madagascar cultural identity

Henk Hadders  worked for more than a quarter of a century in Mental Health Care. He founded and became the Director of a Regional Institute for Non Residential Mental Healthcare in one of the northern provinces of Holland. Since the merger of his Institute with a General Psychiatric Hospital  he has been an Executive Board Member of this new Mental Health Institute . After he retired as Member of the Board, he started a PhD project about the relationship of Population Health, Sustainability, Sustainable Innovation/KM and Health Policy.

Henk uses an Akan symbol of Knowledge as his avatar: Mate Masie (prunonounciation: mah-tee mah-see-uh), as it reflects his position very well.  It is a symbol of wisdom, knowledge, prudence and learning and it means : “What I hear, I keep”. The implied meaning of the phrase “mate masie” is “I understand”. Understanding means wisdom and knowledge, but it also represents the prudence of taking into consideration what another person has said. The Akan believe that the search for knowledge is a life-long process. The symbol nea onnim sua a, ohu (he who doesn’t know can become knowledgeable from learning) incorporates this view of learning .

As he likes the symbols of West Africa, he also likes the pictures of Holland made by one of our most well-known photographers Jurjen Drenth.