Decolonising Knowledge Production. Collaborative Global North-South Reappraisals of Finnish-Namibian Relations

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E Global History and Decoloniality

Decolonising Knowledge Production: Collaborative Global North-South Reappraisals of Finnish-Namibian Relations

Event Details

Date

I. Wednesday, 10th September, 14:30-16:30
Location
M1053
Theme
E Global History and Decoloniality

Convenor

Leila Koivunen (University of Turku)

Chair

Raita Merivirta (University of Turku)

Panelists

Napandulwe Shiweda (University of Namibia)
Jerkko Holmi (University of Turku)
Leila Koivunen (University of Turku)
Olli Löytty (University of Turku)
Lovisa Tegelela Nampala (Museums Association Namibia)

Papers

Napandulwe Shiweda

Reclaiming Narratives: Ovawambo material culture and knowledge production

Reclaiming Narratives: Ovawambo material culture and knowledge production

Finnish missionaries had been diligent about ethnographic collecting and making notes about the Ovawambo, creating reams of notes, drawings and photographs which are now in many archives and museum collections in Finland. These are probably the largest and most important human history collections of the Ovawambo people and highlight a historical imbalance in the representation and production of knowledge between Namibia and Finland. This paper will argue that by using the Finnish collections of the Ovawambo as historical sources and understanding the specific and located dynamics of the relationship between the Finnish missionaries, their translators, research assistants, brokers and mediators a more nuanced understanding of the material culture, one that demands these archives be made available in Namibia. The archives and museum collections created by the Finnish missionaries need to be understood in the context of wider contemporary historical processes. This is because in Owambo and Finland, there was an imbalance that affected various aspects of knowledge production, including historical narratives, cultural representations, and political discourse. This paper will address these imbalances by promoting diverse voices, decolonizing knowledge by challenging dominant narratives, and fostering more equitable collaborations and exchanges in producing knowledge about Ovawambo and Finnish histories and cultures. The efforts aim to ensure that the perspectives and agency of Ovawambo and other marginalized groups are reclaimed, respected, and amplified.
Leila Koivunen

Two Perspectives on Eva Maria Nanguloshi’s (ca.1863-1929) Life between Two Worlds

Two Perspectives on Eva Maria Nanguloshi’s (ca.1863-1929) Life between Two Worlds

This presentation focuses on the challenges of biographical research of an individual whose life was strongly affected by of late-19th and early-20th century global developments, especially the spread of European overseas mission but also the intensification of global trade and mobility. The person to be discussed is Nanguloshi (ca. 1863–1929), an Aawambo who lived in Owambo in present-day southern Angola and northern Namibia and became a foster child of a Finnish missionary family. Unexpected events, caused by global activities and networks of the time, turned the direction of life of the girl to a new route. Ever since her first encounter with Finnish missionaries and her baptism to Christianity, Nanguloshi lived and balanced between two worlds and remained an exceptional character from the point of view of both of them.I investigate the possibilities and boundaries of knowing about her life and experiences between and as part of two cultural spheres. What are the limits of materials and what can be achieved by combining very different approaches? I discuss two categories of materials, firstly, those that were produced on Nanguloshi by the Finnish Missionary Society as part of its internal communication and to influence mission friends and, secondly, an oral history project that has recently been conducted in Namibia. I worked in collaboration with a Namibian heritage and museum professional who sought to identify and find Nanguloshi’s relatives, local pastors and other knowledgeable informants to tell about her life and the ways in which she is remembered today.
Jerkko Holmi
Olli Löytty

Finnish missionaries recalling Namibia's struggle for independence 1966–1990

Finnish missionaries recalling Namibia's struggle for independence 1966–1990

In this research, we approach the collaboration between Namibians and Finnish missionaries as recollective memory of the Namibian struggle for independence since late 1960s to early 1990s. This study relies heavily on the oral and written histories of those Finnish FELM (Finnish Lutheran Evangelic Mission) missionaries who witnessed the fight against the apartheid regime of the RSA in the northern part of Namibia. The aim of this research is to give voices to those individuals and groups that have not been heard in the previous research, while capitalising on anti-colonial theories and decolonial praxes. The timing of this research could not have been any later. Most of the Finnish missionary workers who witnessed the upheavals of Namibian independence struggle, are mainly well past their eighties and many are already unavailable to be interviewed. However, there still are Finnish missionaries who can be interviewed and thus provide their memories for this research. Additionally, the Finnish missionaries as well as some Namibians have been publishing their memoirs or similar texts that contain information that is utilised in this research. Official archives of FELM provide additional framework to the findings.
Lovisa Tegelela Nampala

The critical analysis of Aawambo care and health system in the late-nineteenth century

The critical analysis of Aawambo care and health system in the late-nineteenth century

This study inquires on the role of one of the Oshiwambo traditional homestead rooms called osakalwa, which the earlier Aawambo ancestor instituted to serving as a health care centre before the nineteenth century. This paper points out where was such centre was set up in the Oshiwambo homestead and was it a must have in every Owambo house and if the answer was yes or no why? The study again critically inquires whether Aawambo had a functional and sounding health supporting system in place or not, and if it had one what was that health system like? The study probes further on how such health system has been operating to ensure the following, which the Western health system replaced and they are, delivering of newly born babies as well as caring for the sick. Another angle this paper looks at is, whether Aawambo entirely cared for their loved ones physically and mentally, and if so what arrangements the stated society had in place and who ensured its smooth operation as well as its continuity to generations and why? The paper questions to find out why the Finnish missionaries introduced Aawambo of Namibia to their modern medical institutions and care system in the late-nineteenth century and lastly, it looks at how Aawambo responded to the Western health system as well as the impact that foreign health system influences had on the current Aawambo community.

Abstract

This panel argues that although Finland had no formal colonies, the Finns were complicit in colonialism, most centrally in producing and disseminating colonial knowledge on non-European areas and peoples, and aims at decolonising the history of Finnish-Namibian knowledge production. In the Grand Duchy of Finland (1809–1917), an autonomous part of the Russian Empire, one manifestation of the desire to contribute to the building of the transnational Christian empire and become a civilizing European nation in its own right, was to set up a Finnish mission in Owambo, the present-day northern Namibia. The work in Owambo set in motion complex epistemological processes as Finns sought to transform the Aawambos’ ways of being in the world. Finns introduced Western modes of education, medicine, material culture and social practices, particularly Evangelical Lutheran faith and literary languages. Simultaneously, the Finnish Missionary Society distributed information about Owambo to the supporters of the cause in Finland through various materials, including mission journals, educational materials, photographs, and African objects displayed in mission exhibitions. Finnish missionary work produced hierarchies and power imbalance between the two nations that were to last for decades. Due to this imbalance throughout much of the common history of the two nations, Namibian voices and agency in the production of knowledge about each other have often been subsumed by Finnish voices and narratives in a colonial manner. Hence, collaboration between Finnish and Namibian scholars is crucial in approaching the epistemological dynamics in Finnish-Namibian relations and in furthering the aim of decolonising knowledge. This panel consists of papers by both Namibian and Finnish scholars.