Forged in Genocide

Forged in Genocide

Author: William Blakemore Lyon

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2024-07-22

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 3111374912

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Forged in Genocide traces the early history of colonial capitalism in Namibia with a central focus on migrants who came to be key to the economy during and as a result of the German genocide of the Herero and Nama (1904-1908). It posits that Namibia, far from being a colonial backwater of the early 20th century, became highly integrated into the labor flows and economies of West and Southern Africa, and even for a time was one of the most sought-after regions for African migrants because of relatively high wages and numerous opportunities resulting from the war’s demographic devastation paired with an economic frenzy following the discovery of diamonds. In highlighting the life stories of migrants in Namibia from regions as diverse as the Kru coast of Liberia, the Eastern Cape of South Africa, and the Ovambo polities of Northern Namibia, this work integrates micro-history into larger African continental trends. Building off of written sources from migrants themselves and utilising the Namibian Worker Database constructed for this project, this book explores the lives of workers in early colonial Namibia in a way that has hereto not been attempted.


Blood and Diamonds

Blood and Diamonds

Author: Steven Press

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2021-04-06

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0674916492

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Diamonds have long been bloody. A new history shows how Germany’s ruthless African empire brought diamond rings to retail display cases in America—at the cost of African lives. Since the late 1990s, activists have campaigned to remove “conflict diamonds” from jewelry shops and department stores. But if the problem of conflict diamonds—gems extracted from war zones—has only recently generated attention, it is not a new one. Nor are conflict diamonds an exception in an otherwise honest industry. The modern diamond business, Steven Press shows, owes its origins to imperial wars and has never escaped its legacy of exploitation. In Blood and Diamonds, Press traces the interaction of the mass-market diamond and German colonial domination in Africa. Starting in the 1880s, Germans hunted for diamonds in Southwest Africa. In the decades that followed, Germans waged brutal wars to control the territory, culminating in the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples and the unearthing of vast mineral riches. Press follows the trail of the diamonds from the sands of the Namib Desert to government ministries and corporate boardrooms in Berlin and London and on to the retail counters of New York and Chicago. As Africans working in terrifying conditions extracted unprecedented supplies of diamonds, European cartels maintained the illusion that the stones were scarce, propelling the nascent U.S. market for diamond engagement rings. Convinced by advertisers that diamonds were both valuable and romantically significant, American purchasers unwittingly funded German imperial ambitions into the era of the World Wars. Amid today’s global frenzy of mass consumption, Press’s history offers an unsettling reminder that cheap luxury often depends on an alliance between corporate power and state violence.


The Politics of Nature and Science in Southern Africa

The Politics of Nature and Science in Southern Africa

Author: Maano Ramutsindela

Publisher: BASLER AFRIKA BIBLIOGRAPHIEN

Published: 2016-09-12

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 3905758776

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This book brings together recent and ongoing empirical studies to examine two relational kinds of politics, namely, the politics of nature, i.e. how nature conservation projects are sites on which power relations play out, and the politics of the scientific study of nature. These are discussed in their historical and present contexts, and at specific sites on which particular human-environment relations are forged or contested. This spatio-temporal juxtaposition is lacking in current research on political ecology while the politics of science appears marginal to critical scholarship on social nature. Specifically, the book examines power relations in nature-related activities, demonstrates conditions under which nature and science are politicised, and also accounts for political interests and struggles over nature in its various forms. The ecological, socio-political and economic dimensions of nature cannot be ignored when dealing with present-day environmental issues. Nature conservation regulations are concerned with the management of flora and fauna as much as with humans. Various chapters in the book pay attention to the ways in which nature, science and politics are interrelated and also co-constitutive of each other. They highlight that power relations are naturalised through science and science-related institutions and projects such as museums, botanical gardens, wetlands, parks and nature reserves.


Mission und Gewalt

Mission und Gewalt

Author: Ulrich van der Heyden

Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 568

ISBN-13: 9783515076241

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Inhalt: Christliche und islamische Ausbreitung vom fruehen 18. Jahrhundert bis 1918/19: Mit Beitr�gen von Andreas Feldtkeller, Alex Carmel, Ejal Jakob Eisler, Frank Foerster, Klaus Hock, Viera Pawlikov�-Vilhanov�, Michael Pesek, Sigvard von Sicard, Werner Ustorf, Henry C. Jatti Bredekamp, Ernst Dammann, Hans Heese, Irving Hexham, Ulrich van der Heyden, Elfriede H�ckner, Gunther Pakendorf, Christoff Martin Pauw, Karla Poewe, Johannes W. Raum, Kathrin Roller, Andrea Schultze, Harri Siiskonen, Ursula Trueper. Mission und Gewalt in Asien: Mit Beitr�gen von Michael Bergunder, Albrecht Frenz, Vera Mielke, C. S. Mohanavelu, Andreas Nehring. Christliche Mission und deutsche Kolonialherrschaft in Afrika: Mit Beitr�gen von Cuthbert K. Omari, Ingrid Grienig, Kari Miettinen, Paul Nzacahayo, Gabriel K. Nzalayaimisi, Adja� Paulin Oloukpona-Yinnon, Joseph W. Parsalaw, Sara Pugach, Harald Sippel, Holger Weiss.


