Finnish-Namibian Joint Tech Campus Promotes Cross-cultural ICT Learning Between Africa and the Nordics
The University of Turku overseas campus in Namibia, in close partnership with the University of Namibia. Photo: ftlab.utu.fi
The first Finnish overseas university campus in Namibia, a partnership between the University of Turku and the University of Namibia, provides courses in programming and educational robotics. When computer science students and teachers from Finland and Namibia come together to develop human-centred technologies on campus, unique cultural lenses are essential to identifying and solving problems.
Finland’s first overseas university campus in Namibia’s capital Windhoek is at the forefront of student-led cross-cultural innovation. It is a partnership between The University of Turku and The University of Namibia (UNAM). The campus’ Future Tech Lab provides a remote presence link back to Finland which makes collaborations between Finnish and Namibian student effective, but according to computer science professor Erkki Sutinen, Head of Campus, the best way to understand another culture is to be physically present. This is why they are also making foreign exchanges available to both Finnish and Namibian students to visit and study in the other country.
The University of Turku Namibia Campus in Windhoek hosts courses in educational robotics, coding for high school students and workshops for research students. Photo: ftlab.utu.fi
- The key for foreign universities seeking cross-cultural collaboration is to establish a solid field presence - not just go to the new country for short visits or interventions, Sutinen says.
The campus has since its opening in late 2019 been a hub for research projects and courses combining areas such as programming and educational robotics. Instructors come from Finland, Namibia and other African countries like South Africa. This autumn they will host a quantum coding school for Namibian high school students. The majority who have enrolled are girls.
New ways of problem-solving
From the left: Maria Ntinda, Professor Erkki Sutinen and Kauna Mufeti, another PhD student at the University of Turku plug-in campus in Nambia. Photo: Joel Kaikali
Maria Ntinda, a lecturer of Computer Science at UNAM and a PhD student at the University of Turku campus in Namibia, is working on improving the software engineering Master’s programme at UNAM and the University of Turku. She wants to ensure students meet Namibian industry demands for software engineers when they graduate and start their entry-level jobs.
Ntinda is working on a new framework of guidelines for software engineering curriculums which can also be applied in a Finnish academic context. Harri Ketamo, senior fellow at Satakunta University of Applied Sciences and University of Turku has been addressing a similar gap between the skills of newly graduated Finnish engineering students and industry demands.
Maria Ntinda, doctoral student at the Finnish campus and lecturer in computer science at UNAM.
The plug-in campus has given Ntinda the opportunity to get to know Finnish fellow PhD students whilst working on grant applications together.
- Finns and Namibians share a similar reservedness, which makes it easy to work together, Ntinda says.
She believes academic cross-cultural collaboration between Africa and the Nordics should be promoted more broadly amongst young people in southern Africa so they understand the advantages of collaborating with new cultures.
-I don’t think it would be difficult to get people in southern African countries interested in collaborating with Finland because they have similar cultural roots to Namibia, she says.
Cooperation based on mutual trust
David Tjiharuka is a philosophy tutor at University of Namibia specialised in critical thinking and applied ethics. He started to working together with Sutinen last year when Sutinen started a co-design approach at UNAM to develop new technologies that tackle African challenges in areas such as climate change, farming and infrastructure. Tjiharuka stepped in with the human values component, which demands that ergonomic standards are met when technologists innovate.
-The areas within human sciences I study - communication, relationships, human nature and potential, are less tangible and more about how we as human beings feel in our social settings, Tjiharuka says.
Tjiharuka explores how technology can be designed to make people ‘better at being human beings’. To him this is about recognising shared humanness rather than viewing people as individuals separate from others and the community. In African philosophy, shared humanness is known as ‘ubuntu’.
-The big issue when people design technologies for foreign cultures is when the people within those cultures are not consulted for inputs during the design, planning and implementation phases. These people are integral to problem identification. We need to make sure they are fully represented, he says.
When Tjiharuka worked with a health youth organisation to educate young people in a rural Namibian community about HIV and AIDs, he learned what can go wrong when disregarding the cultural context of the community one has set out to help. They tried showing young people how to use contraception without taking into account it was a cultural taboo. This resulted in the young people not showing up to meetings.
- Each culture deals with its own unique set of problems. Cross-cultural collaboration is only successful when we have good understanding of how each culture will be affected by the solutions we propose, he says.
