På norsk
Supplement material to the book Sami School History 4. Davvi Girji 2010.
Edvard Masoni and his class at the Missionary school in Stavanger, photographed in 1896. Masoni in front towards the right of the picture. |
This contribution was printed in the Norwegian language Sami newspaper Waren Sardne 02.09.1911. Ole Edvard Nilsen (1870-1930), who around 1897 changed his surname to Masoni, was Sami from Rana, his parents came from Arjeplog in Sweden. He studied at the Missionary school in Stavanger (1892-96), and went to China as a missionary for the Norwegian Lutheran China missionary association in 1897. He founded a mission in Yunyang. In 1902 he left the China missionary association. Later he studied medicine in the USA and worked as doctor and missionary in China. He was a preacher in Western Norway in the 1920's and spent the last years of his life in Åkre in Sunnhordland, where he is buried. Masoni was active in Sami organisational work in the 1910's. In 1911 he travelled around Northern Norway with Elsa Laula Renberg to help the Sami organise politically. Masoni wrote many articles in Waren Sardne. |
The gravestone of Edvard Masoni at Åkra churchyard, Kvinnherad in Hordaland.
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The board of the «Norwegian Lapp mision» and the Lappish orphanage in Rotsundelv has made a statement on the union of these two activities. Here it is written unambiguously about the aims and methods of these people. They speak a clear language. One does not have to doubt, what they want to achieve through the «Lapp mission».
Following is their heartfelt description of some of their ideology: «We would like to point out the extremely difficult language question. In this matter the board of the orphanage and the Lapp mission is of the opinion, that it will be a blessing to the coming generation of Lapps to be gradually introduced to the Norwegian language and the cultural life of the Norwegian people, while it is a Christian duty and love of mankind to ease the transitional years for the adult and elderly part of the Lappish population through communicating the necessary for edification and other spiritual development in spoken and written Lappish. In such a way we will seek to do justice to both sides, we also feel, that we will be able to support loyally the work which the Norwegian government at all times is proceeding with in the church and school for the Lapps».
From the cited statements one can see, that the purpose of this ongoing «Lapp mission» in Norway pure and simple is a work, which will contribute to murdering the Lappish language, finish off the Lappish culture and exterminate the national identity of the Lapps. This «Lapp missionary work» is thus contrary to the spirit of the evangelium and the nature of Christianity. The Lords Commandments says: «Honour thy father and mother». And Jesus Christ and his Apostles have worked and taught according to the Lord's Commandments. God has given the languages. And he or those, who violate peoples language, oppose the living God, creator of the languages.
The forth commandment comprise all good, which God has given the fathers. Including the language. He or those, which mock and kill a language, break the forth Commandment. And now these «Lapp-missionaries» wish to teach the coming generation of Lapps to break this holy Commandment through disdaining the Lappish language and people. I did not think it was possible to find such a low way of thinking and such distorted minds in Norway. Do the Lapps not have the right to education in their own mother tongue like other people? And the Lappish language is not borrowed mechanical gibberish, but one of the most beautiful and richest language to be spoken in Europe.
These Darroes (non-Sami Norwegians) speak of, «that it will be a blessing for the coming generation of Lapps to be gradually introduced to the Norwegian language and the cultural life of Norwegian people, while it is a Christian duty and love of mankind to ease the transitional years for the adult and elderly part of the Lappish population through communicating the necessary for edification and other spiritual development in spoken and written Lappish».
Hereon the Lord and creator of life and languages replies: But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. At first the good of the immortal soul and later the worldly goods. But the board of «the Lapp mission» in Tromsø turns the words of the Lord upside down to help the Darro politics and the megalomania of the Darro men. — —
Poor people! One speak of «Norwegian language», when using the Danish language with a distorted pronunciation. Therefore quite a few Darro men are now seeking to create a separate language based on the fragments of their forefather's resonant language. And no one can raise objections to that. Because through that they are honouring their fathers and mothers, and God has said it should be so. But it means that the Lapps have the same right and plight as the Darro men.
The board of «the Lapp mission» also speak of «the cultural life of the Norwegian people», but the Darroes do not have their own independent culture. Chinese and Greek — Roman with German, Danish, Swedish, French, English and American adaptations is by no means «Norwegian». Of what does «the cultural life of the Norwegian people» then comprise?
The Darroes even have to travel to Germany to learn the disavowal and blasphemy of the God, which has the life the people in his hands. «The cultural life of the Norwegian people» in the meaning the darro men attributes it, is not appealing. «The Norwegianization» or rather the Darroification, which the board of «the Lapp mission» refer to as a special good for the coming generation of Lapps, unfortunately has not proved to bear such excellent fruits.
On the contrary the darroification has brought forth spiritual malformations. One has raised Lapp youth to forget their mother tongue and to despise their people. This is the nature of the «blessing», this work has brought about.
In Rotsundelv orphanage one is so zealous in the work of the darrofication, that children and parents do not understand one another, when they meet. It is indeed considerate to deprive the small ones of their mother tongue.
The Darroes are hollering about their mother tongue and the language of their fathers, but simultaneously they wish to murder and destroy the language of another people. This is no development of culture, but a lack of culture and a barbaric behaviour and conduct.
The coming generation of Lapps should and must get a true education in the Lappish language and learn the Riksmål (Norwegian) as a separate subject in school. Only then will the teaching become a force carrying culture and a blessing for the Lapps.
In a country, where two people or races are living with equal rights, the majority can not with any right force the minority to learn a foreign language on the cost of their mother tongue.
In the United States the real Americans seek to encourage the immigrants to keep up the language of their fathers. The government has established teachers colleges in the Swedish and Danish languages in several states and has provide large sums of money to promote these languages and encourage the Scandinavian youth within the Union to learn two languages — English and the language of their fathers. This must be described as a praiseworthy behaviour towards the immigrant people and testifies of a versatile understanding of culture. One also has to take into the account that the immigrants in America are not the actual children of this country. And when the Americans treat foreign people in such a nice and considerate way, I do not believe it to be an unreasonable or unjust demand from the Norwegian Lapps, that the coming generation of Lapps will have the support and help of the government to learn the Lappish language simultaneously to the Riksmål (Norwegian). The Lapps are the legitimate children of Norway. And as such they have the right to use the Lappish language both in the church and in the school.
Edvard Masoni