Kalahari and Namib Bushmen in German South West Africa

Ethnographic Reports by Colonial Soldiers and Settlers

Translated by: Mathias Guenther. Edited by: Mathias Guenther. With contributions by: Hans Kaufmann, Hauptmann Müller, E. Seydel, P. Trenk, Joachim Helmuth Wilhelm.

Series: QKF Research in Khoisan Studies Volume 18

The five articles featured in this book were selected from a pool of about two dozen German colonial writings, most of them reports by colonial soldiers or officials on journeys of reconnaissance or exploration undertaken to various regions of the colonial territory, South West Africa. Criteria for selection were quality and quantity of observations, that is, objectivity and preference of observation over conjecture, and detail and comprehensiveness of the ethnographic information. Most of the articles are found in a number of rather obscure, now defunct, German colonial journals and reference has been made to one or the other of them by contemporary anthropologists, especially in the context of the recent revisionist Kalahari debate.

The editor has gathered the articles considered and selected on various visits (in 1991, 1994, and 1997) to Windhoek, to the Namibian National Archives and the library of the Namibian Scientific Society, as well as to the library of the Frobenius-Institut in Frankfurt/Main, Germany (in 2001). The articles are presented after a general introduction, which places the material selected into the wider context of South West African colonial literature on the Bushmen and assesses the relevance of the translated articles with reference to contemporary Bushmen research, which the selected texts supplement and complement.

Consideration is also given to the historical context, specifically the mounting hostility between the colonialists and the Bushmen throughout the latter half of the colonial period and the effects of this hostile interaction on the representation of the Bushmen. Each article is preceded by an introduction, and annotated with footnotes, which provide biographical information on the author and draw out specific ethnographic, anthropological or historical points and issues. The article introductions also assess the texts critically, as well as deal with problems posed by the translation.

CONTENTS

Preface / Introduction

Hans Kaufmann: The Auin

Joachim Helmuth Wilhelm: The !Kung Bushmen

Hauptmann Müller: A Reconnaissance Ride into the Kaukau Veld

E. Seydel: Out of the Namib

Oberleutnant Trenk: The Bushmen of the Namib and Their Legal and Family Conditions

References cited

Under these links you will find further publications on the history of southern Africa:

Accompanying material:

• !Ōsis – Female Leader of the Richtersveld (South Africa) (ISBN 978-3-89645-632-8)
• “Healing the Land” – Kaulinge’s History of Kwanyama (ISBN 978-3-89645-051-7)
• “We Thought we would be Free ...” (ISBN 978-3-89645-057-9)
• Der Caprivizipfel während der deutschen Kolonialzeit 1890–1914 (ISBN 978-3-89645-050-0)
• Die südafrikanische Militärverwaltung (1915–1920) und die frühe Mandatszeit (1920–1936) in der Kavango-Region / Namibia (ISBN 978-3-89645-360-0)
• Ein Leben im Dienste der Afrikanistik (ISBN 978-3-89645-631-1)
• Manasse Tjiseseta, Chief of Omaruru, 1884–1898, Namibia (ISBN 978-3-89645-055-5)
• South African |Xam Bushmen Traditions and Their Relationships to Further Khoisan Folklore (ISBN 978-3-89645-875-9)
• The Kalahari Ethnographies (1896–1898) of Siegfried Passarge (ISBN 978-3-89645-141-5)
• The Kavango Peoples in the Past (ISBN 978-3-89645-353-2)
• Trommeln in der Kirche (ISBN 978-3-89645-917-6)

Cross-reference:

• „S’ist ein übles Land hier“ – Zur Historiographie eines umstrittenen Kolonialkrieges (ISBN 978-3-89645-361-7)
• Die „Eingeborenen“ Deutsch-Südwestafrikas (ISBN 978-3-89645-054-8)
• Ethnische Grenzen und Frontlinien in Angola (ISBN 978-3-89645-356-3)
• Frühe Kolonialgeschichte Namibias, 1880–1930 (ISBN 978-3-89645-058-6)
• Herrschaft, Macht und Einfluß (ISBN 978-3-89645-359-4)
• The Mbukushu in Angola (ISBN 978-3-89645-350-1)

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