History of Namibia

History of Namibia

Author: Marion Wallace

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2014-01-16

Total Pages: 475

ISBN-13: 019751393X

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In 1990 Namibia gained its independence after a decades-long struggle against South African rule--and, before that, against German colonialism. This book, the first new scholarly general history of Namibia in two decades, provides a fresh synthesis of these events, and of the much longer pre-colonial period. A History of Namibia opens with a chapter by John Kinahan covering the evidence of human activity in Namibia from the earliest times to the nineteenth century, and for the first time making a synthesis of current archaeological research widely available to non-specialists. In subsequent chapters, Marion Wallace weaves together the most up-to-date academic research (in English and German) on Namibian history, from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. She explores histories of migration, production and power in the pre-colonial period, the changes triggered by European expansion, and the dynamics of the period of formal colonialism. The coverage of German rule includes a full chapter on the genocide of 1904-8. Here, Wallace outlines the history and historiography of the wars fought in central and southern Namibia, and the subsequent mass imprisonment of defeated Africans in concentration camps. The final two chapters analyse the period of African nationalism, apartheid and war between 1946 and 1990. The book's conclusion looks briefly at the development of Namibia in the two decades since independence. A History of Namibia provides an invaluable introduction and reference source to the past of a country that is often neglected, despite its significance in the history of the region and, indeed, for that of European colonialism and international relations. It makes accessible the latest research on the country, illuminates current controversies, puts forward new insights, and suggests future directions for research. The book's extensive bibliography adds to its usefulness for scholar and general reader alike.


Edhina Ekogidho – Names as Links

Edhina Ekogidho – Names as Links

Author: Minna Saarelma-Maunumaa

Publisher: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura

Published: 2003-10-17

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 9522228168

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What are the most popular names of the Ambo people in Namibia? Why do so many Ambos have Finnish first names? What do the African names of these people mean? Why is the namesake so important in Ambo culture? How did the long independence struggle affect personal naming, and what are the latest name-giving trends in Namibia? This study analyses the changes in the personal naming system of the Ambo people in Namibia over the last 120 years, starting from the year 1883 when the first Ambos received biblical and European names at baptism. The central factors in this process were the German and South African colonisation and European missionary work on the one hand, and the rise of African nationalism on the other hand. Eventually, this clash between African and European naming practices led to a new and dynamic naming system which includes elements of both African and European origin.


Traders and Trade in Colonial Ovamboland

Traders and Trade in Colonial Ovamboland

Author: Gregor Dobler

Publisher: BASLER AFRIKA BIBLIOGRAPHIEN

Published: 2014-07-31

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 3905758407

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Taking the history of trade and of traders as its subject matter, this book offers the first economic history of northern Namibia during the twentieth century. It traces Namibia’s way from a rural, largely self-relying society into a globalised economy of consumption. This transformation built on colonial economic activities, but it was crucially shaped by local traders, a new social elite emerging during the 1950s and 1960s. Becoming a trader was one of the few possibilities for black Namibians to gain monetary income at home. It was a pathway out of migrant labour, to new status in the local society and often to prosperity. Politically, most traders occupied a middle ground: content of their own social position, but intent on political emancipation from colonial rule. Economically, their energy and business acumen transformed northern Namibia into an increasingly urban consumer society. The development path they chose, however, depended too much on the colonial reserve economy to remain sustainable after 1990. Their legacy still shapes spatial and social structures in northern Namibia, but most traders’ businesses have today closed down. By telling the history of the rise and decline of traders and trade in northern Namibia, this book is thus also a reflection on the conundrums of economic development under conditions of structural inequality.


Museum Cooperation between Africa and Europe

Museum Cooperation between Africa and Europe

Author: Thomas Laely

Publisher: transcript Verlag

Published: 2018-07-31

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 3839443814

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At a time of major transformations in the conditions and self-conceptions of cultural history and ethnological museums worldwide, it has become increasingly important for these museums to engage in cooperative projects. This book brings together insights and analyses of a wide variety of approaches to museum cooperation from different expert perspectives. Featuring a variety of African and European points of view and providing detailed empirical evidence, it establishes a new field of museological study and provides some suggestions for future museum practice.