Flamingo - Travel & Tourism - nakambale museum and restcamp
Text and photos by Ron Swilling An old church surrounded by mahangu (millet) fields and a mission house constructed in African style come into view as you near Nakambale. The high tin roof of the house, supported by rough wooden poles, creates a narrow shaded veranda. Inside, the air is cooled by a century of history and the thick walls hold the memories and energy of the family who lived here.
Located in the village of Olukonda, 14 kilometres from the town of Ondangwa in north-central Namibia, Nakambale Museum and Restcamp has decades of character.
Incorporating the mission house, church and a traditional Ndonga homestead, with its mopane pole palisade and huts connected by a labyrinth of passages, Nakambale is an interesting northern destination.
The name Nakambale was the nickname of one of the first Finnish missionaries, Martti Rautanen, who lived in the mission house. He was known for wearing a hat that when turned upside-down, resembled a type of Owambo basket or okambale in the Ngandjera language. Martti arrived in Walvis Bay with nine other Finnish missionaries in 1868. German missionary Carl Hugo Hahn met them and took them by ox wagon to the Otjimbingwe German mission station, where he taught them Otjiherero (similar to Oshiwambo spoken in the north). Two years later he arranged for them to be guided to Ondonga in the northern part of the country. On an earlier visit the king of Ondonga, Shikongo Shakalulu, had asked Carl Hugo Hahn to send missionaries north and Carl had sent an invitation to the Finnish mission school.
The king welcomed them at his omandongo (king’s palace) and showed them where they could set up camp nearby. Some of the missionaries went to visit the other Owambo groups. Martti Rautenan visited the Ongandjera group, returning to Olukonda, where he remained from 1880–1926. He lived in the house with his wife Frieda Kleinschmidt (a daughter of a Rhenish missionary) who bore nine children, only three surviving the malaria rampant in the area. In 1889, at Olukonda, Reverend Rautenan erected the first church building in northern Namibia. The mission house was built four years later. From 1873 various missionaries had begun to translate the bible into Oshidonga, the Ndonga language, and in 1923 Martti completed the translation.
Today, sepia photographs of Martti, Frieda and their children are displayed in the old mission house, now the Nakambale Museum. The photographs and remnants from their many years in the house give you the feeling that perhaps their spirits still linger or visit every so often. Old manuscripts, an old chair, a well-used trumpet and a copy of the unusual dictionary system Martti used, consisting of small pieces of paper stuck onto spikes on a rotating stand, are a few of the bits of the past that fill the room. In the small room at the back of the house, his daughter Johanna’s dresses hang in the cupboard made in 1876 and believed to be the first in the former Ovamboland, today’s Owambo. Her shoes and walking stick still stand in the corner, as if waiting for their mistress. Kuku Johanna (kuku meaning old woman and a title of respect) lived in the house until her death in 1966. The family’s graves are next to the empty church in a field of grass, surrounded by mahangu fields and makalani palms.
In 1992 the church and house were renovated with funds donated by the government of Finland and were proclaimed as a Namibian national monument. The Nakambale museum was officially opened in 1995 by former president of Namibia, Dr Sam Nujoma, former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari, and the king of Ondonga, Immanuel Kauluma Elifas, keeping Martti Rautenan’s nickname Nakambale as the name of the museum, honouring the man who wore the hat that resembled an upside-down basket.
The Nakambale Restcamp, a community project situated on the church-owned land, opened in 1998. It is managed by charming and friendly host Magdalena Kaanante. It consists of the museum, church, a demonstra-tion Ndonga homestead, five tented huts and a community craft shop. Accommodation is available in the tents, and the traditional huts of the demon-stration homestead. Those wishing to camp are also welcomed. Maggie offers visits to the adjacent village to give guests a taste of Owambo life and serves traditional meals on request.
As curator and tour guide of the old Finnish mission house, she is conversant in the story of the family that spent many years on the land and between the thick walls. She gives guided tours through the museum, explaining the history of the Europeans who found themselves in northern Namibia, surrounded by mahangu fields, living down the road from the royal palace in the Owambo kingdom of Ondonga.
NACOBTA Tel (+264 61) 25 0558/ 22 1918 office@nacobta.com.na www.nacobta.com.na
