Convenient superintendent or independent liberator? : A critical look at Halfdan Endresen’s role in the liberation of slaves in Northern Cameroon

Bacheloroppgave i samfunnsfag, VID vitenskapelige høgskole, Stavanger, mai 2020I Nord-Kamerun i 1950 begynte mange slaver å rømme til den norske misjonsstasjonen i Ngaoundéré. Det Norske Misjonsselskap, ledet av tilsynsmann Halfdan Endresen, hjalp disse slavene med å få sin frihet, og over de neste 15 årene spilte de en stor rolle i forbedringene av slavenes posisjon og etter hvert også avskaffelsen av slaveriet. Gjennom en tekstanalyse av relevant litteratur og arkivmateriale blir Endresens rolle fremhevet, og hans viktighet uavhengig av sin organisasjon understrekes. Han fungerte i stor grad som en reaksjonær vakthund, som holdt den franske lokale administrasjonen og etter hvert den kamerunske regjeringen ansvarlig overfor menneskerettighetene gjennom kritikk og kontinuerlig vilje til å konfrontere høyere autoriteter. Gjennom en postkolonial lesning av kildene viser det seg at mange har oversett viktigheten av de rømte slavenes egen innsats, og heller har gitt æren til Endresen. Dette ser ikke ut til å gjelde for Endresen selv, som inkluderte mange av de rømte slavenes egne historier i sine bøker, og som også innrømte at de rømmende slavene var det som hadde tvunget ham til å ta handle.In 1950, Northern Cameroon, many slaves started escaping and running to the Norwegian mission station in Ngaoundéré. The Norwegian Mission Society, led by superintendent Halfdan Endresen, helped these slaves get their freedom, and over the next 15 years played an important role in the improvement of the slaves’ position, and eventually the abolishment of slavery. Through a text analysis of relevant literature and archive material, Endresen’s role as an individual is highlighted, emphasizing his importance separately from his organization. He functioned much like a watch dog, only acting in reaction, keeping the French local administration and eventually the Cameroonian government accountable to the Human Rights through criticism and continued willingness to confront higher authorities. Through a postcolonial reading of the sources it is clear that many have overlooked the importance of the escaping slaves’ own efforts in their own liberation, giving only Endresen credit. However, this does not appear to apply to Endresen himself, who included many escaped slaves’ stories in his books, and also admitted that the escaping slaves were what forced him to act.submittedVersio

The role of religion in social change : the arrival of Christianity among the Dii people in Adamawa, Northern Cameroon (1934-1960)

Originally published in: Svensk missionstidskrift = Swedish missiological themes, vol. 93(2005) p. 479-503, see http://www.teol.uu.se/digitalAssets/6/6185_SMT4_05.pdfThe main interest in this article is to analyse the social changes that occurred when the Norwegian missionaries introduced the Dii-people in Northern Cameroon to Christianity. It was an encounter where the Dii took an active part and employed to good purpose the alliance with the missionaries, by gaining increased political independence, by receiving western education and by strengthening their ethnic identity. Many questions about the transformation of the Dii society, about their spiritual reorientation and the development of ethnic identity, are yet to be answered. The Dii, however, were not merely passive ”victims” of aggressive Protestant missionaries; they took an active part in forming their future in a period of considerable social change. The ”religious breakthrough” initiated by the missionaries was used by the Dii to promote freedom of religion, and they were thus liberated to choose the road towards modernity that fitted them best, whether their focus was on the Christian or the Islamic religion or on the mainly secular western education

The cross and the crescent in East Africa : an examination of the reasons behind the change in Christian-Muslim relations in Tanzania 1984-1994

Hovedfagsoppgave i kristendom ved MenighetsfakultetetsubmittedVersio

Heroic Missionaries, Heathen Medicine Men and Conditionally Competent Natives : A postcolonial look at the NMS’ mission exhibition “To the Ends of the Earth” between 1948 and 1950

