Germany colonized Africa during two distinct periods. In the 1680s, the Margraviate of Brandenburg, then leading the broader realm of Brandenburg-Prussia, pursued limited imperial efforts in West Africa. The Brandenburg African Company was chartered in 1682 and established two small settlements on the Gold Coast of what is today Ghana. Five years later, a treaty with the king of Arguin in Mauritania established a protectorate over that island, and Brandenburg occupied an abandoned fort originally constructed there by Portugal. Brandenburg — after 1701, the Kingdom of Prussia — pursued these colonial efforts until 1721, when Arguin was captured by the French and the Gold Coast settlements were sold to the Dutch Republic.
Over a century and a half later, the unified German Empire had emerged as a major world power. In 1884, pursuant to the Berlin Conference, colonies were officially established on the African west coast, often in areas already inhabited by German missionaries and merchants. The following year gunboats were dispatched to East Africa to contest the Sultan of Zanzibar's claims of sovereignty over the mainland in what is today Tanzania. Settlements in modern Guinea and Nigeria's Ondo State failed within a year; those in Burundi, Cameroon, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Togo quickly grew into lucrative colonies. Together these six countries constituted Germany's African presence in the age of New Imperialism. They were invaded and largely occupied by the colonial forces of the Allied Powers during World War I, and in 1919 were transferred from German control by the League of Nations and divided between Belgium, France, Portugal, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.
The six principal colonies of German Africa, along with native kingdoms and polities, were the legal precedents of the modern states of Burundi, Cameroon, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Togo. Chad, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Angola, Nigeria, Central African Republic and Republic of the Congo were also under the control of German Africa at various points during its existence.
Germany decided to create a colony in East Africa under the leadership of Imperial Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in February 1885.[1] Germany had recently unified in 1871 and the rapid industrialization of their society required a steady stream of raw materials. The prospect of a colony in East Africa was too much to ignore; it was perfect for the continued economic stability and growth of Germany. Moreover, Bismarck was suspicious of France and Great Britain’s true intentions in Africa and this only furthered his desire to create an East African colony. Soon after the agreement to create an East African colony was reached, the German Kaiser granted imperial protection to the possessions of the German East African Company, which had autonomy in the region.[2] In a way, this support by the German government completely changed the power and influence the German East African Company had. The company did not waste any time in dispatching eighteen expeditions to make treaties expanding its territories in East Africa, but these moves by the Germans stirred hostility in the region. When the company’s agents landed to take over seven coastal towns in the August of 1888, the tension finally escalated into violence.[3] Warriors flocked to a few of the coastal towns and gave the Germans two days to leave. In one instance, two Germans were killed in the town of Kilwa; German marines were eventually ordered in who cleared the town, killing every person in sight.[4] Resistance was seen all over German-controlled Africa, but the German soldiers and officers made up one of the best and most highly-trained armies in the world, so the action of rebelling didn’t have much of a long-term impact. Resisting made the percentage of survival much lower for Africans and brutality became synonymous with German imperialism in Africa.
By 1898, the Germans controlled all of Tanganyika’s main population centers and lines of communication.[5] The next item of business for the Germans was to impose their rule over the small-scale societies further away from the caravan routes. This was done either by bargaining with African leaders or through warfare. After diplomacy concluded and the conflicts resulted in German victory, their regime used bands of gunmen to maintain authority over local leaders. Eventually, the main coastal towns, which were more settled, were converted into headquarters of administration districts, and civilian district officers were appointed.[6] Further inland, administration grew outwards from strategic garrisons but was transferred to civilian hands more slowly.[6] By 1914, Tanganyika was divided into 22 administrative districts, and only two of them were still ruled by soldiers.[6] The chief characteristic of German rule was the power and autonomy of the district officer; sheer lack of communication dictated this. Orders from the capital may have taken months to reach remote districts and a remote station could expect a visit from a senior official only once a decade. The district officer exercised full jurisdiction over ‘natives’, for although legislation specified the punishments he might impose, nothing defined the offences for which he might impose them.[7] The German rule of East Africa was solely based on force and German officials inspired great terror.
