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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Religious and Colonial Realities: Cartography of the Finnish Mission in Ovamboland, Namibia |
Author: | Kokkonen, Pellervo |
Year: | 1993 |
Periodical: | History in Africa |
Volume: | 20 |
Pages: | 155-171 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Namibia Germany |
Subjects: | missions colonialism cartography Religion and Witchcraft History and Exploration |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171970 |
Abstract: | From the 1830s onwards, missionaries resided in the interior of the African continent and accumulated considerable knowledge about the geography of Africa. This article investigates the role of the Finnish Missionary Society (FMS) in mapmaking in Ovamboland, German South West Africa (present-day Namibia). The Finnish missionaries started working in Ovamboland in 1870. The FMS archives contain only occasional evidence of cartographic activities and no information on possible direct cooperation with the colonial administration in the area of mapping. The most notable use of cartography for missionary work was to support the dissemination of information among supporters in the homeland. Another form of mapmaking by the missionaries was mapmaking for educational purposes and the translation of maps into the local Ndonga language. Cartography was evidently not a high priority in Finnish missionary work in Ovamboland. Ref. |