The 1904 war that broke out in present day Namibia after the Herero tribe rose against an oppressive colonial regime--and the German army's brutal suppression of that uprising--are the focus of this collection of essays. Exploring the annihilation of both the Herero and Nama people, this selection from prominent researchers of German imperialism considers many aspects of the war and shows how racism, concentration camps, and genocide in the German colony foreshadow Hitler's Third Reich war crimes.
Slaps in the face, kicks, beatings, and other forms of run-of-the-mill violence were a quotidian part of life in German Southwest Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century. Unearthing this culture of normalized violence in a settler colony, Violence as Usual uncovers the workings of a powerful state that was built in an improvised fashion by low-level state representatives. Marie A. Muschalek's fascinating portrayal of the daily deeds of African and German men enrolled in the colonial police force called the Landespolizei is a historical anthropology of police practice and the normalization of imperial power. Replete with anecdotes of everyday experiences both of the policemen and of colonized people and settlers, Violence as Usual re-examines fundamental questions about the relationship between power and violence. Muschalek gives us a new perspective on violence beyond the solely destructive and the instrumental. She overcomes, too, the notion that modern states operate exclusively according to modes of rationalized functionality. Violence as Usual offers an unusual assessment of the history of rule in settler colonialism and an alternative to dominant narratives of an ostensibly weak colonial state.
This is the first paperback edition of a book which originally appeared under the title "South-West Africa Under German Rule", and appears with a new introduction by the author. The history of Namibia offers many parallels to developments in other European colonies. The settlers, with a greater or lesser use of force, established themselves in the country and their confrontation with the African population often culminated in rebellion in the area of major settlement; a European settler community would then consolidate itself over the ruins left by military conquest. The pattern was repeated in Namibia during the Nama and Herero wars. Helmut Bley shows how the roots of German totalitarianism stem from the colonial period. He provides a picture of how social insecurity, bureaucracy and rigid economic thinking produced the racialism and the extremism of the last years of German rule. The abuse of the Africans provided the roots of the abuse of the Jews.
Although it lasted only thirty years, German colonial rule dramatically transformed South West Africa. The colonial government not only committed the first genocide of the twentieth century against the Herero and Nama, but in their efforts to establish a “model colony” and “racial state,” they brought about even more destructive and long-lasting consequences. In this now-classic study—available here for the first time in English—the author provides an indispensable account of Germany's colonial utopia in what is present-day Namibia, showing how the highly rationalized planning of Wilhelmine authorities ultimately failed even as it added to the profound immiseration of the African population.
This annotated source publication detailing the first genocide of the twentieth century, provides interested readers with African voices and perspectives on German colonial rule in Namibia.
This is one of the first books in English to deal with the German colony, written in a polemical anti-German style. The author argues that a South African annexation will solve the pressing local problem of providing South Africa with land for its bywoners" (the poor white class), and indicates the lines along which Namibia may be most profitably developed. The second half of the book describes "the country and its resources", dealing mainly with the diamond industry. The value of the book as a source is enhanced by the facts and figures derived from British consular reports, as well as its 230 photos. The chapters on geology and minerals are mainly based on the works of the leading geologist at the time, Percy Wagner. (Eriksen/Moorsom 1989).
Germany’s overseas colonial empire was relatively short lived, lasting from 1884 to 1918. During this period, dramatically different policies were enacted in the colonies: in Southwest Africa, German troops carried out a brutal slaughter of the Herero people; in Samoa, authorities pursued a paternalistic defense of native culture; in Qingdao, China, policy veered between harsh racism and cultural exchange. Why did the same colonizing power act in such differing ways? In The Devil’s Handwriting, George Steinmetz tackles this question through a brilliant cross-cultural analysis of German colonialism, leading to a new conceptualization of the colonial state and postcolonial theory. Steinmetz uncovers the roots of colonial behavior in precolonial European ethnographies, where the Hereros were portrayed as cruel and inhuman, the Samoans were idealized as “noble savages,” and depictions of Chinese culture were mixed. The effects of status competition among colonial officials, colonizers’ identification with their subjects, and the different strategies of cooperation and resistance offered by the colonized are also scrutinized in this deeply nuanced and ambitious comparative history.
