Christian Conversion and Colonial “Native Policy”: The Role of Missionaries in Formulating Reservation Policy in German Southwest Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 741-762
Author(s):  
Stephen Morgan

AbstractThis article examines how German Protestant missionaries to the Herero people influenced colonial “native policy” in German Southwest Africa in the years leading up to the Colonial War of 1904 to 1907. By the late 1890s, burgeoning European settlement increasingly displaced the Herero from their traditional territory. While colonial officials promoted more settlement, missionaries had developed a concept of conversion that linked Christianization with living in self-sufficient agricultural communities, and hoped to place limits on Herero displacement. Thus, missionaries and colonial officials engaged in protracted political negotiations over the creation of inalienable “native reservations” for the Herero. I show that missionaries’ model of Herero conversion prompted them to promote an alternative mode of settler colonialism that would make room in Southwest Africa for self-sufficient Herero settlements. Prior to the Colonial War, missionaries succeeded in convincing the colonial government to begin creating reservations, thus shaping colonial policy according to missionary priorities.

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 1633-1671 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN INGLESON

AbstractThis paper discusses the responses of The Netherlands Indies colonial government to the rise in urban unemployment in Java brought about by the 1930s Depression. At least one in six of the large European/Eurasian population in the colony, and an even larger proportion of urban Indonesian workers, became unemployed as a result of the Depression. The colonial government and the European community were greatly concerned that the growth of unemployment among Europeans would lead to destitution for many, ultimately forcing them into the native kampung1. They were also concerned about what they saw as the moral decay of local-born European/Eurasian youth who were unemployed in unprecedented numbers. Furthermore, the European community feared that the growth in unemployment among western-educated Indonesians in the towns and cities in Java would create a fertile recruitment ground for nationalist political parties leading to urban unrest. Fear of the kampung for destitute Europeans, and fear of urban unrest from unemployed western-educated Indonesians, shaped the colonial government's responses to urban unemployment. The impact of the Depression on both Indonesian and European unemployed in the towns and cities in Java triggered lengthy debates on the role of the state in the provision of social security.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Blouin

Abstract Can divide-and-rule colonial policy be responsible for contemporary ethnic tension? This paper empirically investigates the role of a divisive and extractive colonial policy on Hutu-Tutsi discord in Rwanda and Burundi. It shows that Hutu with a family history of subjugation to forced labour by Tutsi chiefs are less trusting of Tutsi today and less willing to partner with Tutsi for a cooperative task. This may have implications for agriculture insurance agreements since Hutu are more agrarian and Tutsi are more pastoral. Indeed, Hutu with a forced labour family history make fewer inter-household insurance agreements and are more likely to experience default.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Kaur Dhamoon

AbstractIn settler societies like Canada, United States, and Australia, the bourgeoning discourse that frames colonial violence against Indigenous people as genocide has been controversial, specifically because there is much debate about the meaning and applicability of genocide. Through an analysis of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, this paper analyzes what is revealed about settler colonialism in the nexus of difficult knowledge, curatorial decisions, and political debates about the label of genocide. I specifically examine competing definitions of genocide, the primacy of the Holocaust, the regulatory role of the settler state, and the limits of a human rights framework. My argument is that genocide debates related to Indigenous experiences operationalize a range of governing techniques that extend settler colonialism, even as Indigenous peoples confront existing hegemonies. These techniques include: interpretative denial; promoting an Oppression Olympics and a politics of distancing; regulating difference through state-based recognition and interference; and depoliticizing claims that overshadow continuing practices of assimilation, extermination, criminalization, containment, and forced movement of Indigenous peoples. By pinpointing these techniques, this paper seeks to build on Indigenous critiques of colonialism, challenge settler national narratives of peaceful and lawful origins, and foster ways to build more just relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.


2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-253
Author(s):  
Helena Nunes Duarte

Abstract This article examines Portuguese colonization techniques in northern Brazil and subsequent changes during the regime of the Marquis of Pombal (1750-1777), which centred on restructuring defence, settlement, and the role of natives in the colonies. Focusing on the 1758 Indian Directorate, a collection of laws on native policy, the article examines how, despite the Enlightenment humanitarian trappings of the reform, it had a far more complex purpose than merely converting Indians into loyal subjects of the Portuguese crown. The legislation was just one part of a multi-faceted attempt to establish the crown’s sovereignty in the Amazon, which included taking power from the Jesuits, subjugating the natives, defining imperial territory, and asserting economic independence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Brendan Ciarán Browne