Tjiharuka believes the collaboration between the two universities will benefit both sides, but underlines the importance of mutual trust.
David Tjiharuka, Philosophy and Ethics Tutor at UNAM who advises professor Erkki Sutinen. Photo: UNAM
- We should avoid imposing our interpretations about what we think is best for others. When we sit together, discuss and allow each other to be held accountable, we can come up with win-win solutions and learn from each other in the process, he says.
Sutinen agrees.
-Mutual trust is built over a long period of time. True respect is shown not just through words but by doing things together with shared determination, Sutinen says
A complex shared history
Finland has a unique position to Namibia, Sutinen says, due to the trust built through the 150 years of joint history that started with Martti Rautanen and other Finnish missionaries who arrived in Northern Namibia in 1870. They founded schools which integrated the local languages as the natural foundation so they could learn in their own way and language without adopting foreign cultures. Many who fought for Namibia’s independence were educated in these schools.
Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari served as UN Commissioner for Namibia. During this time he helped secure Namibia’s transition to independence in 1989-90 - another factor that has built trust between the two countries. Ahtisaari was appointed honorary Namibian citizen in 1992. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomatic work in 2008, which was in large part due to his work toward strengthening African societies.
Although Finland’s diplomatic work in Namibia has led many Namibians to consider Finns as allies, there is a darker side to European involvement. Namibia was colonised by Germany between 1884-1915 . During this time German troops killed tens of thousands of people in what became the first genocide of the 20th century.
- Work still needs to be done to restore the relationship between Namibia and Europe, says Tjiharuka.
According to Tjiharuka, some Namibians associate Europeans with the violent colonial past, he says, and not all Namibians may differentiate between Finns and Germans because they are both white. Europeans seeking to collaborate with Namibians should be aware of this, he says.
Tjiharuka does however believe the relationship can be rebuilt with the right approaches. One way, he says, is for those seeking to collaborate to have a thorough understanding of the country’s many different ethnic groups which have its own unique culture and history.
-We don’t have one national identity, Tjiharuka says.
Seeing value in cross-cultural collaboration
Professor Erkki Sutinen, The University of Turku’s Head of Campus in Namibia. Photo: Turun yliopisto blogi
Successful cross-cultural collaboration is, according to Sutinen, about respecting differences and agreeing upon common goals. People within a country are often too close to the problem, he says, and Tjiharuka agrees that people with different skill sets, perspectives and expertise can complement one another.
-Nature consists of different species who need each other whilst each being equally important to the ecosystem. For me to be me, you need to be different from me. Unity is found in diversification, Tjiharuka says.
Sutinen’s relationship to Africa goes back to his childhood when his father’s work as a missionary pastor brought him into contact with people in Africa. He spent his honeymoon with his wife in local Senegalese communities in the early 80s. When he was worked at Karelia University of Applied Sciences, he ran several research and development projects in Africa, aimed at the contextual design of ICT curricula. He set up an online doctoral training program for students of College of Business Education in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, a collaboration with the University of Eastern Finland’s edTech research group. More recently, Sutinen spent two years as the chief technical adviser in a science, technology and innovation program in Mozambique.
Harnessing humanness
During his time in Namibia, Sutinen has gained a deeper understanding of the ubuntu philosophy, which is often translated as ‘I am because we are’.
- If I only see humanity as including people who are like me, I am restricted. Ubuntu is a liberating and inclusive philosophy if we understand it in a way that extends kindness to people outside one’s own tribe, Sutinen says.
In his co-design projects, Sutinen likes to approach new people and cultures with this philosophy. Imbuing the spirit of ubuntu in shared human endeavours between heterogeneous cultures can be challenging when people have different worldviews, traditions and communication styles.
- Frankness is essential when working between cultures, Sutinen says.
Colleagues from UNAM such as Tjiharuka are able to introduce Sutinen to new people and perspectives and offer him advice to help him meet the challenges in an open and direct way.
-We cannot change another human being’s nature. We can change how we socialise by placing humanness at the centre. This is what ubuntu is about and how well we succeed in doing this determines the quality of the collaboration, Tjiharuka says.
By Alina Weckström
alina@ambitiousafrica.org
Twitter: @alinaweckstorm