When the Germans were in control of Tanganyika, two broad phases can summarize their rule. In the 1890s their aims were military security and political control; to achieve this the Germans used a mixture of violence and alliances with African leaders.[7] These ‘local compromises’, as they may be called, had common characteristics. The Germans offered political and military support for their allies in exchange for the recognition of German authority, provision of labor and building materials, and the use of diplomacy instead of force in settling issues.[7] Moreover, the imposition of tax in 1898 initiated the transition to the second phase of administration whose chief characteristic was the collapse of the compromises made earlier in the decade.[8] The old compromises collapsed because the increase in German military strength made them less dependent on local allies and while earlier officers often welcomed their collaborators’ power, later ones suspected it. This led to a change from allied to adversarial relationships between some African leaders and the Germans. For example, Mtinginya of Usongo, a powerful Nyamwezi chief aided the Germans against Isike; but by 1901, he became a potential enemy and when he died a year or two later, his chiefdom was deliberately dismantled.[8] However, this was not what happened in other scenarios. Many of the old African collaborators did not necessarily lose power in this second stage of German administration, but to survive they had to adapt themselves and often reorganize their societies.[8]
Cotton production in German East Africa was administered in a much different manner than in other areas of the continent. In some places throughout Africa, the colonial state only needed to provide seeds of encouragement as commercial agriculture was already well established. The ultimate goal of Europeans was to establish a market economy and that was done by torturing Africans into a labour pool. In German East Africa, this was much harder to pursue, as agriculture was less developed, and farmers were sometimes tortured inhumanely into producing certain crops.[9] The ‘cotton gospel’ was received less enthusiastically in Tanganyika than it was in British Uganda.[9] That increased German brutality in East Africa, as Europeans would be willing to torture and kill to ensure their supply of raw materials.
In the initial stages of German control of East Africa, private German firms were given autonomy to run the establishment in the colony. These German companies operated out of Bremen and Hamburg; the businesses were at the commercial and political frontier of the expanding colonial state.[10] However, this was quickly discovered to be inefficient as many of these firms went bankrupt due to mismanagement and African resistance.[10] Most companies eventually gave way to governmental authority by the beginning of the 1920s, but the German colonial empire had already collapsed by that point.
The German consul, Gustav Nachtigal, declared Kamerun a protectorate of Germany on July 12, 1884.[11] A slow and cautious interest in Kamerun had been growing among German businessmen for thirty years before the finalization of Kamerun as a protectorate. The reason for the initial German interest in Kamerun was the desire of German businessmen for trade there.[11] The Germans hoped to exploit the natural resources of the region and provide their country with a new market for manufactured goods; Kamerun was never considered to be a settler colony, as the climate was too hostile.[12] For a period of time, after the Germans declared Kamerun a protectorate, they only had a solidified position on the coast; the Germans had not been successful in opening trade routes in the interior, partly for geographical reasons. The forest aided the Africans in discouraging European colonists from extending trade activities beyond the coast. Nevertheless, the German interest in the interior continued, heightened by favorable reports from travelers such as Heinrich Barth in the 1850s; Gerhard Rohlfs in the 1860s; and Gustav Nachtigal, from 1869 to 1873.[11] After the German Navy cemented their control over the Kamerun coast, and further troop landings were made, the Germans were more inclined to move inland. The Germans were aided by the severe ethnic and political fragmentation of the inland groups. The extent of the forest prevented the coastal groups from uniting with the Grassfields peoples to stem the German tide.[11] Once the protectorate was officially declared, the German military was purposely slow to enlist locals as soldiers lest they acquire too great a proficiency with guns and turn those guns on the whites. This fear persisted because the Germans never numbered more than 200 white officers and barely enlisted 1,300 Africans as troops.[11] The army in the protectorate remained small because its major task was to suppress scattered African rebellions, not to ward off other Europeans. German planners anticipated that the fate of their African empire would be settled, if necessary, by wars in Europe, as opposed to in Africa itself. Never really deployed at forts, the troops were first grouped into three expeditionary companies, who were marched from place to place to suppress revolts. These troops were all that stood between the meager German administration and the African population.[11] The Germans used these troops to combat many revolts against their rule. The German regime met armed resistance from the Bassa-Bakoko, one of the largest ethnic groups of the coastal and northwest Kamerun areas, who staged an armed rebellion trying to halt German inland penetration, but were defeated between 1892 and 1895.[11] As the Germans subdued rebelling Africans, their expeditions also resulted in obtaining forced labourers for the coastal plantations. This activity led to the depopulation of inland zones. The exploitative nature of the German regime swept the natives of Kamerun into a changed world. The previous barter economy suddenly found itself replaced by a money economy.[12]