Master in Community Development and Social Innovation, VID Specialized University, Stavanger, May 2022Between 1948 and 1960, the travelling mission exhibition “To the Ends of the Earth” organized by the Norwegian Mission Society (NMS) travelled across Norway, informing Norwegians about the “mission fields” and the work that the mission organization did in them. Through a postcolonial archive study, the exhibition is revealed to have mainly been a tool to promote the significance of and the need for the missionaries. By presenting heathendom as the cause of the natives’ suffering, the NMS solidified their position as the only actor who could provide the help they needed. Beyond topics of religious nature, the exhibition is shown to have been quite ethnographic in its presentation of the mission fields. Through this, an ambivalent image of the native as both competent and infantile was presented, in which their competence was largely dependent upon their conversion to Christianity. Though the exhibition attempted to make the claim that the natives could become equal to the missionaries, a postcolonial reading of the material undermines this image. It also reveals that the exhibition’s presentation is unlikely to have been truthful, but rather an edited version of reality created to present the NMS favorably.Mellom 1948 og 1960 dro det Norske Misjonsselskaps (NMS) misjonsutstilling «Til Jordens Ender» gjennom Norge, og lærte nordmenn om «misjonsmarkene» og det arbeidet som misjonsorganisasjonen gjorde der. Gjennom en postkolonial arkivstudie viser misjonsutstillingen seg hovedsakelig å ha vært et verktøy for å fremme viktigheten av og behovet for misjonærer. Ved å framstille hedendom som årsaken til de innfødtes lidelser forsterket NMS sin posisjon som eneste aktør som kunne tilby hjelpen de innfødte trengte. Utover temaer av religiøs natur framsto utstillingen som å ha vært ganske etnografisk i sin presentasjon av misjonsmarkene. Gjennom dette ble et ambivalent bilde av de innfødte framstilt, hvor de var både kompetente og infantile, men hvor kompetentheten deres i stor grad var avhengig av deres konvertering til kristendom. Selv om utstillingen forsøker å påstå at de innfødte kan bli likeverdige med misjonærene, så blir dette inntrykket undergravet av en postkolonial lesning. Det avslører også at utstillingens framstilling mest sannsynlig ikke er sannferdig, men en redigert versjon av virkeligheten lagd for å framstille NMS positivt.published versio

Microbial Communities in a Flow-Through Fish Farm for Lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus L.) During Healthy Rearing Conditions

Lumpfish can efficiently remove sea lice from Atlantic salmon in net-pens, and production of lumpfish in closed fish farms is a new, fast developing industry in Norway. However, periodic outbreaks of bacterial diseases in the fish farms represent a large problem, both economically and ethically. Therefore it is important to obtain a better understanding of how microbial communities develop in these production facilities. Knowledge on the characteristics of microbial communities associated with healthy fish could also enable detection of changes associated with disease outbreaks at an early stage. In this study we have monitored microbial communities in a fish farm for lumpfish during normal operational conditions with no disease outbreak by using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. The study involved weekly samplings of water and biofilms from fish tanks, and fish. The results revealed that the microbial communities in fish tank water were different from the intake water. The water and biofilm in fish tanks were highly similar in regards to microbial community members, but with large differences in relative abundances for some taxa. The sampled fish were associated with mostly the same taxa as in tank water and biofilm, but more variation in relative abundances of different taxonomic groups occurred. The microbial communities in the fish farm seemed stable over time, and were dominated by marine bacteria and archaea within Alphaproteobacteria, Epsilonproteobacteria, Flavobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Thaumarchaeota, Planctomycetes, Sphingobacteriia, and Verrucomicrobiae (>10% relative abundance). Bacterial genera known to include fish-pathogenic strains were detected in all types of sample materials, but with low relative abundances (<5%). Exceptions were some samples of fish, biofilm and water with high relative abundance of Tenacibaculum (<85.8%) and Moritella (<82%). In addition, some of the eggs had a high relative abundance of Tenacibaculum (<89.5%). Overall, this study shows that a stable microbial community dominated by various genera of non-pathogenic bacteria is associated with a healthy environment for rearing lumpfish. Taxa with pathogenic members were also part of the microbial communities during healthy conditions, but the stable non-pathogenic bacteria may limit their growth and thereby prevent disease outbreaks.publishedVersio

