Michelle R. Moyd. Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest, and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa. Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2014. 304 S. ISBN 978-0-8214-4487-0.
Reviewed by Benjamin Brühwiler
Published on H-Soz-u-Kult (May, 2016)
In “Violent Intermediaries,” Michelle Moyd performed roles as both military and social ac‐ focuses on one particular social and professional tors. Throughout the book, she consciously refus‐ group in colonial German East Africa, namely the es to strictly separate African soldiers’ profession‐ askari of the Schutztruppe, i.e. the African sol‐ al and personal lives. This allows her to outline diers of the German colonial army. As highly con‐ African soldiers’ roles in creating and shaping the troversial fgures, askari were and have been colonial German East African state and society in largely misrepresented by their contemporaries new ways. As “agents of everyday colonialism,” as well as by later generations. Tanzanians and askari not only fought in the battlefeld but they Africa historians have considered them traitors, also undertook more mundane activities such as collaborators, and brutal henchmen of the colo‐ policing and administrative work, which were es‐ nial state, while Germans colonialists and colonial sential for the nascent colonial state. In addition, apologists have portrayed them as loyal and obe‐ askari exposed relatively large numbers of dient servants in the colonial army, who famously Africans to colonial sensibilities and practices as stayed at the side of General Lettow-Vorbeck even they and their various household members lived until after World War I had ofcially ended. Moyd in so-called askari villages, which were often lo‐ convincingly argues that both of these portrayals cated outside of the actual maboma (military and are misleading and superfcial, and the book is an administrative stations). Due to askari’s spending attempt to write an alternative historical account power, askari villages developed into bustling mi‐ by way of conceiving of askari not only as profes‐ cro-economies attracting traders as well as local sional soldiers but also as fathers, husbands, entrepreneurs and artisans. During military pa‐ heads of households, and individual men with rades askari helped to propagate the power of the personal goals and desires that were not always colonial state to crowds of Africans, while the sub‐ congruent with colonial policies and imagina‐ sequent beni ngoma dances served as fora for tions. According to Moyd, askari soldiers joined askari to appropriate colonial military emblems the Schutztruppe and acted in highly violent ways and insignia into local cultural settings, thus pro‐ because it helped them to establish themselves as viding the grounds for alternative readings and “big men” in their social worlds, which consisted interpretations of colonial signs and symbols. of askari villages where wives, askariboys, and Moyd’s insistence on viewing askari not only other dependents lived alongside African soldiers. as soldiers but also as men with social lives and In fve thematically organized chapters, Moyd aspirations that transcended their professional ac‐ describes how African men became soldiers and tivities in maboma, on expeditions, and on the H-Net Reviews battlefeld is refreshing and insightful. It allows Moyd’s strict focus on African soldiers and their her to portray askari as gendered individuals, agency leads her to forget who was really calling who were driven by the desire to achieve and the shots and it inadvertently downplays the re‐ maintain the status as “big men” in their social sponsibility Germans ofcers had for worlds. However, in contrast to Moyd’s arguments Schutztruppe activities and practices. When ex‐ about askari’s roles as agents of everyday colo‐ plaining askari’s exceptionally violent behavior, nialism described above, her claims about African for instance, Moyd attribute little explanatory soldiers’ “superiority complexes” (pp. 91, 188), weight to the process of socialization during re‐ their binary worldviews dividing other people cruitment and military training, which aimed at into “civilized” and “uncivilized” (p. 130), and creating new askari selves in which the use of vio‐ their ever-present “big men” aspirations are only lence played a constitutive role. At one point, scarcely supported by the source material. In fact, Moyd seems to insinuate that the use of scorched the author herself admits that her sources did not earth tactics applied during the Maji Maji war provide her with an access to askari “voices” (p. were inspired by long-established African meth‐ 22). Even if Moyd’s arguments seem plausible, the ods of war (p. 120) rather than by German of‐ sources at hand provide little evidence to formu‐ cers’ orders and tactics. late convincing arguments about African soldiers’ Overall, “Violent Intermediaries” is a highly gendered subjectivities and their violent behav‐ readable monograph ofering an empathetic view ior, which, as Moyd argues, mainly derived from on the stigmatized African soldiers of the colonial askari’s aspirations to become big men. As a mat‐ army in German East Africa. Most convincingly, ter of fact, one of the two askari “voices” available Moyd draws on the German Alltagsgeschichte to (although European-mediated), Abdulcher Farrag, describe askari as “agents of everyday colonial‐ never became a big man as he failed to marry and ism,” thus highlighting askari’s roles as extraordi‐ become the head of a household until his death narily important builders of the colonial state not (pp. 49–59). On the other hand, Moyd’s emphasis only as soldiers but also as policemen, tax collec‐ on askari’s sense of masculinity and respectability tors, and bureaucrats, thus truly making maboma downplays the role German ofcers played in in‐ “nodes of authority” (p. 163) of the German colo‐ citing and encouraging askari’s violent behavior nial state. Furthermore, Moyd outlines the com‐ as professional soldiers of the Schutztruppe. In monalities of the earlier caravan trade with the fact, she uncritically reproduces German ofcers’ Schutztruppe, one of these commonalities being statements, which described askari abuses as un‐ the presence of African women, who played an in‐ wanted but difcult to limit and control (p. 184). tegral part in the workings of the Schutztruppe as Carefully theorizing masculinities might have they prepared food for askari soldiers and were helped Moyd deal with these challenges of inter‐ responsible for their “comforts of home.” In sum, pretation but her understanding of askari man‐ “Violent Intermediaries” portrays African soldiers hood seems to be based on the assumption that as both military and social actors, who violently African soldiers defned their masculinity mainly contributed to the building of the German colo‐ in contrast to the women present in their social nial state because their occupation allowed them worlds (pp. 125–126). Certainly, however, askari to pursue their personal goals in life. As such, stu‐ formulated and acted on their ideas of masculini‐ dents and scholars interested in colonial armies ty not only in contrast to women but also vis-à-vis and in German colonialism stand to gain the most other men in a more complex gender hierarchy from reading “Violent Intermediaries”. including askariboys, porters, and German of‐ cers, the ultimate “big men” and patrons. Again,
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Citation: Benjamin Brühwiler. Review of Moyd, Michelle R. Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest, and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa. H-Soz-u-Kult, H-Net Reviews. May, 2016.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=46888
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