scholarly journals Skulls and skeletons from Namibia in Berlin

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-26
Author(s):  
Holger Stoecker ◽  
Andreas Winkelmann
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Academic Institutions ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
South West ◽  
History Of ◽  
South West Africa ◽  
Provenance Research

From 2010 to 2013 the Charité Human Remains Project researched the provenance of the remains of fifty-seven men and women from the then colony of German South West Africa. They were collected during German colonial rule, especially but not only during the colonial war 1904–8. The remains were identified in anthropological collections of academic institutions in Berlin. The article describes the history of these collections, the aims, methods and interdisciplinary format of provenance research as well as its results and finally the restitutions of the remains to Namibia in 2011 and 2014.

scholarly journals Imperial skulduggery, science and the issue of provenance and restitution

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhart Kößler
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
South West ◽  
History Of ◽  
South West Africa ◽  
Provenance Research

This article explores the history of the Alexander Ecker Collection and situates it within the larger trajectory of global collecting of human remains during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This is then linked to the specific context of the genocide in then German South West Africa (1904–8), with the central figure of Eugen Fischer. The later trajectory of the collection leads up to the current issues of restitution. The Freiburg case is instructive since it raises issues about the possibilities and limitations of provenance research. At the same time, the actual restitution of fourteen human remains in 2014 occurred in a way that sparked serious conflict in Namibia which is still on-going four years later. In closing, exigencies as well as pressing needs in connection with the repatriation and (where possible) rehumanisation of human remains are discussed.

scholarly journals The Life-history of the Native Mine Labourer in the Transvaal

1906 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. G. Irvine ◽  
D. Macaulay
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Life History ◽  
West Africa ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Gold Mines ◽  
Mining Areas ◽  
South West ◽  
History Of ◽  
South West Africa

In the month of June, 1905, no fewer than 99,518 natives were employed on mines and works in the labour districts of the Witwatersrand, and the neighbouring mining areas of Klerksdorp, Heidelberg, and Vereeniging. In addition to these there were also working on the gold mines over 45,000 Chinese labourers. This vast industrial army is recruited from many and in great measure from very distant sources. Of the natives employed during the year ending June, 1905, the whole of British South Africa furnished only just over 32%: less than 2% came from British Central Africa: 60% were drawn from the Southern Portuguese East Coast provinces; and 3.6% from the Portuguese provinces north of latitude 22°. German South-West Africa contributed under 1%, but this area has latterly ceased to be a source of supply.

scholarly journals THE ROAD OF THE MAN CALLED LOVE AND THE SACK OF SERO: THE HERERO–GERMAN WAR AND THE EXPORT OF HERERO LABOUR TO THE SOUTH AFRICAN RAND

1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAN-BART GEWALD
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
The Road ◽  
South West ◽  
South West Africa ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Land Water ◽  
South African Rand

ON the morning of 12 January 1904, shooting started in Okahandja, a small town in German South West Africa, present-day Namibia. When the Herero–German war finally ended four years later, Herero society, as it had existed prior to 1904, had been completely destroyed. In the genocidal war which developed, the Herero were either killed in battle, lynched, shot or beaten to death upon capture, or driven to death in the waterless wastes that make up much of Namibia. Within Namibia, the surviving Herero were deprived of their chiefs, prohibited from owing land and cattle, and prevented from practising their own religion. Herero survivors, the majority of whom were women and children, were incarcerated in prison camps and put to work as forced labourers for the German military and settlers.Over the years there have been a fair number of works dealing with the causes and effects of the Herero–German war of 1904–8. It has been argued that the loss of land, water, cattle and liberty, coupled with the activities of unscrupulous traders and German colonial officials, steered the Herero into launching a carefully planned, countrywide insurrection against German colonial rule. In brief, ‘in 1904, the Herero, feeling the cumulative and bitter effects of colonial rule in South West Africa, took advantage of the withdrawal of German troops from central Hereroland…and revolted’.

The Role of German Treaty Making in the Partition of Africa (1980)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. H. Alexandrowicz
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
South West ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
History Of ◽  
South West Africa ◽  
Legal Character

This chapter examines Germany’s participation in the scramble for African territory, in particular the history of treaty making. It compares pre-nineteenth-century African treaties with treaties concluded subsequently. It draws attention to the undisputed legal character of African treaties concluded under the regime of the classic law of nations which, according to its natural law premises, was a universal and non-discriminatory law operating irrespective of civilisation, religion, race, or continent. It discusses protracted co-existence in South-West Africa under German protection; a mixture of protection and sovereignty in Togo and the Cameroons; and the situation in East Africa where absorption followed soon after the conclusion of treaties.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document