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    @cede @reka

    The Absent Presence of German Colonialism

    https://thefunambulist.net/app/uploads/fly-images/1147053/sillah-zafar-funambulist-4-900x600.jpg

    The German national narrative around colonialism is one of minimization, if not of outright denial. Such a minimization is supported by the exceptionalization of the Shoah, and the consensus around the idea that the German state has been making the proper amends around its genocidal history. If the 1904-1908 genocide of the Nama and the Ovaherero in present-day Namibia is acknowleged, it is often presented as temporally and spatially distant, in comparison with the temporal and spatial proximity with the Nazi holocaust. Fatou Sillah and Abdur Rehman Zafar challenge such a narrative and allow us to perceive the ghosts of German colonialism, from Namibia to Papua-New-Guinea, as transcending a specific time or place.

    En anglais:
    ▻https://thefunambulist.net/magazine/colonial-continuums/the-absent-presence-of-german-colonialism
    En français:
    ►https://drive.google.com/file/d/1owTlB0eiaabVUKR2jByYIR1vxZeAoAQF/view

    –-

    –-> Citations toponymiques (de la version française):

    "Le colonialiste #Karl_Peters, qui fut renvoyé pour déshonneur de ses fonctions de gouverneur de l’Afrique de l’Est allemande en raison de son usage excessif de la violence, fut redécouvert par les Nazi*es et érigé au rang de héros national. Dans mon (Fatou) quartier de Brême – considérée sous l’#Allemagne Nazie comme la « ville des colonies » – une rue porte encore le nom de Karl Peters. Le lycée que j’ai fréquenté est situé juste à côté d’un monumental éléphant de briques érigé par les Nazi*es pour commémorer les colonies perdues et réaffirmer leurs droits sur elles. Le colonialisme et le Troisième Reich ne sont pas consécutifs : si le colonialisme a précédé le Troisième Reich, il a aussi coexisté avec lui et lui a survécu [jusqu’à aujourd’hui]."

    « À Brême, la présence absente du passé colonial allemand reste gravée dans les rues baptisées du nom de colons, de navires coloniaux et de sites de violence coloniale. Südweststraße and Waterbergstraße (du nom des lieux où les troupes allemandes forcèrent les Ovaherero à fuir dans le désert) incarnent des rappels tangibles de la violence si souvent niée. »

    « Comme relativement peu de personnes issues des anciennes colonies allemandes vivent aujourd’hui en Allemagne, le mouvement décolonial actuel est en grande partie mené par des militant*es qui ne leur sont pas rattaché*es. Compte-tenu de cette situation, les liens qui existent avec des militant*es décoloniaux*ales des anciennes colonies sont vitaux pour les luttes anti-coloniales à la fois locales et globales. Par exemple, en 2021, l’association des Chef*fes Traditionnel*les Nama et l’Autorité Traditionnelle Ovaherero ont coopéré avec des militant*es allemand*es pour organiser des rassemblements simultanés à Windhoek et Berlin afin de demander réparation, tandis qu’un procès intenté au gouvernement allemand par les Ovaherero et les Nama a été soutenu par des avocat*es militant*es en Allemagne. Les rues allemandes qui doivent être rebaptisées reçoivent des noms honorant les ancêtres des militant*es actuel*les et des survivant*es de génocide. »

    #colonialisme #colonialisme_allemand #Allemagne_coloniale #Brême #noms_de_rue #toponymie #toponymie_politique #toponymie_coloniale #déni #Namibie #Ovaherero #Nama #récit #Hambourg #Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée #Samoa #traces

    ping @cede @reka

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      Bremen’s Elefant: Memorialisation, politics, and memory surrounding German colonialism

      https://contestedhistories.org/wp-content/uploads/234-Germany-Bremen-Elefant-1200x300-c-default.png

      In 1932, German citizens gathered for the dedication of the Kolonialelefant in Bremen. The Bremen Colonial Society created this monument in memory of the German soldiers who died in the German colonies during the First World War. As well as to glorify colonialism and bolster the neo-colonial movement (after the Treaty of Versailles had stripped Germany of its colonies in 1919). The first speaker at the ceremony was Eduard Achelis, Chairman of the Bremen section of the Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (German Colonial Society). In his speech, he stated:

      In this solemn hour dedicated to our colonies, may the whole German people step up and […] unanimously shout to the world: Away with the events of the past, with lies and slander; we Germans demand our rights. The recognition of necessary living conditions. Immediate return of our own land, honestly acquired and honestly managed, an expensive legacy left to us by our fathers: the German colonies.

