Haufiku Paulus Hamutenya (born ca. 1884,

Oukwanyama Oukwanyama (''Uukwanyama'' in the neighbouring Oshindonga dialect) is a traditional kingdom of the Ovambo people in what is today northern Namibia and southern Angola. Its capital is Ehole. List of rulers The Oukwanyama Kingdom and King Mandume M ...

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

— died 12 September 1932) was one of the first seven

Ovambo Ovambo may refer to: *Ovambo language *Ovambo people * Ovamboland *Ovambo sparrowhawk The Ovambo or Ovampo sparrowhawk, also known as Hilgert's sparrowhawk, (''Accipiter ovampensis'') is a species of sub-Saharan African bird of prey in the famil ...

s to be

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

Oniipa Oniipa is a town in the Oshikoto Region of northern Namibia and the district capital of the Oniipa electoral constituency. It lies just outside Ondangwa. It is the hometown of former Lutheran bishop and liberation leader Leonard Auala. There is ...

Ovamboland Ovamboland, also referred to as Owamboland, was a Bantustan in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), intended by the apartheid government to be a self-governing homeland for the Ovambo people. The term originally referred to the parts of ...

, in 1925 by the director of the

Finnish Missionary Society The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (''FELM'', formerly ''The Finnish Missionary Society''; fi, Suomen Lähetysseura ry; sv, Finska Missionssällskapet rf) is a Lutheran missionary society formed on January 19, 1859, in Helsinki, Finland. ...

, Matti Tarkkanen. Hamutenya was the son of Hamutenya gwaNghililewanga and Ndayapi yaKavengula. He was born ca. 1884 and baptized in 1919 in Onandjokwe. Hamutenya belonged to the

tribe. Peltola says that he had formerly been "a man of great power". He seems to have come to contact with

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

through the

Rhenish Mission The Rhenish Missionary Society (''Rhenish'' of the river Rhine) was one of the largest Protestant missionary societies in Germany. Formed from smaller missions founded as far back as 1799, the Society was amalgamated on 23 September 1828, and it ...

’s work in

Ondjiva Ondjiva, formerly Vila Pereira d'Eça, is a town, with a population of 121,537 (2014), and a commune in the municipality of Cuanhama, province of Cunene, Angola. It is also the administrative capital of Cunene Province and is located at the extr ...

in present-day

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, and in the aftermath of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, when the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

were told to leave Angola, Hamutenya with many other Ovakwanyama people emigrated to

South West Africa South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1 ...

. Once there, he built a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

in his home village of

Edundja Edundja is a settlement in the Ohangwena Region of northern Namibia. It is situated close to the Angolan border east of Oshikango. Effects of flood It is closer to Angola and this cause the flood during the rainy season as the water flows fro ...

, completed in 1922, i.e. two years before his ordination. In 1922, Hamutenya began his studies in the

seminary. Another man from Ondjiva, Simson Shituwa also began his studies there at the same time. Shituwa was also among the first seven Ovambos to be ordained into priesthood in 1925. After the ordination, Hamutenya returned to Oukwanyama and worked in Edundja during 1935–29, but when Edundja became crowded with more émigrés from Angola, he founded a new place for the Oukwanyama people in the woods of eastern Oukwanyma, 60 km east of

Engela Engela is an Ovambo people, Ovambo settlement in the Ohangwena Region in northern Namibia. Formerly situated in the Oukwanyama area it is since 2004 part of the town Helao Nafidi, although it still maintained its own village council until the Nami ...

, in an area into which his tribesmen had begun to move, especially from

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

. The new place was called

Eenhana Eenhana (IPA: ) is the capital town of the Ohangwena Region, northern Namibia, on the border with Angola. It also used to be a mission station of the Finnish Missionary Society. Eenhana is situated in a subtropical forest. It is connected to the ...

([]), and it was founded around New Year's in 1930. The

n government put Hamutenya in charge of Eastern Oukwanyama. In 1932, Hamutenya built a church in Eenhana, but he died the same year after a short illness. "If I can only die working for the Lord, the rest does not matter", were words that Hamutenya said before his death. In 1936, Eenhana became a mission station of the Finnish Missionary Society, as nurse

Linda Helenius Linda Helenius (July 5, 1894 in Pöytyä – April 18, 1960 in Helsinki) was a Finnish nurse, missionary and writer. Helenius was among the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission missionaries in Owamboland (modern Namibia and Angola) in 1921–1952. ...

moved there and started a clinic.Peltola 1958, p. 232. Hamutenya was married to Emma lyaNangonya in 1920, and had two sons and two daughters with her.

References

Sources

Further information

* Namibian Lutheran clergy Ovambo people 1932 deaths {{namibia-bio-stub