Nakeke
Nakeke was a mission station of the Finnish Missionary Society in the Ongandjera tribal area of the Ovambos in Ovamboland, present day Namibia. It was established by Emil Liljeblad and Heikki Saari in 1903, when King Tshaanika ruled over Ongandjera.
Background
The first effort of the FMS to work in Ongandjera took place in the mission station of Rehoboth during the years 1871–73.[1]
From 1873, the Finnish missionaries had been able to work only in the tribe of Ondonga. However, in 1903 a new mission station was established in Ongandjera, in a situation in which the Finns feared that the Catholics would establish their presence there. The Rhenish Mission had asked the German government to make a decision, according to which the Finns would be given an exclusive permission to work among the tribes of Ongandjera and Uukwambi, but the government could not agree to that, as the Roman Catholic Centre Party had a strong presence at the Reichstag. Thus the Finns had to claim these tribes as their own through their own work.[2]
The founding of the mission station
In July 1903, Emil Liljeblad was sent to Ongandjera, and in September of the same year he was joined by Heikki Saari. The new mission station was built four kilometres to the east of the old station of Rehoboth, in a place called Nakeke, about half a kilometre from the court of King Tshaanika.
At first, the only person who came to listen to the teaching of the Finns was an old man, who had worked as a shepherd for Martti Rautanen and who was now working for Liljeblad and Saari. However, soon the crowd grew to 20–30 persons. King Tshaanika now began to oppose the Finns. The king was of the opinion that it would be enough if 4–5 people attended the lectures. If the whole tribe was taught to “say mah, mah” (i.e. to sing hymns), who then would be his servants and soldiers. It should be said that according to local standards, Tshaanika was a competent leader of his tribe, and he was not partial to alcoholic drinks. In practice, the early congregation was formed by people of other tribal backgrounds, but they did not always present a good example to the locals.
When Saari was away for a while in 1904, Liljeblad experienced difficulties. The Portuguese were harassing the Ovambos in the north, and the Germans were involved in a war with the Hereros in the south, and the Ovambos feared that the Germans would come and occupy Ovamboland as well. Tshaanika feared for his position, as he had ascended the throne after he had killed his own brother. Some of his relatives lived in the near-by tribe of Uukwaluudhi, and they were harbouring plans to depose him. In this situation Liljeblad sent a servant boy to Uukwaluudhi to buy some cattle, and now Tshaanika became convinced that Liljeblad was involved in a conspiracy. He was now forced to leave Ongandjera. Missionary Saari and a newcomer, Juho Tuominen carried on the work in Nakeke.
Saari and Tuominen began to teach school in July 1904, and in October the following year, they baptized the first five Ongandjera people.[2]
The moving of the mission station to a new location
Nakeke turned out to be an unsuitable place for the mission station, as during the dry season it was difficult to obtain water there. Thus in 1908, Saari built a new station very close to the original site of the station of Rehoboth. This name was now adopted for the new station.[2]
Sources
- Peltola, Matti (1958). Sata vuotta suomalaista lähetystyötä 1859–1959. II: Suomen Lähetysseuran Afrikan työn historia [‘One Hundred Years of Finnish Missionary Work 1859–1959. II: The History of FMS’s Missionary Work in Africa’]. Helsinki: The Finnish Missionary Society. Search this book on
References
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