Nangombe Sakeus Iihuhua (born , Omapale,

Ondonga Ondonga is a traditional kingdom of the Ovambo people in what is today northern Namibia. Its capital is Ondangwa, and the kingdom's palace is at Onambango. Its people call themselves ''Aandonga''. They speak the Ndonga dialect. The Ondonga kingdom ...

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Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

— died 22 June 1976) was one of the first seven

Ovambo Ovambo may refer to: *Ovambo language, Bantu language of Namibia **Ovambo people, Bantu people of Namibia *Ovamboland, former Bantustan in South West Africa (now Namibia) *Ovambo sparrowhawk The Ovambo or Ovampo sparrowhawk, also known as Hilge ...

pastors, whom the director of the

Finnish Missionary Society The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (''FELM'', formerly ''The Finnish Missionary Society''; ; ) is a Lutheran missionary society formed on January 19, 1859, in Helsinki, Finland. It is one of seven organisations of the Evangelical Lutheran C ...

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ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

into priesthood in

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, on 27 September 1925, with a permission granted by the Bishop of Tampere,

Jaakko Gummerus Jaakko is a Finnish male first name, etymologically rooted in the Biblical names Jacob or James. The name day of Jaakko in the Finnish calendar is July 25. Jaakko may refer to: *Kings who are in English named ''James'' are in Finnish named ''Jaakk ...

. His brother Obadja Iihuhua was also ordained at the same time. Iihuhua was baptized in 1902 in Oniipa by Frans Hannula. He went to school in Oniipa during 1906–07 and in Onayena during 1908–12, and in the Oniipa vocational school during 1913–16. He attended the Oniipa pastoral seminary during 1922–25 and was ordained in 1925. Even before his ordination, Iihuhua was a man of influence in Ombalantu. He had been working there as a teacher between 1917 and 1921. The king of

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had had a dream and sent a man to Iihuhua, so that he could obtain a teacher into his kingdom. However, this could not be arranged at the time. Before Iihuhua was ordained, the church services in Ombalantu had been performed by a Finnish missionary from

Okahao Okahao is a town in the Omusati Region of northern Namibia and the district capital of the Okahao electoral constituency which is the largest constituency in Omusati region in terms of area. It is a former mission station of the Finnish Mission ...

. When Iihuhua had been ordained, he was joined by the Finn

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in Ombalantu, at the mission station of Nakayale. Iihuhua then worked from 1925 to 1976 in Nakayale, and he was described as a "great pillar of his own parish". Elias Pentti wrote in 1958 of him, that "in spite of his age, he had remained surprisingly active and still had a burning desire to serve the cause of the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

."Elias Pentti, p. 114. The Sakeus Iihuhua Primary School in the

Omusati Region Omusati (the Oshindonga word for Mopane, the dominant tree in the area) is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, its capital is Outapi. The towns of Okahao, Oshikuku and Ruacana as well as the self-governed village Tsandi are situated in ...

is named after him.

References

Sources

* * * Namibian Lutheran clergy Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission People from Omusati Region 1976 deaths 1885 births {{Lutheran-stub