Subsequently, around the beginning of the 15th century, these titles returned to the latter's niece, Salamāsina, a daughter of Tamalelagi (the concurrent Tui Aʻana) and Vaetoeifaga, a Tongan princess and daughter of the then-Tuʻi Tonga Kauʻulufonua I. Salamāsina would be the first tafaʻifa formally recognised as such.
Successive attempts to create a Western-style monarchy in Samoa, unrelated to the tafaʻifa title, contributed to the Samoan Civil War.
The concept of the tafaʻifa fell into disuse following the independence of Western Samoa in 1962, in favour of that of the tama a ʻāiga, from which modern Samoan heads of state are drawn.
Western visitors in Samoa during the 18th and 19th centuries often referred to the tafaʻifa as a "king", but the title itself did not carry any inherent authority.
A tafaʻifa's authority was derived from each of the separate pāpā titles they held, and holding all of them did not grant the individual any access to additional prerogatives.