 The church developed out of the work of the Finnish Missionary Society that began in 1870 among the Ovambo and Kavango people in the northern area of what became German South West Africa.In 1954, an independent church known as the Evangelical Lutheran Ovambo-Kavango Church (ELOC) was established with Birger Eriksson as its first president.The first Namibian bishop of ELOC, Leonard Auala, played a notable role in the struggle for Namibia's independence.