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Durham E-Theses TIME, IDENTITY AND NATION IN GERMAN TRAVEL WRITING ON AFRICA 1848-1914 Reimann-Dawe, Tracey How to cite: Reimann-Dawe, Tracey (2009) TIME, IDENTITY AND NATION IN GERMAN TRAVEL WRITING ON AFRICA 1848-1914, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/165/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 TIME, IDENTITY AND NATION IN GERMAN TRAVEL WRITING ON AFRICA 1848-1914 THESIS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY TRACEY REIMANN-DAWE DURHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MODERN LANGUAGES AND CULTURES 2009 ABSTRACT Between 1848 and 1914 a wave of German explorers travelled to Africa, enticed by the promise of geographical, botanical and anthropological discovery. Each Afrikareisender composed a narrative account of his German-African encounters and so produced a characteristic mode of travel writing. These works reflect not only the author‘s experience of their own identity, but also represent Germany‘s evolving sense of national identity during a period of extensive internal political turmoil which saw the consolidation of the German nation-state in 1871, its emergence as a colonial power in Africa after 1884 and finally left colonial Germany in 1913 on the brink of the First World War. German-African encounters in nineteenth-century travel narratives are the product of a dialectical combination of influences; firstly a cognitive interest in alternative regions of human experience, a positive, heterophilic desire to appreciate cultural heterogeneity; secondly, the opposite, expansionist, hegemonic aspirations fuelled by growing German nationalism and inter-European rivalry. The chief tool in analysing these conflicting tendencies is the representation of time, for the explorers‘ ingrained understanding of time, their ‗time-set‘, dominates the structure of these narratives. This ‗time-set‘ informed all theories of historical development, cultural advancement and racial theory with the notion of linear-historicist progress and so set the norm for encountering the other. Hence initially, Afrikareisende travel writing projected received and unreflected concepts of western and German self-understanding onto ‗Africa‘. Yet the move to Africa in fact exposes the fragility of these norms, so that the whole edifice which they support begins to crumble during the explorers‘ process of narration. The popularisation of evolutionary theory modified later explorers‘ time-set by opening up the vista of ‗deep-time‘ and an awareness of infinite time-scales that produced huge changes through infinitesimal increments. This, combined with Germany‘s particular route to nation-statehood, fuelled an interest in the paths of other peoples. Afrikareisende travel writing thus ended in a wholly unexpected manner: by projecting African otherness onto German domestic reality. Oddly, this writing at the same time paradoxically incited a ‗new‘ German nationalism, for evolutionary theory was also employed to propagate concepts of racial hierarchy and cultural superiority. Here, the linear-time-set modulates into the time of Darwinian struggle. A struggle which was epitomised by inter-European national rivalries on African soil. Hence German activities in the late nineteenth-century in Africa not only express internal tensions in Germany at the time, but also, in some sense, express the internal tensions of nineteenth-century Europe. These neglected yet important texts provide insight into Germany‘s metamorphosis from passive observer of international political developments to self-destructive would-be world power. 2 TIME, IDENTITY AND NATION IN GERMAN TRAVEL WRITING ON AFRICA 1848-1914 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT p. 2 INTRODUCTION p. 4 CHAPTER I: TIME, THE TRAVEL NARRATIVE AND CONTEMPORARY DISCOURSE p. 9 CHAPTER II: TIME, NATION AND COLONIAL EXPANSION p. 36 CHAPTER III: TIME AND NARRATIVE p. 76 CHAPTER IV: TIME, SPACE AND NARRATION p. 122 CHAPTER V: TIME, NARRATIVE, HISTORY AND CULTURE p. 176 CHAPTER VI: TIME, RITUAL, AND RELIGION p. 218 CHAPTER VII: TIME, RACE AND THE COLONIAL QUESTION p. 275 CHAPTER VIII: TIME, NATION AND THE EUROPEAN OTHER p. 329 CONCLUSION p. 362 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CITED p. 374 3 TIME, IDENTITY AND COLONIALISM IN GERMAN TRAVEL WRITING ON AFRICA 1848-1914 INTRODUCTION Wie viel kann man in der Herrschaft über sich selbst von vielen unzivilisierten Völkern lernen, denen man sich so sehr überlegen