Career
He held the chiefly title of Turaga na Gonesau, or Paramount Chief of the Nakorotubu district in Ra Province in the northern western part of Viti Levu. "Turaga na Gonesau" means the "blessed child". The surname "Malani" was given to Ratu Malani"s father by Lau chief "Roko Malani" as a token of appreciation and in remembrance for the Nakorotubu warriors in sailing to Lau and subduing an uprising in Kedekede, Lakeba, Lau in the 18th century in what is commonly known as the Vuakaloa Campaign or Blackboar Campaign.
Ratu Malani was a cousin of the late Prime Minister and President, Kamisese Mara.
lieutenant was assumed that Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba"s decision to adhere to Ratu Sukuna"s request for Ratu Mara to abandon his sixth year medicine study at the University of Otago in New Zealand and to study leadership and politics at the Oxford University was because he had a replacement for a medical doctor in Ratu Malani. He practiced medicine for many years, mainly in rural centres, and was a pioneer in the fight to eradicate malaria and filiriasis in Fiji and the Solomon Islands.
He retired from medical service in 1994 to take up a new career in politics. He retired from politics at the age of 79 and did not seek reelection during the 1999 general election.
He died in Suva on 14 June 2005 at the age of 85.
Ratu Malani"s suggestion during the Bau Great Council of Chiefs meeting in 1982 for young Fijian chiefs to be identified and sent for further education and leadership training to Oxford University and Yale University was never adopted by Ratu Mara"s Alliance Party government because of its multiracial policy.