Spotlight Initiative work in the country and has actively represented traditional leaders in Samoa. 

Last month high chiefs and untitled men from the village of Vaimoso did a demonstration that showed the application of the ifoga as a critical component of the Samoan justice system.