Raphael Lemkin's view of European colonial rule in Africa: between condemnation and admiration
2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 7; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/14623520500349977
ISSN1469-9494
Autores Tópico(s)International Law and Human Rights
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1 I would like to thank Dirk Moses (University of Sydney) for valuable comments on an earlier draft of this article. 2 Raphael Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1944), p 79. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 For a more detailed discussion of this observation, see the contribution of Michael A. McDonald and A. Dirk Moses in this volume. 6 See Dan Stone's contribution in this volume. The question of continuities between colonial genocides and the Holocaust is hotly debated. See, for example, Jürgen Zimmerer, "The birth of the Ostland out of the spirit of colonialism: a postcolonial perspective on the Nazi policy of conquest and extermination," Patterns of Prejudice, Vol 39, No 2, 2005, pp 202–224; Birthe Kundrus, "Von den Herero zum Holocaust? Einige Bemerkungen zur aktuellen Debatte," Mittelweg 36. Zeitschrift des Hamburger Instituts für Sozialforschung, Vol 14, No 4, 2005, pp 82–91; Dominik J. Schaller, "Kolonialkrieg, Völkermord und Zwangsarbeit in 'Deutsch-Südwestafrika'," in idem et al., eds, Enteignet-Vertrieben-Ermordet. Beiträge zur Genozidforschung (Zürich: Chronos, 2004), pp 147–232. See further the contributions in A. Dirk Moses, ed., Genocide and Colonialism (New York: Berghahn, forthcoming). 7 Elazar Barkan speaks in this connection of a "new international moral." See idem, The Guilt of Nations—Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustice (New York: Norton, 2000). Michael J. Bazyler has shown how the successful outcome of litigations against Swiss banks and German companies have inspired other victim groups. See idem, "Lex Americana. Holocaust litigation as a restitution model for other massive human rights abuses," in Schaller, Enteignet, pp 349–394. 8 See Jürgen Zimmerer, "Entschädigung für Herero und Nama," Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, Vol 50, No 6, 2005, pp 658–660; Janntje Böhlke-Itzen, Kolonialschuld und Entschädigung. Der deutsche Völkermord an den Herero 1904–1907 (Berlin: Brandes & Apsel, 2004). 9 See, for example, Jürgen Zimmerer and Joachim Zeller, eds, Völkermord in Deutsch-Südwestafrika. Der Kolonialkrieg (1904–1908) in Namibia und seine Folgen (Berlin: Ch. Links, 2003); Larissa Förster et al., eds, Namibia-Deutschland. Eine geteilte Geschichte. Widerstand, Gewalt, Erinnerung (Köln: Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, 2004). 10 Philip M. Musolino in an interview with Dr Joachim Zeller, Berlin, March 4, 2003. I thank Joachim Zeller for providing me with the recording of this discussion. 11 Adam Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost—A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999), pp 2, 25. 12 See, for example, Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, The Congo from Leopold to Kabila. A People's History (London: Zed Books, 2002), p 20. 13 A rare exception is Robert G. Weisbord who has stated that "injury, physical or mental, and the creation of unbearable conditions, as well as killing, qualify as genocide." Weisbord strictly opposes the view of Hochschild and concludes that "in the case of the Congo all these techniques were employed." See idem, "The king, the cardinal and the pope: Leopold II's genocide in the Congo and the Vatican," Journal of Genocide Research, Vol 5, No 1, 2003, pp 35–45, p 35. 14 The first manuscript is incomplete, without title and consists of 17 pages. It is solely dedicated to the fate of the Herero: Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives Cincinnati, the Raphael Lemkin Papers, Box 6, Folder 12 (hereon cited as Lemkin, "Herero"); the other paper is longer (52 pages) and entitled "The Germans in Africa." The suppression of the so-called "Maji-Maji Rebellion" in Tanzania and the "Duala Massacres" in Cameroon is also covered in it: Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, the Raphael Lemkin Papers, Box 6, Folder 9. 15 Lemkin, "Herero," p 2. 16 For a discussion of this argument and its consequences for the decolonization process after World War II, see Jürgen Zimmerer, "Von der Bevormundung zur Selbstbestimmung. Die Pariser Friedenskonferenz und ihre Auswirkungen auf die britischen Kolonialherrschaft im südlichen Afrika," in Gerd Krumeich, ed., Versailles 1919: Ziele-Wirkungen-Wahrnehmung (Essen: Klartext-Verlagsgesellschaft, 2001), pp 145–158. 17 Union of South Africa, Report on the Natives of South-West Africa and their Treatment by Germany. Prepared in the Administrator's Office, Windhuk, South-West Africa, January 1918 (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1918), p 9. Despite of the propagandist intention of the editors the "Blue Book" is an interesting source. It has recently been re-edited and commented: Jeremy Silvester and Jan-Bart Gewald, eds, Words Cannot Be Found. German Colonial Rule in Namibia. An Annotated Reprint of the 1918 Blue Book (Leiden: Brill, 2003). 