Pietism and Colonialism. Swedish Schooling in Eighteenth-century Sápmi

Abstract

This article analyses Swedish educational policy and practice in Sápmi (Lapland) from a theoretical perspective of colonialism as associated with power and domination. The study is based upon the Saami School Instruction of 1735, which regulated the system of boarding schools established in the 1720s, and a description of educational practice at Jokkmokk Saami School in the 1760s written by a former schoolmaster. Following historian Richard Gawthrop's study of the Pietist educational institutions of German Halle and the postcolonial theorist Valentin Yves Mudimbe's analysis of Catholic priest seminaries in twentieth-century Congo, the article identifies similar characteristics in the Saami schools: the principles of isolation, surveillance and self-examination created favourable conditions for ideological indoctrination. Placed in a colonial setting, the Saami schools not only aimed at annihilating the religion and culture of the colonized, but also endeavoured to imprint suitable aspects of the colonizers’ culture upon the colonized. By transferring standards of obedience and subordination, the Saami schools served the purpose of domesticating the colonized people.