The 1904 war that broke out in present day Namibia after the Herero tribe rose against an oppressive colonial regime--and the German army's brutal suppression of that uprising--are the focus of this collection of essays. Exploring the annihilation of both the Herero and Nama people, this selection from prominent researchers of German imperialism considers many aspects of the war and shows how racism, concentration camps, and genocide in the German colony foreshadow Hitler's Third Reich war crimes.

West African history is usually seen as mainly influenced by English or French colonialism. There is a new interest in German colonialism, but most research is done in European archives and with a European point-of-view. This book explores German colonial exploits and their consequences in Ghana, Togo, and Cameroon, mostly from an African point-of-view. By means of research on sites of the colonial hinterland and the agency of entangled people, the book reveals the simmering impact of the past encounters on indigenous religious, cultural, political, and socio-economic developments in West Africa. (Series: African Studies / Afrikanische Studien - Vol. 49)

Although it lasted only thirty years, German colonial rule dramatically transformed South West Africa. The colonial government not only committed the first genocide of the twentieth century against the Herero and Nama, but in their efforts to establish a “model colony” and “racial state,” they brought about even more destructive and long-lasting consequences. In this now-classic study—available here for the first time in English—the author provides an indispensable account of Germany's colonial utopia in what is present-day Namibia, showing how the highly rationalized planning of Wilhelmine authorities ultimately failed even as it added to the profound immiseration of the African population.

Intended for those interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this work looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. It illustrates key themes in modern thinking about Africa's history with a range of historical examples.

This annotated source publication detailing the first genocide of the twentieth century, provides interested readers with African voices and perspectives on German colonial rule in Namibia.

This new analysis of internment outside Europe helps us to understand the First World War as a truly global conflict.

The rich history of encounters prior to World War I between people from German-speaking parts of Europe and people of African descent has gone largely unnoticed in the historical literature—not least because Germany became a nation and engaged in colonization much later than other European nations. This volume presents intersections of Black and German history over eight centuries while mapping continuities and ruptures in Germans' perceptions of Blacks. Juxtaposing these intersections demonstrates that negative German perceptions of Blackness proceeded from nineteenth-century racial theories, and that earlier constructions of “race” were far more differentiated. The contributors present a wide range of Black–German encounters, from representations of Black saints in religious medieval art to Black Hessians fighting in the American Revolutionary War, from Cameroonian children being educated in Germany to African American agriculturalists in Germany's protectorate, Togoland. Each chapter probes individual and collective responses to these intercultural points of contact.