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This anthology comprises 11 individual case studies. It provides nuanced, reflective perspectives on Finnish perceptions of and encounters with colonial and imperial expansion at home and abroad from a broad range of directions. It is also the first book in English to focus on the history of colonialism and Finns.

“Taken together, the book investigates how Finnish identity was formed and formulated in relation to its perceived borders,” Timo Särkkä, Senior Lecturer at the Department of History and Ethnology and one of the editors of the anthology explains. What is Finland? Where is it located, and how is Finnish identity formed and formulated in relation to perceived borders and differences?

Särkkä has studied Finnish settler experiences from the Katanga province of the Congo, where Finnish-born settlers operated in the service of the mining industry starting from the 1890s. “Personal material of Finnish-born settlers in the field, including diaries, memoirs, and photographs, provide further evidence on the world of mining in Katanga, and allow us to investigate their involvement in colonial practices,” Särkkä says about the basis of his research.

European settlers in colonial Africa represented several nationalities and ethnic minorities, but this ethnic diversity is not always reflected in the field of scholarly research, which has thus far largely concentrated on the more typical ethnic categories or national entities in the study of settler colonialism.

“By focusing on a smaller and less studied group of nationals,” Särkkä says, “we can discover new sources which are written in languages that have as yet rarely been heard in accounts of the colonial experience.”

While the quest for Katanga ore was first fuelled by the increasing pace of Western electrical industrialisation, climate change has, in recent years, been the main driver behind the evergrowing demand for rare earth metals. The increased presence of Chinese companies has also constituted a challenge to codes of business prescribed in the colonial era by Western mining companies. These changes have led to a growing interest in reflecting upon the industry’s colonial past.

The research is published in Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies book series. It has been edited by Raita Merivirta and Leila Koivunen (University of Turku) and Timo Särkkä (Ģ��ֱ��). Chapters 1, 7 and 8 are available under an open access licence via

For further information, please contact:
Dr Timo Särkkä, timo.sarkka@jyu.fi, +358 40 809 3958

Front cover image from the book Finnish Colonial Encounters:
Finnish settlers Oscar Johannes Boijer and Carl Theodor Eriksson in Katanga in 1902. Source: The Finnish Heritage Agency, Picture Collections.