On this day, I met with Dr. Johanna Maula, Director of International Cultural Centre Caisa in her office in Kasaniemi, Helsinki, Finland for an exclusive interview for DUNIA Magazine. Despite her busy schedule she found time to sit down with me for the following discussion.
Dr Johanna, I know you were born in Finland, but can you tell us a little bit more about yourself?
Dr. Johanna Maula: I’m 50 years old, married with two kids. I hold a Doctorate in Social Sciences. I am currently Director of Caisa – the International Cultural Centre, a position I took up in 2002. I also take time off sometimes to work at the African Development Bank.
I understand that you’ve lived in Nigeria, Sweden, Benin, Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, Ethiopia, Tunisia, just to name a few. While in these countries, did you have any major culture shock? If you did, can you tell us how you coped?
Dr. Johanna Maula: Well of course, I first moved to Nigeria from Finland in the 1960s. At the time, Finland was a very mono-cultural country and very much still a closed society — unlike the Finland of today which is so international and very homogeneous. In those days, everyone was basically Lutheran, white, you know. So of course, moving to Nigeria was quite a big difference because that was a multicultural and bustling country already. The city of Lagos where we lived was very different from the country sides of Finland I was from. My whole family (with my sisters) moved there, I was still a kid. We girls helped each other adjust. It was a major cultural shock, but children can adapt to anything, especially if they have a loving family with them. That helped. It was a wonderful experience. My parents made many Nigerian friends, which was great. In our neighbourhood, which was completely Nigerian, people were very friendly and helpful to our family. Those were good days.
How was it like coming back?
Dr. Johanna Maula: I was 8 or 10 years old when we returned to Finland. Coming back was actually a bigger shock. It has actually been like that almost every time — coming back always seems to be harder. I guess because of the excitement you experience when you go to a new culture and environment; you are keen on learning and discovering new things, but when you come back, it’s sort of coming back to the old. Of course, it’s also fun to reunite with family and friends in Finland, and you know — the summer cottage and things like that, are very important. But I’m always very keen on experiencing new things.
What aspects of Finnish culture or society have contributed immensely to your success?
Dr. Johanna Maula: Well, I’d say the society as a whole. Of course everyone even Newsweek has acknowledged that the educational system in Finland is very good; it is very equitable – everyone has access to high quality education, irrespective of family background. I come from an educated background — a background that has about five generations of academics, which helped me focus and I studied to the Doctorate level.
How good is Finland’s educational system?
Dr. Johanna Maula: I think with a Finnish educational background you don’t need to be embarrassed anywhere. I feel this, especially when I go to Africa, because a lot of Africans, and rightly so, don’t like Europeans who go over there and think they’re “experts”. But I think that when you have a doctorate, you can be quite confident that people respect you and take you seriously. While in Africa, I never felt that people would have been like “oh, one more white face coming to tell us what to do.”
Tell us a little bit about your organization, Caisa – the international cultural center.
Dr. Johanna Maula: Caisa has about eleven permanent posts (positions) in Helsinki, and of course, Info Bank which is now based here in Caisa has about seven staff members. Info Pankki which provides web-based information about the Finnish society was originally a project of Caisa, but now it’s a separate unit, although we are still in the same premises. We also have a few temporary employees.
The staff of Caisa seems to be clearly very diverse. As the Director, how do you manage this diversity?
Dr. Johanna Maula: Oh. I don’t think diversity is such a problem. I always say that differences in professional backgrounds can be a bigger challenge to manage than ethnic or cultural diversity. Many people who work at Caisa, even if they were born outside Finland, have lived quite long in Finland. Many are also married to Finns, so they understand the society. But of course we also have those who are new in Finland. For many of our workers, Caisa has been the first place they worked in in Finland, but I have never actually felt that ethnicity or culture would be an obstacle or problem.
Quite honestly, the diversity of our labour force has been more of an enriching factor, because a diverse staff means a connection to a diverse client base. We can say that 50 percent of our staff and 50 percent of our clientele are born outside of Finland. And you can always see very clearly that, for instance, if an employee is someone of Somalian background, we’ll have more Somalians coming in, etc. Congolese and Nigerians are very familiar with Caisa because we have a staff member who is from Congo and one from Nigeria. So it’s an asset to have people of different backgrounds.
I like that. Let me take you back to your travels. Pick one country out of the many you’ve travelled to, and tell us what your expectations were before you ventured out. Upon arrival, were your expectations met, or did they fall short?
Dr. Johanna Maula: I would say Ethiopia. I was working with the World Food programme so I was expecting it to be quite harsh. Of course, I mean, you do encounter poverty; you can’t avoid it. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world, although the economic growth has been quite fast in the past years. But what I didn’t expect, what really impressed me was the richness of the culture.
Interestingly, Ethiopia, out of all the African countries, is the only one that was never colonized. So the history is really intact. You have lots of literary sources, and it’s also a country which developed its own writing system. Some 30,000 years ago when Finns were really just hunters or something like that, the Ethiopians already had their own writing system – the clergy, the aristocracy – who, according to their history, descended from King Solomon and the Queen of Shebba. It’s very fascinating. Ethiopia has a very very interesting culture and history. I was very impressed by that. And I still have to say Ethiopia is a country that I really love – the richness of the culture, wonderful music and nice food. . I hope I’ll be able to spend more time there, maybe when I retire.
The first time we talked about Dunia, you told me “dunia” means…
Dr. Johanna Maula: The World.
Exactly. So please tell us what you know about “Dunia” and how you came to know about it.
Dr. Johanna Maula: Ah, I know some Kiswahili. I studied Swahili at the University of Helsinki for three years, and my PhD work was partly based on Tanzania – where there is an island called ‘Dunia’, outside Dar es Salaam.
That’s a very beautiful language – Kiswahili – I really love it. I wish people would study it more. It’s like a lingua franca. So many people, about 100,000 people speak Kiswahili. It’s easy to learn and would be quite useful. I mean, instead of all Africans speaking English and French.
In closing, what would you like to tell readers of DUNIA Magazine?
Dr. Johanna Maula: I should say that if you’re young, really invest in your education. Go as far with your education as possible. Education is something that no one can ever take away from you. Even if you don’t straight away find a job, it’s still an asset. When you’re young, it’s much easier to learn, so invest in that.
Learn languages — so that the world is open to you. Then you would be able to move to different places and not be so dependent on one country or culture. With a good educational background, a grasp of multiple languages, with a flexible character, ready to adapt to new things and curious about life and new things, I think you can succeed anywhere.
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