      For Achelis and many others, the value of the Elefant lay not in the memory of the specific German soldiers who had lost their lives but in the reminder of the sacrifice that went into obtaining and controlling colonial land in Africa: the injustice of that land being taken away. A specific version of colonialism was publicly displayed through the Kolonialelefant: colonialism was a worthy venture that brought glory and prosperity. The city’s actions followed this version of colonial memory. The National Socialists of Bremen established the town as the ‘Capital of the Colonies’ after the statue’s dedication, and in 1938, a convention that brought together all of the German colonial organisations was held in Bremen.

      Six decades later, the Elefant underwent a second dedication – this time it was dedicated as the Anti-Kolonial-Denk-Mal (Anti-Colonial Monument). Before the ceremony, the Elefant was wrapped in fabric ‘chains’ of racism and colonialism, which were cut away during the ceremony. Speeches were given that grieved the atrocities of German colonialism, and a plaque was unveiled, which provided a history of German colonialism and the monument’s problematic creation. The plaque also highlighted the reason for rededicating the memorial: ‘This monument is a symbol of the responsibility we have inherited from history.’ Many Bremen-based organisations were involved in the rededication process, and other efforts to campaign for greater awareness of Germany’s colonial past. The fond memory of German colonialism that prevailed in Bremen in the 1930s was replaced by a memory of German colonialism shrouded in racism and violence.

      The Elefant is both a reflection of and exception to German memorial culture. Like the Elefant, German colonial memorials created before the Holocaust glorified colonialism. After the Holocaust, when genocide was defined and criminalised, there was a gap in German colonial memorialisation. No longer were memorials glorifying colonialism erected, and colonial monuments that already existed, including the Elefant, were largely left to decay.

      In the 1970s and 80s, the anti-apartheid movement swept across Europe, bringing awareness to the lasting impact of colonialism. Citizens in Bremen began to analyse how the city was responsible for the disastrous situation in South West Africa, particularly in Namibia (then controlled by South Africa), a former German colony. It is at this point, Bremen began to be an exception to overall German memorial culture, starting with the creation of initiatives to support Namibia and its independence movement. In 1980 the Centre for African Studies at Bremen University co-founded the Namibia Project, the purpose of which was to promote education and improve the legal system in Namibia. This programme spread beyond the University, creating connections with political groups across the Bremen area. In 1989, Bremen joined the Europe-wide campaign ‘Cities against Apartheid’. At the time, movements against colonialism and apartheid were yet to gain momentum in Germany. Germany’s official policy was cooperation and even friendship with South Africa while ignoring apartheid and the illegal occupation of South West Africa and, in some sense, supporting the occupation due to lobbying by the German minority living in South West Africa. Bremen’s efforts to improve the situation in South West Africa were accompanied by initiatives for greater awareness of Germany’s colonial past. Activist individuals and organisations in Bremen wrote educational materials for schools and articles for newspapers and academic journals while also organising awareness campaigns in the city. These decolonisation efforts led to a renewed focus on the Elefant statue, the very existence of which was a symbol of Bremen’s former support of colonialism. By rededicating the Elefant, Bremen confronted a colonial legacy that the rest of Germany had been ignoring for decades. The Elefant remains one of the only anti-colonial memorials in Germany – evidence of the nation’s continued willful amnesia of its colonial crimes.

      Works Cited

      ‘Treaty of Versailles’, United States Library of Congress, June 28, 1919, Part IV Section I.

      ‘Einweihung des deutschen Kolonial-Ehrenmals’, 7 July 1932, Ausgabe Nr. 187 Drittes Blatt, Schünemann, Bremen, quoted in G. Eickelberg, ‘Die Geschichte des Bremer AntiKolonialDenkmals’, Feb. 2012.

      The Plenipotentiary of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen for Federal Affairs, Europe and Development Co-operation, ‘Co-operation Bremen – Namibia: A Responsibility Posed by History’ (Bremen, 1999).

      ‘Als Bremen „Stadt der Kolonien” sein wollte’, WK Geschichte [Bremen], (27 May 2018).

      Bremen State Office for Development Co-operation, ‘Vom Kolonial-Ehrenmal zum Anti-Kolonial-Denk-Mal’ (Bremen, 2004).

      Bremen Parliament, Entschließung der Stadtbürgerschaft vom 19.9.1989, ‘Die Stadtbürgeschaft begrüßt die 1986 in Den Haag gestartete europäische Aktion “Städte gegen Apartheid” und schließt sich ihr an’, September 19, 1989.

      ▻https://contestedhistories.org/uncategorized/bremens-elefant
      #Kolonialelefant

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