Hidden
History
We meet
with Antti at the Zara opposite Stockman’s. He is easy to recognize except he
doesn’t have his bowler hat…it’s too cold for that. We met for the first time
just over 4 weeks ago at the SANbio meeting when he was visiting South Africa.
He liked Niselo he said, and I brought some for him but forgot it in the hotel.
We end up giving it to the helpful lady at the airport check-in and she is so grateful
(as Africans we find it difficult to through anything away).
Antti is
generous with his time. At short notice he has put together an interesting tour
of inner city Helsinki. This, it turns out is city built by the Russian emperor
in the 100 years that Finland was under Russian rule. So, the statues in the
main square and some of the roads are of Russian royals. Nothing here of the
Swedish crown which had ruled the Finns for the 700 years prior, because the
capital was then at Turku. The Russians are loathed but the Swedes are liked
(maybe not loved); Antti says that it’s a complicated history but Swedish is an
official language of business and education. Independence came to Finland just
over 100 years ago when they took advantage of the chaos in Moscow when the
Bolsheviks were overthrowing the Tsar, and they declared independence. Then
there was a civil war.
We tour the
University of Helsinki, at least the campus close to us which has the main administrative
building overlooking the square, opposite the administrative wing of
government, the Lutheran cathedral and on the fourth side the business end of
the city…a quartet of the main pillars of society. Antti tells us that at degree
defence, doctoral students are presented with the “Doctor’s hat” a kind of top
hat and a sword! And there is a solemn ceremony followed by an alcohol fueled
party where all the professors “get wasted”. It seems a good ceremony to adopt.
The
university has about 40,000 students and like all universities here, is on an
internationalization drive. Programmes at Bachelor's which are historically in
Finnish and Swedish are increasingly anglicizing. We visit the “Think Corner” a
place where researchers come to share their research with students and the public
and innovation is fostered; then onto the library to take in an aerial view of
the city – no skyscrapers here; the cityscape is largely unchanged in 100
years. The university owns much of downtown and has fifth stream income from
commercial rentals.
Then onto
the museum opposite the church. It’s mostly about the sauna, I remark. Our host
then tells how the sauna is at the centre of life in Finland and that he has
one in his house and his children are taken into it weekly from the age of 6
months, just as he was taken in. The sauna is a sterilized environment and historically
women would give birth there, couples would honeymoon there, the sick would be
taken into the sauna to be treated and the dead would be cleaned and prepared for
burial there. Every major institution in Finland has a sauna – hospitals,
schools, parliament – and major decisions are made there (to the chagrin of
women who would be excluded because saunas are strictly binary). Which, Antii surmises might now work in women's favour since the new government is dominated by some strong women leaders. On the
waterfront just off Alexander street, there is a public municipal sauna. While,
like in many /all cultures around the world, men “don’t cry”, the one place
they are allowed to whinge and cry is the sauna (to fellow men, about their
domestic and other situations); and as the tears and sweat commingle, they can
literally wash away their trouble, get advice and go home de-stressed. A lot
like my golf gang.
Then to the
fish market which is now more commercial than in its previous incarnation.
Then Antti tells us about the hidden history and like with any other country,
it ain’t pretty. That the Finns were part of the failed colonial project of
Sweden, since they were still under the Swedish crown. Did you know that Sweden
was the first country in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and the traded it off
(possibly) with Denmark who then passed it on the British. That Lapland has
gold which of interest to foreign interests. This hidden history was
fascinating to hear. Would we all have turned to be happier and gentler with the Finns as our overloads? Would they have been better or worse than the British or French or (don't mention the Congo), the Belgians? On the issue of indigenous peoples, the Austratlians and Canadians have fared no better, perhaps worse.
We end our
afternoon on a high note, at the Fazer Café surrounded by the best of Finland…good
food and chocolate. We discuss possible projects via UNIPID and SANBio and how
there could be intra-Africa collaborations, leaving the ghosts of the past and focussing on how we can better work together, to build a better world. We head back to the hotel with a laundry
list of things to do.
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