The growing interest in ‘During Conflict Justice’ (DCJ) in areas experiencing ongoing, sustained violent ‘conflict’ has further demonstrated the confluence between transitional justice and liberal peacebuilding approaches. Nowhere so is this more evident than in the case of Palestine-Israel where an ongoing process of Israeli settler-colonialism in historic Palestine continues, with the further spotlighting of ‘justice’ issues that are longstanding and unresolved. This article critiques the application of TJ/DCJ in Palestine-Israel and calls for a radicalisation of its application so as to ensure a platforming of conversation around decolonisation. It does so by critiquing the impact of discourse, specifically the framing of the ‘conflict’ and focuses on the nefarious role of a liberal peace building agenda in Palestine-Israel, a process that has embedded a deeply unjust and inequitable status quo. An insight into several ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ strategies of TJ/DCJ in Palestine-Israel is provided, with the conclusion reached that; any TJ/DCJ praxis that does not platform meaningful conversation around decolonisation in the region will ultimately amount to the individualisation of ‘justice’ whilst failing to address root causes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-470
Author(s):  
Adam A. Blackler

AbstractIn the span of ten years, what started as a minor commercial enterprise in a faraway African territory grew into an important extension of the German state. This article reorients our understanding of the relationship between theKaiserreichand its overseas empire, specifically with a focus on Captain Hendrik Witbooi and on how the Witbooi Namaqua he led influenced the evolution of German imperial rule in Southwest Africa between 1884 and 1894. Witbooi's refusal to accept imperial authority compelled colonial officials to confront their administrative limitations in the colony. When the façade of imperial fantasy gave way to colonial reality, German administrators expanded the size and scope of the imperial government to subdue the Namaqua. The article emphasizes the appointments ofLandeshauptmannCurt von François and Governor Theodor Leutwein as critical examples of Witbooi's impact on imperial policy, as well as the colonial administration's embrace of military violence to attain German supremacy in Southwest Africa. An emphasis on the Witbooi Namaqua illustrates the prominent role of Africans in German colonial history and exposes how peoples in distant places like Windhoek and Otjimbingwe manipulated official efforts to control and exploit the colony.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Postma

While the neoliberal order is associated with the economy, government and globalisation, as a form of governmentality it effects a particular subjectivity. The subject is the terrain where the contest of control plays out. The subject is drawn into the seductive power of performativity which dictates its agency, desires and satisfactions and from which escape is difficult to imagine. Neoliberalism is particularly interested in an education which provides it with the much needed powers of production and consumption. This dependency of the neoliberal order on a particular kind of agential subjectivity is also its weakness because of the indeterminacy of the self. Within this openness of the human subject lies the possibility to be different and to escape any form of subjectification. Foucault’s account of the critical agent portrays a form of difference that opposes and transcends neoliberal ordering. Foucault finds the principle of practices of freedom in the Greco-Roman ethics of the care for the self. It is an ethics where the subject gains control of itself through the ascetic and reflective attention in relation to available ethical codes and with the guidance of a ‘master’. Such as strong sense of the self is the basis for personal and social transformation against neoliberal colonisation. The development of critical agency in education is subsequently investigated in the light of Foucault’s notions of agency and freedom. The contest of the subject is of particular importance to education interested in the development of critical agency. The critical agent is not only one who could identify and analyse regimes of power, but also one who could imagine different modes of being, and who could practice freedom in the enactment of an alternative mode of being. The educational implications are explored in relation to the role of the teacher and pedagogical processes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-126
Author(s):  
Syafaat Rahman Musyaqqat ◽  
Didik Pradjoko

The economic historiography in trading and shipping activity during the 20th century often linked up to the role of Makassar as the main port in Sulawesi supported the exchange of beneficial commodities, such as copra which was -deemed as the “green gold” of the archipelago. In terms of becoming the most prominent entrepot for international trading and shipping, there were also several ports in South Sulawesi that played a vital role in establishing a connection to the outside world with much more variety of commodities. It could find other commodities, such as rice, which was transported all across the archipelago. Thus, this article argues that the Port of Parepare had a significant role in the trading and shipping of rice commodities in South Sulawesi, during the age of colonial administration (1930-1942). Through the historical method, the findings show that the Port of Parepare, throughout the 1930s, the Port of Parepare was not just a collecting port for Makassar, but also became the supplier of rice from the coastal area to the hinterland. Such synergistic collaboration, between the economic potential of the hinterland, agricultural intensification program, and colonial government regulation, encouraged the Port of Parepare to become the most imminent rice exporter in South Sulawesi during the 1930s. Moreover, within the same period, Parepare was also establishing interisland networks


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susvia Delta Kusdiane ◽  
Endriatmo Soetarto ◽  
Satyawan Sunito

Cimanuk Subdistrict is known with rice brand called “beras cimanuk”, which is a quality rice-producing area in Pandeglang Regency, but land use due to regional development has affected the lives of farmers, especially the younger generation of local farmers. This study aims to see how the conversion of agricultural land has a significant impact on social change in society, especially in the survival of generations of farmers. Data collection was conducted from April to June 2016 with interview techniques involving 21 informants consisting of tenants, landowners, surrounding communities, and agricultural extension agents. Data analysis was carried out descriptively. The results of the study concluded that land use change affected the declining role of agriculture in the socio-economic life of the community. the fading of the meaning of agricultural land became a driver in the difficulty of realizing the regeneration of farmers in Cimanuk subdistrict


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