Sir Ebia Olewale (1940–2009) was a politician in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

(PNG). He was elected as a member of the

House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea The House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea was the legislature of the territory of Papua and New Guinea from 1964 to 1972. Before 1964, the Legislative Council of Papua and New Guinea sat from 1951 to 1964 under the Papua and New Guinea Act 1949 ...

in 1968 and went on to hold several ministerial positions during the period of self-governance and after PNG's independence in 1975, including that of deputy prime minister. He was knighted in 1983 and served as chancellor of the

University of Goroka University of Goroka is a university in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. It provides teaching in three schools (Education, Science & Technology, and Humanities) and in three institutes (Postgraduate Studies, Technical Vocational ...

from 2000 to 2006. From 2002 until his death, he was a director of the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program.

Early life and education

Niwia Ebia Olewale was born on 21 February 1940 in Ture Ture, a village not far from the administrative centre of

Daru Daru is the capital of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea and a former Catholic bishopric. Daru town falls under the jurisdiction of Daru Urban LLG. The township is entirely located on an island that goes by the same name, which is loca ...

in what is now the

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: *Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provinc ...

of Papua New Guinea. His mother was one of the few people in the area at the time to have waged employment. He studied at a

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational miss ...

school from 1949 to 1952, and then moved to a school in Daru, from 1952 to 1957. He then transferred to

Sogeri National High School Sogeri National High School is a school situated in Sogeri in the Central Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG). It was the country's first national high school and it educates students from all over the country in Forms 5 and 6 (Grades 11 and 12) ...

near

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New Z ...

, the country's only national-level high school at the time. In fact, he was selected to receive a scholarship to go to school in Australia, but was considered, at 17, to be too old. He was at Sogeri at the same time as many of PNG's future leaders during the independence period. An active participant in school debates, he became an effective public speaker. In 1964 he enrolled at a Teachers College in Port Moresby. A year later, he started to teach at Daru High School, transferring to Kila Kila High School in Port Moresby the following year. He resigned at the end of 1967 to seek election. In Port Moresby he was a member of the Bully Beef Club, a political discussion group that included several Sogeri students and led to the founding of the

Pangu Pati The Pangu Pati, also known as the Pangu Party or Papua and Niugini Union Pati, is a political party in Papua New Guinea. As of September 2019, the party had 23 of 111 seats in the National Parliament. History The party was founded in June 1967 ...

, which would form PNG's first independent government in 1975.

Political career

Olewale won the South Fly Open seat in the 1968 election for the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea. Having become a member of the Pangu Pati, he was re-elected in the 1972 election, although he did not reveal his membership of the party until after the election. He served under prime minister

Michael Somare Sir Michael Thomas Somare (9 April 1936 – 26 February 2021) was a Papua New Guinean politician. Widely called the "father of the nation" (), he was the first Prime Minister after independence. At the time of his death, Somare was also the lo ...

as education minister in 1972 and 1973. Following PNG's independence in 1975, Olewale was appointed as justice minister. Re-elected to what was by then the

National Parliament of Papua New Guinea The National Parliament of Papua New Guinea is the unicameral national legislature in Papua New Guinea. It was created in 1964 as the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea but gained its current name after the nation was granted independence ...

in the

1977 Papua New Guinean general election General elections were held in Papua New Guinea between 18 June and 9 July 1977, the first since independence from Australia in 1975. The Pangu Party led by Prime Minister Michael Somare emerged as the largest in the National Parliament. Somare su ...

he became the deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs. To a certain extent this was by default as

Albert Maori Kiki Sir Albert Maori Kiki (21 September 193113 March 1993) was a Papua New Guinea politician. He was one of the founders of the Pangu Party, which demanded 'home rule leading to eventual independence' for New Guinea. Born in the Kerema district on the ...

was expected to become the deputy prime minister, but he failed to be elected. Together with the secretary for foreign affairs,

Anthony Siaguru Sir Anthony Siaguru (4 November 1946 – 16 April 2004) was a Papua New Guinean civil servant, lawyer, international diplomat, politician, sportsman and anti-corruption campaigner. Early life and education Anthony Siaguru was born on 4 Novemb ...

, Olewale negotiated the

Torres Strait Treaty The Torres Strait Treaty is a treaty signed between Australia and Papua New Guinea. The treaty defined the border between Australia and Papua New Guinea following the latter's independence from Australia in 1975. The treaty also set out the manne ...

with Australia and a border agreement with

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. He was not re-elected in 1982 and never returned to the parliament. The period after his election defeat was a difficult time for him. He lacked the academic qualifications to take a senior job in the civil service and his political opponents were in office. He experienced some business failures. In 1994, on the recommendation of the PNG government, the

Commonwealth Secretariat The Commonwealth Secretariat is the main intergovernmental agency and central institution of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is responsible for facilitating co-operation between members; organising meetings, including the Commonwealth Heads o ...

chose him to be an observer at the first post-

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

general election in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. In 1995 he became a consultant to

BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

and the

Ok Tedi Mine The Ok Tedi Mine is an open-pit copper and gold mine in Papua New Guinea located near the headwaters of the Ok Tedi River, in the Star Mountains Rural LLG of the North Fly District of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. The mine is oper ...

, which is situated in Western Province. In 2000 he was appointed as a director of the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program Ltd, which worked mainly in Western Province, a position he held until his death. From 2000 to 2006 he was chancellor of the

, a university that emphasises teacher training in its curriculum.

Honours

Olewale was made a Knight Bachelor in the

1983 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1983 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countries ...

Death

Olewale died on 13 January 2009. He had two wives and nine children. His funeral took place in Port Moresby and was attended by over one thousand mourners, including the Governor-General, Sir

Paulias Matane Sir Paulias Nguna Matane (21 September 1931 – 12 December 2021) was a Papua New Guinean politician who served as the eighth Governor-General of Papua New Guinea from 29 June 2004 to 13 December 2010. His memoir ''My Childhood in New Guinea'' ...

, the prime minister, Sir Michael Somare and Lady

Veronica Somare Veronica Somare (born 1946), known as Lady Somare, is a former first lady of Papua New Guinea. Her husband, Michael Somare, was the country's first prime minister and is known as the "father of the nation." Veronica Somare has been honoured for he ...

, the deputy Prime Minister

Puka Temu Sir Puka Temu, (born 7 January 1954), is a Papua New Guinean politician. He has been a member of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea since 2002, representing the electorate of Abau Open. A former Deputy Prime Minister under Michael So ...

and the leader of the opposition, Sir

Mekere Morauta The Right Honourable Sir Mekere Morauta (12 June 1946 – 19 December 2020) was a Papua New Guinean politician and economist who served as the 7th Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 1999 to 2002. Inheriting a depressed economy and a fra ...

. He was buried in Kunini in Western Province.

Early life and education

Political career

Honours

Death

References

Further reading