Albert Wendt

Albert Wendt ONZ CNZM (born 27 October 1939) is a Samoan poet and writer who also lives in New Zealand. Among his works is Leaves of the Banyan Tree (1979).

Albert Tuaopepe Wendt is the most acclaimed Samoan novelist, poet and short story writer from Samoan and the South Pacific literary region. He was born in 1939 in Western Samoan; he is the member of the aiga (extended family)Sa-Tuaopepe, branch of the Sa-Tuala and he was brought up in Apia where he completed his primary schol education. in 1952, he was granted a scholarship from the New Zealand administration and moved to the New Plymouth Boys' High School in New Zealand from where he graduated in 1957. [1]

Albert Wendt was born in Apia, Samoa. Wendt is of German heritage through his great-grandfather from his patrilineal ancestry, which he reflected it in some of his poetry works. He studied at Ardmore Teacher's College and at the Victoria University of Wellington, graduating with an M.A. in History. His Master's thesis was about the Mau, Sāmoa's independence movement from colonialism during the early 1900s (decade). His thesis was entitled Guardians and Wards: A study of the origins, causes and the first two years of the Mau in Western Sāmoa.

He returned in 1965 to Western Samoa, becoming headmaster of Samoa College. In 1974 he moved to Fiji, where he taught at the University of the South Pacific.

In 1977 Wendt returned home to set up the University of the South Pacific Center in Sāmoa. He worked closely with the literary journal Mana, and edited in 1975 collections of poems from Fiji, Western Samoa, the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), and the Solomon Islands.

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