German control of Togoland dates back to February 1884 when a group of German soldiers kidnapped chiefs in Anecho (present-day southeastern Togo) and forced them into negotiations aboard the German warship Sophie.[13] To establish official control of the rest of the region, Germany signed treaties with Great Britain. During its thirty-year occupation by the Germans, Togoland was held up by many European imperialists as a model colony, primarily because the German regime produced balanced budgets and was devoid of any major wars. The formation of impressive rail networks and telegraph systems there further supported this opinion. However, it was in actuality a combination of forced labour and excessive taxation imposed on the native Togolanders that created these. While Togoland may have appeared to be a "model" to Europeans, Togolanders endured a regime characterized by the aforementioned labor and taxation policies, harsh punishments inflicted by German district officers, grossly inadequate health care and education systems, and prohibition from many commercial activities.[13] The Germans made sure that they had complete control over both Togoland and its inhabitants. However, at the start of the First World War, the combined forces of the British and the French invaded the colony and the Germans capitulated, after only a few skirmishes, on 26 August 1914.[13] A British writer, Albert E. Calvert, tried to understand this distinct difference; Calvert argued that the natives of Togoland ended their ‘allegiance’ with the Germans as soon as the Germans were put in a position of pressure, that the terrible treatment they endured under the Germans was the reason for their welcoming of the Anglo-French invasion as well as the joy they expressed after the German surrender.[13] The Germans quickly responded, to defend their honour, by stating that the Africans were more than satisfied with German sovereignty, that they desired nothing more than its continuance.[13] Some Germans also argued that the colonial territories which blossomed under their rule were economically ruined after they were expunged.[13] This tension between the Allied and German governments over German colonies lasted until the outbreak of World War II.
| Group: | German Namibians Deutschnamibier |
| Pop: | 30,000 |
| Popplace: | Central and South Namibia |
| Langs: | German, Afrikaans, English |
| Rels: | Roman Catholic, Lutheran |
German Namibians (German: Deutschnamibier) are a community of people descended from ethnic German colonists who settled in present-day Namibia. In 1883, the German trader Adolf Lüderitz bought what would become the southern coast of Namibia from Josef Frederiks II, a chief of the local Oorlam people, and founded the city of Lüderitz. The German government, eager to gain overseas possessions, annexed the territory soon after, proclaiming it German South West Africa (German: Deutsch-Südwestafrika). Small numbers of Germans subsequently immigrated there, many coming as soldiers (German: Schutztruppe), traders, diamond miners, or colonial officials. In 1915, during the course of World War I, Germany lost its colonial possessions, including South West Africa (see History of Namibia); after the war, the former German colony was administered as a South African mandate. The German settlers were allowed to remain and, until independence in 1990, German remained an official language of the territory alongside Afrikaans and English.
See main article: German language in Namibia. Today, English is the country's sole official language, but about 30,000 Namibians of German descent (around 2% of the country's overall population) and possibly 15,000 black Namibians (many of whom returned from East Germany after Namibian independence) still speak German or Namibian Black German, respectively.[14] However, the numbers of German Namibians, rather than of Namibian speakers of German, are uncertain. Many Namibians of German descent still speak German and prefer classification as Namibian Germans not as Afrikaners.
German Namibians retain a fully-fledged culture in German within Namibia, with German-medium schools, churches, and broadcasting. Television, music and books from Germany are widely popular in the community. Often German Namibian youth attend university or technical school in Germany. This is despite the fact that in most areas and in Windhoek, the broader lingua franca is Afrikaans while English is now often the sole language used in many other spheres such as government or on public signs and product packaging. Unlike in South Africa, German Namibians have not been absorbed into the larger Afrikaans- and English-speaking communities. However, virtually all German Namibians are fluent in Afrikaans and are either familiar with English or can speak it fluently.
The first Germans in Namibia were missionaries, initially sent through the London Missionary Society and then later also the Rheinish Missionary Society. Both institutions worked closely together towards the end of the 18th century, as the Rheinish Missionary Society did not yet have any established facilities in Southern Africa. From 1805 the Albrecht brothers, followed by a number of other missionaries, settled in South West Africa. They engaged in cultural work, but also laid the groundwork for later colonisation.
Later traders arrived and after the landing of the ship Tilly in Lüderitz Bay in 1883, a rising number of German officials, settlers, workmen and soldiers. After South West Africa was officially declared a German colony in 1884, as well as receiving recognition by England, an increasing number of migrants arrived from Germany. This migration flow reached its high point during the first Lüderitz diamond discoveries.
