‘Black and White’ opens tonight

The Museums Association of Namibia (MAN), in association with the Embassy of Finland, is hosting an exhibition of some of the earliest known photographs of northern Namibia. The exhibition, titled ‘Black and White: Finnish Memories of Northern Namibia’ will be open to the public at the National Art Gallery of Namibia (NAGN) tonight and runs until May 30. The photographs have been donated by the Kumbukumbu Finnish Mission Museum in Helsinki to the Nakambale Museum in northern Namibia, but will be shown first at the NAGN. When German missionary Hugo Hahn, visited Finland in 1866, he appealed for assistance in an area of South-West Africa where he was working. The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission responded to the appeal and the first team of Finnish missionaries arrived in the Kingdom of Ondonga on July 9, 1870. Since that date the histories of Finland and Namibia have been entangled. Visitors to the exhibition will see the ways in which this collection of historical black and white photographs not only documents the memories of Finnish missionaries, but also provides a unique insight into life in northern Namibia during a period of immense change. The transfer of the exhibition to Namibia has given locals the opportunity to add texts that provide a greater explanation of the images. Finnish photographs now benefit from Namibian interpretations that have been provided by a team from MAN, the Nakambale Museum, the Embassy of Finland and the Unam History Society. The exhibition is MAN’s contribution to International Museum Day, which will take place on May 18. The theme for this year is ‘Museum Collections Make Connections’. Windhoek Staff Reporter