Olukonda

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Olukonda is a small settlement in the Oshikoto Region of northern Namibia and the district capital of the Olukonda electoral constituency. In colonial times it was known as the Capital of the North.

It was the first missionary station for the Ovambo people, founded in 1870 by Finnish missionaries. In the 1880s, Martti Rautanen, nicknamed Nakambale, worked there and helped build a church in 1889 and a missionary house in 1893. The church and the mission buildings are now National Monuments, together known as the Olukonda National Monument. The mission station houses the Nakambale Museum, and the church is not regularly used but is sometimes used for weddings. Rautanen and his family are buried nearby. A rest camp near the monument is funded by the Finnish government.

The area’s economy is mainly subsistence farming, especially Mahangu (pearl millet). Olukonda is also the birthplace of Namibia’s fourth president, Nangolo Mbumba.