 photo:Tancredi Leone
You’ve almost certainly seen local celebrity Markus Korhonen. Whether he is standing on the steps of the Town Hall leading enthralled tourists round the city or holding court in some café leaving his listeners in fits of laughter. He’s an Oulu eccentric, an Oulu character and, in his own words, ‘definitely not a typical Finn.’
The Shakespearian Fool?
Markus promotes Oulu. ‘I am often working with international guests and I tell them all about the history of Oulu and its historical connections,’ enthuses the 45-year-old in his almost musical tones. The bon vivant, who now sports a distinctive eye-patch, conducts various lectures, including one for the international students at Oulu University every year.
‘I am often working with international guests and I tell them all about the history of Oulu and its historical connections,’
It is difficult to know quite how to sum up exactly what Markus is. An ambassador for the city? A toastmaster for special occasions? One of the most humorous and engaging tour guides in the country? Markus seems quite chuffed with my comparison to a Shakespearian Fool who entertains, questions the way things are done, is able to push the boundaries of what’s acceptable and really get to the depths of things. In fact, he’s so enthusiastic about the comparison that he reels off about three pages of Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ word for word.
And like the Fool, Markus has entertained some pretty important people. ‘I have met the King of Sweden. When he came to Oulu I had to greet him. I have met Princess Margaret of Kent (Queen Elizabeth II’s cousin’s wife) and Prince Otto von Habsburg.’ Markus met Prince Otto when the royal received an honorary doctorate from Turku University who also employ him to do public speaking on special occasions.
Franco the Teddy
But he met his powerful and controversial fan when he was a child. ‘In 1968 I was in Madrid with my parents and there was a crowd and I pushed to the front to see who it was!’
It was the Spanish dictator General Franco opening a museum. Markus bursts out laughing. ‘He saw me, this blonde boy in the crowd, and he patted me on the head and I thought “Who is this man?” And I realised that he was the man in the portrait in our hotel room. So I saluted him with a Fascist salute!’
‘My parents were horrified, thinking that their son was a Fascist, but Franco was totally charmed!’ Franco hugged Markus and later that day he received an invitation from the dictator to go to a big toy shop in Madrid and get anything he wanted at the Fascist leader’s expense! One of things he bought was a stuffed Tiger which he calls ‘Franco.’ This set off a childhood hobby of ‘writing to bastards to get their autographs.’ He has Chilean dictator General Pinochet’s autograph and General Stroessner’s. He was Paraguay’s dictator for 35 years until 1989.
Trying to Inspire
Markus left university and worked in office of his mother who was a lawyer. He has been a freelance speaker since 1998: ‘ . . . in schools, in universities, in special lectures, hosting guests that come to the Oulu region, answering questions. I don’t know where it comes from! Somewhere in my childhood.’
He’s also inspired by a particular lecturer, now deceased, who was able to make history exciting. ‘People wanted to listen to him. He had a great sense of humour! He got excited by everything he said! But Finnish men usually feel that culture and history is boring and only ladies and old ladies like it. But I want to make history interesting! I want to explain things without difficult words so that everybody can understand!’
Markus speaks to all different kinds of audiences from tourists to academics – in fact he has published a number of academic history books including a ‘culinary history of Oulu’ and one book about a Swedish Princess.
‘There are some snobs that you think you shouldn’t use ordinary language in lectures,’ he laughs. ‘But I am thrilled to do it and I receive very kind feedback. My approach is to be popular,’ he adds. ‘It doesn’t make the message bad. It makes it comprehensible! If you’re talking to doctors then use the language of doctors but if you’re talking to ordinary people then use their language!’ he insists. And Markus knows a lot of languages: Swedish, French, German , Spanish. He practices his Italian with the photographer and declares that, ‘The interview is good practice for my English!’
‘We have this amazing past and we don’t know it!’
Markus’ aim to make people realise how ‘interesting’ Oulu is. ‘We have this amazing past and we don’t know it!’ he exclaims. ‘We think we have nothing and no connection to the rest of the world! But 400 years ago a quarter of the Oulu population was foreign!’
‘How has this changed?’ I ask him. ‘Because of the Finnish belief,’ he tells me, ‘that we are something out of this world, exclusive . . . this Romantic idea that we are primitive and unique! And the ruling elite have gone on about these things and tried to make them positive. We’ve always been invaded – by the Swedes and the Russians. We’ve always been stepped on so we try to make our self-esteem out of what’s left. But it doesn’t fit the picture!’ Markus notes that, before the rise of Finnish nationalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, ‘We’ve had Swedish, British, Italian . . . all kinds of influences on this city.’
Markus watches, fascinated but apprehensive, as Finnish and Oulu culture starts to change.
‘We will be American very soon,’ he sighs. ‘It’s like we have a brief understanding of everything but I think it is better to understand one thing thoroughly.’ He thinks this is especially true of people in Oulu, which has grown substantially since large-scale movement from the countryside in the 1950s.
‘Dialects are more or less the same now. Everything is from TV and Radio. Many people were picked up from their roots and kind of forced to come to this city. They don’t really feel it’s their own, many people. They weren’t born to it and many only understand it superficially.’
Markus’ ‘Curse’
Unfortunately, in November 2007, Markus was, as he puts it, ‘cursed.’ He was in a serious car accident which left him in hospital for three and a half months. It has forced him to stop working, it has damaged his short-term memory, it has damaged his vision, he is less mobile than he used to be and it has stopped him from writing as it makes using a computer – and concentrating - very difficult.
He wants nothing more than to get back to doing what he enjoys: his passion for public speaking and writing. Though he doesn’t know when he will fully recover.
Following his ‘Calling’
Markus wonders whether what he does might be some kind of ‘vocation’ or ‘calling.’ ‘It’s very personal to me,’ he says thoughtfully. ‘I want to share my feelings, my enthusiasm. I’m not married, I’ve no really important people now, I’ve always been alone and doing what I do . . . it’s like a kind of family for me.’
Markus is quite taken by the idea of being a kind of shaman for Oulu: the person in the tribe who takes everybody to another world through dancing, singing and going into a trance. Perhaps, Markus speculates, he might take people to world of history where everything is, hopefully, scintillatingly interesting. He also likes the idea of being a Shakespearian Fool and it is at this point that that the King Lear performance begins.
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