DailySun
Germany’s colonial past, though not entirely overlooked, is a dimension of European exploitation and territorial encroachments in Africa that has largely gone unexamined. This book aims to address that oversight. Written by Henning Melber, a scholar born in 1950 to German immigrants who settled in Namibia in 1967, Melber later became affiliated with SWAPO, the Namibian liberation movement, and has established himself as a prominent academic on Germany’s colonial legacy.
Melber posits that contemporary conversations about Germany’s colonial heritage are hindered by societal forgetfulness, denialism, and general ignorance among the German public. His work represents a “modest effort” to fill this void.
He argues that Germany’s colonial activities in Africa are frequently eclipsed by the horrors of the Holocaust. Nevertheless, Melber highlights that many high-ranking Nazis had colonial backgrounds, emphasizing that “a colonial mentality was deeply ingrained in both the Weimar Republic and the Nazi era.” Thus, scrutinizing Germany’s colonial administration in Africa can yield new perspectives on Nazism, racial ideologies, and the consequences of colonization.
Roots of Genocide
The book traces developments beginning in the mid-1800s as Germany sought to expand its global reach and commerce. In 1862, the Brandenburg African Company established the modest trading post of Great Friedrichsburg along the present-day Ghanaian coast.
“By the dawn of the 20th century,” Melber recounts, “Imperial Germany had risen to become one of the largest colonial empires concerning overseas territories, which were euphemistically termed ‘acquisitions’.”
South West Africa, now Namibia, stands as the most distressing legacy of German colonialism. Adolf Lüderitz of Bremen envisioned developing Lüderitz Bay, initially named Angra Pequena by the Portuguese, recognizing its potential for guano deposits as well as trade in copper, ostrich feathers, cattle, and firearms.
Lüderitz engaged the German government, leading to the first raising of the German flag in the bay in 1884, heralding the announcement of German South West Africa. However, an official administration did not take shape until 1893 in this largely unprofitable colony.
Initially, Melber notes, German colonists showed little regard for the rights of the indigenous peoples. Indigenous leaders resisting colonization were coerced into “protection treaties” through military force or execution. By the mid-1890s, a wave of settlers began appropriating land and livestock through violent and deceptive practices.
The local Ovaherero community maintained significant control and economic importance until a devastating cattle plague struck in 1896-97, devastating their livestock and making them more vulnerable and dependent on traders, land exchanges, and labor. By the end of the decade, settler-colonial interests increasingly dominated the economy.
This oppression ultimately triggered a rebellion, which was met with extreme violence, including mass executions and “unlimited force of arms.” Those from the Nama and Ovaherero groups who dared to resist German authority were sent to concentration camps and subjected to forced labor, resulting in horrific death tolls. Many scholars classify the period from 1904 to 1908 as genocide—the first documented example in the 20th century. Casualty estimates range from 24,000 to 100,000 Ovaherero and 10,000 Nama, with thousands more driven into the desert to die from thirst.
Melber states: “If there are any keywords to characterize the principal effects of German colonial rule for the indigenous people, these would be land fraud, genocide, contract labor, and apartheid.”
Violence and Rebellion
Violence was also a key factor in Germany’s attempts to dominate Cameroon. The Hamburg Chamber of Commerce backed Adolph Woerman’s initiative to annex the Cameroon coast, allowing traders to evade taxes imposed by French and British colonial entities. This was believed to create new routes inland.
In 1884, with support from certain local Duala kings, a German flag was hoisted—but these kings insisted on retaining “continued ownership of the land and recognition of the local chiefs as rulers of the Cameroons.” This expectation, as Melber points out, quickly proved to be unfounded.
Conflicts resulting from these circumstances led to fighting and German “pacification” tactics. By 1889, a direct German colonial administration had been established. Land appropriation and forced labor soon became defining characteristics of governance, including the recruitment of a mercenary unit from Dahomey in 1891 to undertake particularly brutal acts and atrocities. Yet military administration persisted until German dominion ended over nearly half the region.
Melber highlights numerous Africans who displayed remarkable bravery in resisting the invading Europeans.
He features Prince Mpondo Akwa, son of King Dika Akwa, who had been educated in Germany and soon became a figure of concern for the authorities. In 1902, he famously stated that indigenous peoples would resist “being stripped of their black culture, law, and customs, which existed long before their encounter with whites.”
After returning to Cameroon, he was jailed in June 1911 for allegedly making “German-phobic remarks” and was executed extrajudicially in 1914. Ultimately, as Melber observes, the Germans could not “harvest the fruits of the terror they had instigated.” A joint British and French invasion from September 1914 to January 1916 effectively ended the violent German presence, but did not benefit the local population.
“Cameroon was divided as prey between the British and French… sowing new seeds of enduring internal conflict and violence,” Melber insists.
An East African Famine
In East Africa, German colonial rule in Tanganyika was driven by German citizen Carl Peters, whom Melber describes as motivated by “an imperialist nationalism fused with social Darwinism.” The German East Africa Company was created, and the Berlin Conference defined German zones of influence, encompassing what is now Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi by 1886. German East Africa ultimately became Germany’s largest colony.
Similar to South West Africa, Peters – characterized by Melber as “a megalomaniac believing that only brutal violence could communicate with the locals” – dealt with resistance through open aggression during a united Swahili and Arab uprising.
Colonists aimed to establish a plantation economy based on sisal, coffee, rubber, and cotton cultivation, but labor shortages were a continual problem due to violent and unhealthy conditions. Hermann Wissmann was appointed Commissioner for East Africa, arriving in Zanzibar in March 1889 and resorted to slaughtering rebels, deploying mercenaries predominantly from Sudan, Somalia, and Zulu backgrounds.
By the mid-1890s, rebellion was prevalent, culminating in the brutal suppression of the Maji Maji uprising—which may have caused up to 300,000 fatalities amid spikes in famine.
Changing Blindness to the Past
Reflecting on the harrowing legacies found in Namibia, Cameroon, East Africa, and beyond, Melber argues that Germany must “walk the walk” of reconciliation. “This means giving proper recognition to the atrocities committed in the name of German ‘civilization’ abroad and addressing these historical injustices with the same gravity as the subsequent Nazi mass exterminations executed domestically.”
He explores issues of reparations, the return of artifacts, and contemporary discourses surrounding Germany’s colonial history. Most importantly, he concludes that the government must promote public awareness and progressive education to elevate recent initiatives beyond being mere “political symbols.”
To echo the book’s opening lines: “We cannot change the past, but we can change our blindness to the past.”
The Long Shadow of German Colonialism: Amnesia, Denialism and Revisionism
By Henning Melber
£30 Hurst Publishing
ISBN: 9781805260455
