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Missionaries followed hunters and merchants into Africa. The mission stations they established later came to serve as important stops for merchants with trade routes often passing through them. In fact, missionaries are considered to have been the forerunners of colonisation in Namibia, and Africa generally.
The first to arrive in the 1750s were British missionaries from the London Missionary Society. The German Rheinish Missionary Society focused on spreading the gospel in the Herero region in central and southern Namibia. On the inititative of the Rheinish Missionary Society, the Finnish mission settled in northern Owamboland. The most famous of the German missionaries was Carl Hugo Hahn, who also advised the Finns on the setting up of their mission stations.
The Finnish Missonary Society was founded in 1859. The first five preachers to train at its missionary school set off for Owamboland in 1870, accompanied by a group of craftsmen. Owamboland takes its name from the Owambo people who live in the region. Each Owambo tribe occupied their own territory, ruled by a tribal chief. The arrivals from Finland were initially invited to settle and work in the Ndonga Kingdom but their activities began to expand as other tribal chiefs gave them permission to enter their land. However, the chiefs' hostility towards their work meant that from time to time they were forced to pull out of mission stations.
Over the decades, Finnish mission work came to be focused on the Owamboland and Kavango regions. The mission not only built churches but also established healthcare and education facilities. Efforts to develop the local economy were less successful. The year 1925 saw the ordination of the first Owambo pastors, who began to assume responsibility for the work.
Political unrest grew in Owamboland in the 1950s in reaction to the South African apartheid regime. The majority of the Swapo independence party supporters were Owambo. It appears that the Finnish presence in the area was also considered a threat, as many visas were withdrawn and it was practically impossible to obtain new ones. In the 1960s, more than a hundred Finns worked in Owamboland but by the 1980s their number had dropped to only fourteen.
Relations between Finland and Namibia remained good however, and following Namibian independence, the country became one of Finland's key development cooperation partners. The Finnish Missionary Society has moved away from mission work in Namibia and it is now actively engaged in promoting friendship between the independent churches.