African migrant christianities - Delocalization or relocalization of identities? Kap. 11

I: Lauterbach, K., & Vähäkangas, M. (Eds.). (2020). Faith in African Lived Christianity: Bridging Anthropological and Theological Perspectives.African migrant Christianity is a field that has been attracting increased academic interest in recent decades. Numerous studies within anthropology and theology have discussed the topic in general and activities connected with it in different countries in particular. In addition, the theme has been studied as a transnational field where the relationship between the soil of the ancestors and the new homeland has been brought to the fore. This chapter highlights two particular aspects of epistemological and ontological interest in order to address the question of how anthropology and theology can come into dialogue: firstly, through analysis of how technology influences human behavior, permits simultaneity, and affects Christian discursive practices in transnational and transcultural relations; secondly, by looking at how migration and the new media affect identity construction for the individual believer. The chapter will start by highlighting some of the globalizing processes that have influenced the development of various African Christianities and, in particular, the activities of the Nigerian-based Redeemed Christian Church of God (rccg) in Norway. Of special interest is how technological media and new forms of communication – in particular through the Internet and social media – generate simultaneity in religious practices and facilitate the development of congregations across long distances. The second section of the chapter deals with the relationship between migration, identity construction, and religion, focusing in particular on theories of identity construction linked to religious practices in diaspora churches. Towards the end of the chapter recent developments among African transnational churches are discussed within the framework of technology and forms of identity-making. How do technological innovations influence the individual, and how do questions of technology and migration affect theology, understood as religious discursive practices? Does the intensified use of the Internet and social media favor theories of delocalized identities, or could it be argued that it leads to a relocalization of identities through transnational Pentecostal networks?publishedVersio

Microbiome dataset from a marine recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) for salmon post-smolt production in Norway

A marine aquaculture recycling system (RAS) for the production of post-smolt was monitored for microbial community structures during the first year of operation. Sample material was obtained monthly from the biofilter biofilm carriers, the production water (tank 3), the fish skin (tank 3) and the tank 3 wall biofilm. Additional samples were taken during outbreaks of fish skin wounds, washing of the plant, UV filtration of the inlet water and from various wall biofilms. Samples for depth profiles from all fish tanks were also collected. The sampling tools were a ladle for capturing biofilter biofilm carriers, toothbrushes for wall biofilm capture, filters for capture of water microbes and scalpels for skin tissue slicing. The sampling times were indicated by the production cycle number (cycle 2-5) and the week number within the cycle (W). Prior to bacterial community analysis, the stored samples were exposed to cell lysis and extraction of environmental DNA by commercial kits. All samples were subjected for PCR amplification of 16S rDNA sequences for library formations and prepared for Ion Torrent technology, which sequences 250 bp fragments. A total of 1.1 million reads were obtained from the 100 RAS samples analysed. The process from Ion Torren analysis to library involved bioinformatics steps with sorting, filtering, adjustment and taxonomic identification, and the final output was shown in a table as operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and relative abundance at different sampling sites and sampling time points. Of a total of 450 taxonomically assigned OTUs, 45% were classified at genus level. The 16S library raw data are deposited in the Mendeley data repository and cited in this Data in Brief article co-submitted with the article “Microbial colonization and stability in a marine post-smolt RAS inoculated with a commercial starter culture.” [1]. So far, the raw data are referenced in four more publications in progress. These cover microbial shifts and enrichments between sampling times, sulfur cycling, “in vivo biofilm” and identification of relatives of fish pathogens in RAS. All library sequences are available in GenBank with accession numbers MN890148-MN891672.publishedVersio