glaubt?1 Prussian explorer Gustav Nachtigal traversed the Sahara and Sudan 1868-74. This intriguing statement from his account of the journey, refers to his encounter with local tribal leaders and his relationship to his North African, Muslim entourage during his desert crossing in 1869. Nachtigal finds his party in effective captivity, as local leaders refuse to grant permission to cross their territories. His frustration growing and provisions running low, the explorer plans to flee under the cover of darkness. His plans are foiled by his native – and hence subaltern – entourage, no less, who insist on patience and negotiation. Without his entourage, Nachtigal is impotent. Later, the explorer reacts with a volcanic outburst of rage which, on reflection, prompts the above admission; in which Nachtigal questions his received, unreflected concepts of civilised, and so cultural superiority. The emphasis on control in this statement is particularly significant, for German explorers‘ initial strategy when encountering Africa is one of establishing control – control over their physical passage, over encounters with ‗others‘, over remembered events and over their narration. The concept of control, as the above excerpt indicates, is associated with ‗civilised‘ society. It carries with it connotations of 1 Gustav Nachtigal, Sahara und Sudan: Ergebnisse sechsjähriger Reisen in Afrika, 3 vols (Berlin: Verlagsgesellschaft M.B.H, 1879-89) I, p. 104. 4 rationality and progress. Here, Nachtigal realises that loss of control over his traversal is synonymous with loss of self-control. Yet it is, in fact, during such uncontrolled moments that German explorers transcend their limits, acknowledge deficiencies in their pre-conceived understanding of self and consequently, of the other. Nachtigal‘s reference to self-knowledge indicates a journey of discovery far more profound than mere territorial traversal. That said, in spite of so revealing a comment, and the established role of travel writing as a medium of self-understanding,2 little attention has been paid to these works and consequently to German self-understanding in the period of both domestic and international turbulent political developments between 1848 and 1914. During this time, a wave of German explorers travelled to Africa, enticed by the promise of geographical, botanical and anthropological discovery.3 This study will argue that the narration of German-African encounter also tells the story of German self- understanding as it evolved in these repeated encounters with the ‗geheimnisvoll‘ and ‗rätselvoll‘ continent (Nachtigal, I, p. 6).4 This investigation will contend that German-African encounters in nineteenth-century travel narratives are the product of a dialectical combination of influences; firstly a cognitive interest in alternative regions of human experience: a positive, heterophilic 2 See for example Peter Brenner, Der Reisebericht in der deutschen Literatur: ein Forschungsüberblick als Vorstudie zu einer Gattungsgeschichte, 8 vols (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1990), I, pp. 15-20. See also Mary-Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (London: Routledge, 1992), pp. 4-7. 3 The period from 1848 to 1912 saw numerous German expeditions to Africa. The explorers, commonly known by their contemporaries as Afrikareisende, composed over one hundred works detailing their expeditions and findings. See Cornelia Essner, Deutsche Afrikareisende im neunzehnten Jahrhundert: Zur Sozialgeschichte des Reisens (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1985), p. 9. 4 All further citations from this, and the six other works which comprise the corpus of this investigation, will be referenced by the author‘s name only. 5 desire to appreciate cultural heterogeneity; secondly, the opposite: expansionist, hegemonic aspirations fuelled by growing German nationalism and inter-European rivalry. It will be argued that the presence of these contradictory tendencies reflects not only the authors‘ experience of their own identity, but also, on a wider scale, represents Germany‘s evolving sense of national identity and the nature of German colonial experience. These narratives, let us recall, were written during a period of extensive internal political turmoil which saw the consolidation of the German nation-state in 1871, its emergence as a colonial power in Africa after 1884 and finally left colonial Germany in 1913 on the brink of the World War which destroyed all that had been achieved