18 Evans Lewin, for example, stated: "Unfortunately the majority of Germany's colonial administrators have not been gifted with … tact and ability. … Without entering into unnecessary details regarding German administration it may be stated broadly that it was altogether too inflexible and rigid […], and that it lacked the broader instinct of compromise which has so frequently saved British administrators from errors that might have led to disastrous results." Idem, The Germans and Africa. Their Aims on the Dark Continent and How They Acquired their African Colonies (London: Cassell and Company, 1915), pp 111–112. 19 Lemkin, "Herero," p 4. 20 Lemkin, "Germans in Africa," p 18. 21 The concept of "indirect rule" goes back to the British colonial official Lugard. According to this concept the colonial administration should exercise of the colonized peoples through traditional indigenous institutions. See Frederick John D. Lugard, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa (London: Blackwood, 1922). 22 For the so-called "System Leutwein," see Helmut Bley, Kolonialherrschaft und Sozialstruktur in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1894–1914 (Hamburg: Leibniz-Verlag, 1968), pp 18–185; Jan-Bart Gewald, Herero Heroes. A Socio-Political History of the Herero of Namibia 1890–1923 (Oxford: James Currey, 1999), pp 29–140; see also Governor Leutwein's own contemporary report: Theodor Leutwein, Elf Jahre Gouverneur in Deutsch-Südwestafrika (Berlin: Mittler & Sohn, 1906). 23 Lemkin, "Germans in Africa," p 49. 24 In 1890, Bismarck even had concrete plans to give up the whole colonial project. See Horst Gründer, Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2000), p 80. 25 See, for example, Isabel V. Hull, Absolute Destruction. Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2005). 26 The expression "cumulative radicalization" was first used by the German historian Hans Mommsen to describe the genesis of the National Socialists' "Endlösung." Jan-Bart Gewald emphasizes the radicalization process of 1904 in his work. See idem, Herero Heroes, pp 141–191. 27 Lemkin, "Germans in Africa," p 49. 28 For the criticism of Prussian militarism in Germany, see Nicholas Stargardt, The German Idea of Militarism. Radical and Socialist Critics 1866–1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). Especially the atrocities committed by Germans against Belgians during World War I have contributed to this discourse in Great Britain. See John Horne and Alan Kramer, German Atrocities, 1914. A History of Denial (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001). 29 Lemkin, "Herero," p 16. 30 Lemkin, Axis Rule, p 90. 31 See Horst Drechsler, Südwestafrika unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft. Der Kampf der Herero und Nama gegen den deutschen Imperialismus (1884–1915) (Berlin (DDR): Akademie Verlag, 1966), p 260. 32 For the national restructuring of the Herero, see Jan-Bart Gewald, "Die Beerdigung von Samuel Maharero und die Reorganisation der Herero," in Zimmerer and Zeller, Völkermord in Deutsch-Südwestafrika, pp 171–179; Gesine Krüger, Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein. Realität, Deutung und Verarbeitung des deutschen Kolonialkriegs in Namibia 1904 bis 1907 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999). 33 Willem Petrus Steenkamp, Is the South-West African Herero Committing Race Suicide? (Cape Town: Unie-Volkspers, 1944), p 8. For the contemporary social-Darwinist discourse on the "natural dying out" of human races, see Patrick Brantlinger, "Dying races: rationalising genocide in the nineteenth century," in Jan Nederveen Pieterse and Bhikhu Parekh, eds, The Decolonization of Imagination: Culture, Knowledge and Power (London: Zed Books, 1995), pp 43–56. 34 Lemkin, "Herero," p 16. 35 Krüger, Kriegsbewältigung, p 145. 36 New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division, the Raphael Lemkin Papers, Box 3, the Belgian Congo, p 10. Estimates of the death toll in the Congo vary to a high degree since the first census of the indigenous population was only made in 1924. Most historians estimate that the population of the Congo has halved during the period of Belgian rule because of slave labour and diseases. See Jean Stengers and Jan Vansina, "Western Equatorial Africa: King Leopold's Congo, 1886–1908," in John D. Fage and Roland Oliver, eds, Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 6: c.1870—c.1905 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp 315–158. 37 Lemkin, "Congo," p 88. 38 Ibid, p 9. 39 Ibid, p 89. Lemkin also pointed out that the German rule in Africa had been based on the same principle: "The African natives have always been divided into two categories: The peacable and the warlike, and the Germans turned this situation to their own advantage. The warrior tribes were turned into tools of the German army and were thoroughly trained, ferociously disciplined, and given practically unlimited power over all other natives. The word of a German soldier was always believed rather than that of a subject native, and thus the native soldiers were free to tyrannize over their fellows, giving fee rein to their savage lust for murder and rapine." Lemkin, "Germans in Africa," p 49. 40 Lemkin, "Congo," p 26. 41 See Ronald Robinson, "Non European foundations of European imperialism: sketch for a theory of collaboration," in Roger Owen and Bob Sutcliffe, eds, Studies in the Theory of Imperialism (London: Longman, 1972), pp 117–141; Jürgen Osterhammel, Kolonialismus. Geschichte. Formen. Folgen (München: C. H. Beck, 1995), pp 70–76. 42 Ibid, p 10. 43 See, for example, Lemkin, "Congo," pp 9, 25. Additional informationNotes on contributorsDominik J. Schaller1
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