Migration stagnated after the end of World War I, when Germany lost all sovereignty over its colonies in the Treaty of Versailles. The governance of South West Africa was transferred to South Africa by the League of Nations. During the subsequent 'south-africanisation' of South West Africa, around half of the remaining 15 000 German residents were deported with their farms being handed over to South Africans. This so-called 'degermanisation' policy only changed after the London Agreement of 23 October 1923, according to which the remaining Germans were afforded British citizenship. German immigration as well as the spread of the German language were also expressively encouraged. In all 3200 Germans took up the opportunity of acquiring citizenship.
At the start of World War II, South Africa aligned itself to the United Kingdom by a slim majority, and on 6 September 1939 South Africa officially declared war on Germany and the Axis. In 1939, many of those in South West Africa of German origin were put under house or farm arrest and then in 1940 transferred to South Africa to be interned in camps, where they would remain until 1946. From 1942 their British citizenship, afforded to them in 1923, was revoked.
The apartheid policy of South Africa came under increasing criticism and resulted in the founding and strengthening of the black resistance movement, including in South West Africa. At this time relations between the South African government and the German population were warming, leading to an increase in migration from Germany being viewed more favourably.
Most of the current German Namibians are descendants of farmers, officials, craftsmen and relatives of the so-called Schutztruppe (protection troops) as well as descendants of the migration waves following both of the world wars. Since around 1980, an increase in tourism has led to a rise in ownership of holiday and retirement homes by Germans.[15] many Germans in Namibia are small and medium entrepreneurs.[16]
Many German-speakers live in the capital, Windhoek (German: Windhuk), and in smaller towns such as Swakopmund, Lüderitz and Otjiwarongo, where German architecture, too, is highly visible. Many German Namibians are prominent in business, farming, and tourism or as governmental officials. For example, the first post-independence mayor of Windhoek, Björn von Finckenstein, is a German Namibian. The interests of the community are frequently voiced through Africa's only German-language daily, Die Allgemeine Zeitung. The Goethe-Institut in Windhoek lobbies on behalf of the German community.[16] The legacy of German colonisation in Namibia can also be seen in the Lutheran Church, which is the largest religious denomination in the country.
Many place names in Namibia carry names of German origin. The main road in the capital city, Windhoek, retained the name Kaiserstrasse ("Emperor Street") until Namibian independence in 1990.
The percentage of the population of Namibia formed by Germans has declined recently, spurring speculation that the overall number of German Namibians is decreasing. The decline in the percentage of German Namibians is mainly due to their low birth rates and the fact that other Namibian ethnic groups have higher birth rates and bigger families.[17] Unlike other southern African white groups, emigration to Europe, Australia or North America is not common. German Namibians tend to emigrate instead to South Africa.
According to the 2001 Census, only 1.1% of all Namibian households use German as a home language (3,654 households), which is much less than that for Afrikaans (39,481 or 11.4%) or English (6,522 or 1.9%).[18]
As per the 2011 census, 0.9% of all Namibian households used German as a home language (4,359 households), as compared to 10.4% using Afrikaans (48,238) and 3.4% using English (15,912). German is spoken by only 0.3% of the rural Namibians as compared to 1.7% of the urban Namibians. The maximum concentration can be found at Erongo (2.8%), Khomas (2.6%) and Otjozondjupa (1.4%).[19]
Deutsche Höhere Privatschule Windhoek, a German international school, is in the country's capital, Windhoek.
Before the Treaty of Versailles was even signed, nations of the entente powers (Great Britain, France and Japan) had total control over the German colonies (In Africa and Asia) since 1915, except for East Africa.[20] Great Britain and France had made secret arrangements splitting German territory and the Treaty of Versailles only cemented what had already taken place. The treaty only further confirmed that “Germany renounced to the Allied and Associated powers all rights and titles to her overseas territories”.[21] After World War I, Germany did not just lose territory but lost commercial footholds, spheres of influence, and imperialistic ambitions of continued expansion. Germany was severely weakened by the Treaty of Versailles but attempted everything to regain their overseas empire. The Germans thought the dispossession of their colonies was an injustice, and reiterated their economic need of the colonies, and their duty to civilize the backward races.[22] The Germans put forward two proposals for colonial settlement: first, that a special committee, who would at least hear Germany’s side of the issue, handle the matter; and second, that Germany be allowed to administer her former colonies.[23] The Allies rejected these proposals and refused to alter the colonial settlement that an agreement was reached upon. The Allies rejected the proposals because the native inhabitants of the German colonies were strongly opposed to being brought under their control again. German frustration from their territories being stolen from them and the extensive amount of reparations they were forced to pay led directly to World War II.