Marja-Liisa (Aro) Swantz died peacefully in her sleep on a May night at the age of 99. Professor emerita Swantz was the first director of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Helsinki. She taught in the Departments of Ethnology, Religious Studies, Social Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, and Development Studies at the University of Helsinki. She was born in 1926 in Kuopio and grew up in Helsinki with her two sisters, Maila and Pirkko. At the age of 14, she fed soldiers at the front during the Winter War (1939–1940) between Finland and the Soviet Union. During World War II (1941–1944), she was involved in the air defense of Helsinki. She studied at the University of Helsinki and the University of Turku and eventually received her doctorate from Uppsala University in Sweden. Her husband was Pastor Lloyd Swantz. Marja-Liisa Swantz’s daughter is the Finnish-American professor of political science and gender studies, Aili M. Tripp.
Mama Swantz, as she is known in Tanzania, lived a long and rich life and left a significant legacy in development research, development cooperation, and the FSDR, where she was a loyal and respected member. She was a pioneer in development research in Finland. She had a long and international career as a researcher and developed research methods related to action research in Tanzania. She loved Tanzania, and her Tanzanian colleagues and friends loved her. Until her final years, she kept in touch with her friends in Tanzania and spoke fluent Swahili. Over the years, Mama Swantz published several biographies, and interviews with her appeared in various Finnish magazines. For example, in an interview with Kodin Kuvalehti (November 12, 2020), she offered these important words of guidance, words that remain relevant for all of us in today’s global political climate: Don’t push the world away but embrace it. Don’t be afraid. Start changing the world from nearby.