This working paper was presented at the conference Genocides: Forms, Causes and Consequences held in Berlin 13 – 15 January 2005, and has been provided for limited distribution, please bear this in mind when slighting or attempting to cite this paper. Jan-Bart Gewald African Studies Centre Leiden, The Netherlands Learning to wage and win wars in Africa: A provisional history of German military activity in Congo, Tanzania, China and Namibia Jan-Bart Gewald ASC Working Paper 60/2005 Agency in Africa African Studies Centre, Leiden Netherlands African Studies Centre P.O. Box 9555 2300 RB Leiden The Netherlands Telephone +31-71-5273372 Fax +31-71-5273344 E-mail
[email protected] Website http://asc.fsw.leidenuniv.nl African Studies Centre P.O. Box 9555 2300 RB Leiden The Netherlands Telephone +31-71-5273370 Fax +31-71-5273344 E-mail
[email protected] Website http://asc.leidenuniv.nl/staff/jbgewald.htm ã Jan-Bart Gewald, 2005 2 Contents Abstract 4 Introduction 5 Congo 6 Germans in Congo 9 Von Francois in Congo Free State 11 Learning of and in war 14 The destiny of nations and the orders of the Kaiser 15 Tanzania 21 Wahehe 23 Eating the land of Mkwawa 24 China 25 Namibia 28 Soldiers 31 Postscript: The control, or Americans in the Philippines 35 3 Abstract The central tenets of the paper are that genocide and crimes against humanity are learnt practice, and that the seeds of the genocides that occurred in Namibia between 1904 and 1908 were sown in the Congo in the late nineteenth century.