Formerly situated in the Oukwanyama area it is since 2004 part of the town Helao Nafidi,[1] although it still maintained its own village council until the 2015 local authority election.

Finnish missionaries first made visits to Oukwanyama in a place called Omafo where the English Major Fairlie had built a small church in 1918.

The Finns travelled to Omafo from Ondonga via Oshigambo, which meant a journey of some 60 kilometres, taking 12 hours with an ox cart, no counting stops along the way.

During 1936–38 Selma Rainio worked as the first doctor of Engela, having left Onandjokwe in the hands of a younger colleague, Anni Melander.

However, Rainio’s time in Engela ended with a severe illness, and Melander transferred her to Onandjokwe, where she died on 5 January 1939.

[8] By the 1950s, the number of patients in Engela grew even bigger than that of Onandjokwe, which remained the main medical establishment in Ovamboland.