scholarly journals Re-individualising human remains from Namibia

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-66
Author(s):  
Larissa Förster ◽  
Dag Henrichsen ◽  
Holger Stoecker ◽  
Hans Axasi╪Eichab
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
German Scientist ◽  
South West ◽  
The Social ◽  
German Science ◽  
Colonial Archive ◽  
South West Africa ◽  
Scientific Objects

In 1885, the Berlin pathologist Rudolf Virchow presented three human skeletons from the colony of German South West Africa to the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory. The remains had been looted from a grave by a young German scientist, Waldemar Belck, who was a member of the second Lüderitz expedition and took part in the occupation of colonial territory. In an attempt to re-individualise and re-humanise these human remains, which were anonymised in the course of their appropriation by Western science, the authors consult not only the colonial archive, but also contemporary oral history in Namibia. This allows for a detailed reconstruction of the social and political contexts of the deaths of the three men, named Jacobus Hendrick, Jacobus !Garisib and Oantab, and of Belck’s grave robbery, for an analysis of how the remains were turned into scientific objects by German science and institutions, as well as for an establishment of topographical and genealogical links with the Namibian present. Based on these findings, claims for the restitution of African human remains from German institutions cannot any longer be regarded as a contemporary phenomenon only but must be understood as part of an African tradition of resistance against Western colonial and scientific practices.

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 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 Percy Sladen Memorial Expedition in South-west Africa, 1908–9

Nature ◽  
1909 ◽  
Vol 81 (2085) ◽  
pp. 466-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. H. W. PEARSON
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
South West ◽  
South West Africa

The Legal Status and Functioning of the United Nations Council for Namibia

1989 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-208
Author(s):  
Karin Arts
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
South West ◽  
South West Africa ◽  
The United Nations

In 1966 the General Assembly of the United Nations revoked the Mandate over South West Africa (Namibia) and thus terminated South Africa's right to administer the territory. It furthermore placed Namibia under the direct responsibility of the United Nations. Administration of the territory was delegated by the General Assembly to a subsidiary organ, the UnitedNations Council for Namibia (UNCN). The author briefly describes the establishment, the structure, the functions and the powers of the Council. Special attention will be paid to questions concerning the legal status of the UNCN. Finally the major activities of the Council will be reviewed and appraised

Australia and Indonesian Independence

1967 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 226-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. Hudson
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Colonial Power ◽  
South West ◽  
South West Africa ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Southern Rhodesia ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The One ◽  
United Nations Charter

Relations between Australia and Indonesia became strained within months of Indonesia's attainment of independence, deteriorating as conflict developed first on the question of West Irian and then as a result of Indonesia's hostility towards Malaysia. For many years, it seemed ironical that Australia should have played a major part in the emergence of a neighbour whose external policies and internal trends endangered rather than safeguarded Australian interests. But there is more involved here than historical irony in the context of Australian-Indonesian relations. Sufficient time has now elapsed for Australian policy on the Indonesian independence question to be seen in the wider context of the whole postwar phenomenon of decolonisation. For it is not merely of interest that Australia should have assisted neighbouring Asian rebels against a European colonial Power (remembering that Australia herself was, and is, a European colonial Power) and should then have been embarrassed by the activities of the rebels coming to office. It is of greater interest that, of the immense number of colonial issues anxiously engaging the attention of international society in the 1940s and 1950s, the years which saw the virtual demise of western colonialism, this was the one issue on which Australia took up the rebel cause. Throughout this period and irrespective of the complexion of the parties in power in Canberra, Australia persistently jeopardised her regional objective of friendly relations with anti-colonial Asia by opposing strongly and, at times, bitterly the anti-colonial cause in the United Nations. If nothing else, the United Nations has provided a forum in which each year Australia and other members have been forced to declare themselves on colonial questions. And, until the 1960s when Australia switched policy, Australia fought against all the anti-colonial Powers' largely successful attempts to have developed a system of international control over colonies under the authority of Chapter XI (“Declaration Regarding Non-Self-Governing Territories”) of the United Nations charter, to tighten the trusteeship system of supervision erected under Chapters XII and XIII of the charter, and to involve the United Nations in particular disputes so as to meet alleged threats to peace — all of them being attempts, however indirectly, to hasten the attainment of independence by dependent territories. Thus, Australia supported South Africa on South-West Africa, the Netherlands on West New Guinea, the British on Southern Rhodesia and Oman, the Portuguese on their African territories, the French on Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. But Australia opposed the Netherlands on the Indonesian question.

Rock Safari to South West Africa — 1962

1963 ◽  
Vol 38 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 350-354
Author(s):  
Norma Brady
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
South West ◽  
South West Africa
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