German Rule, African Subjects: State Aspirations and the Reality of Power in Colonial Namibia

440 Pages·2020·2.452 MB·English

by  Jürgen Zimmerer, Anthony Mellor-Stapelberg

German rule, african SubjectS

German rule, african SubjectS
State Aspirations and the Reality of Power in
Colonial Namibia
Jürgen Zimmerer
Translated by Anthony Mellor-Stapelberg
berghahn
N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
Published in 2021 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
English-language edition
© 2021 Jürgen Zimmerer
German-language edition
© 2001 Jürgen Zimmerer
Originally published in German as
Deutsche Herrschaft über Afrikaner: Staatlicher Machtanspruch und
Wirklichkeit im kolonialen Namibia
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Zimmerer, Jürgen, author. | Mellor-Stapelberg, Anthony, translator.
Title: German rule, African subjects : state aspirations and the reality of
power in colonial Namibia / Jürgen Zimmerer ; translated by Anthony
Mellor-Stapelberg.
Other titles: Deutsche Herrschaft über Afrikaner. English
Description: New York : Berghahn Books, 2021. | "Originally published in
German as Deutsche Herrschaft über Afrikaner: Staatlicher Machtanspruch
und Wirklichkeit im kolonialen Namibia"--Title page verso. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020051897 (print) | LCCN 2020051898 (ebook) | ISBN
9781789207491 (hardback) | ISBN 9781789207507 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Namibia--History--1884-1915. |
Namibia--Colonization--History. | Namibia--Politics and
government--1884-1915. | Germany--Colonies--Africa--History.
Classification: LCC DT1603 .Z5613 2021 (print) | LCC DT1603 (ebook) | DDC
968.8102--dcundefined
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020051897
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020051898
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78920-749-1 hardback
ISBN 978-1-78920-750-7 ebook
To Clara, Rebecca and Amélia

Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Preface to the English Edition ix
Abbreviations xiv
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 The Establishment of the Schutzgebiet and
‘Native Policy’ up until 1907 17
Chapter 2 The Codification of ‘Native Policy’ after 1905 70
Chapter 3 Demographics, Economics and Institutions:
Basic Factors after the War 139
Chapter 4 Securing Colonial Rule 159
Chapter 5 The Labour Market: Recruitment and Working
Conditions 222
Chapter 6 Social Discipline, Educational Policy and the
Taxation of the Africans 307
Conclusion 355
Appendix. Diagrams and Tables 365
Glossary 369
Bibliography 373
Index 411
Illustrations
Diagrams
A.1 Imperial Colonial Office (Reichskolonialamt) – structure 1913 365
A.2 Administration of the Schutzgebiet – structure 1913 366
Tables
A.1 Relationship between planned establishment and actual
strength of the Territorial Police 367
A.2 Orders for pass tokens, employment logbooks etc.
and actual deliveries 367
A.3 Rates of taxation proposed by the administration
during the 1908–09 discussions 368
Preface to the English Edition
There is something very special about getting a new edition of a
book of one’s own published twenty years after it first appeared –
and what is more, translated into another language. It is a matter for
great pleasure and pride; but it also immediately confronts you, as the
author, with questions as to how you have developed academically in
the meantime, how your field of study has developed, and how much
impact your own work has had on that development.
When my book Deutsche Herrschaft über Afrikaner: Staatlicher
Gewaltanspruch und Wirklichkeit im kolonialen Namibia first appeared in
2001, any preoccupation with German colonial history was languishing
in a mere niche of the academic world, to a large extent banished to
the field of Area Studies – for example, African History. The dominant
themes of historical studies in general at that time, only ten years
after German reunification, were, on the one hand, the history of the
German Democratic Republic, and on the other, the Holocaust and the
war of annihilation ‘in the East’, in the aftermath of the controversy
stirred up by the Wehrmachtsausstellungen, the exhibitions devoted
to the role played in this by the German army – to name only those
subjects positioned in the fields of modern and contemporary history.
Hardly anybody was interested in German colonial history: there were
still barely any breaks in the mist of ‘colonial amnesia’, as I labelled the
phenomenon when I drew attention to it in 2013.1
Despite this, the book ran through three editions within just a few
years. That in itself showed that the volume, and the subject matter it
dealt with, must have struck a chord, and that there was a degree of
interest in the topic after all. This is confirmed by the way the book was
received; the echo was enormous for something that had started life as
a dissertation, not only in the academic press but also in the general-
interest media. Already, English-language reviewers were calling for
the book to be translated into English; but it was not possible to fulfil
those requests at that time.