“The People Who Make Our Heads Spin”: White Violence in German East Africa by Ryan Masters A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Ryan Masters 2019 “The People Who Make Our Heads Spin”: White Violence in German East Africa Ryan Masters Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto 2019 Abstract This dissertation explores violence perpetrated by the colonial state and white settlers in German East Africa from the 1890s to the First World War. It examines the place of white violence, almost all of it directed at black bodies, in East Africa and traces the ways in which broader social and political tensions in the German community shaped debates and contestations over the boundaries of “acceptable” white violence in the colony. Violence was a contested issue, one that divided the community of German colonists against itself. The issue was not that Germans disagreed about their right to treat Africans violently or dominate them by force. Rather disputes arose because the boundaries and limitations of white violence were never clearly defined, so that colonial administrators and German settlers were left to sort it out amongst themselves. The case of the plantation manager Georg Passarge demonstrates that social conflicts in the German colonial community could play a significant role in drawing officials’ attention to non-official white violence and ultimately in the prosecution of settler abuses. Further, the frustrations and anxieties that beset the German settler community shaped coverage of corporal ii punishment in the settler-friendly press, which defended whipping and flogging of Africans as integral to the success and well-being of German colonists. Finally, contemporary photography reveals the manner in which German officials tried to distance themselves from disciplinary violence as well as the unease with which some observers documented German colonial violence toward the black population in East Africa. This study demonstrates that violence was both ubiquitous in East Africa and a contested issue among German colonists. It shows that broader social and political tensions within the German community were manifested in the colonial courts, the settler press, and in the visual representation of colonial violence in East Africa. These same sources were constructed so as to manage or render invisible the black people who were the targets and victims of white violence. Accordingly, this dissertation also analyzes German representations of colonial violence and the people who executed it, witnessed it, and felt it on their own bodies. iii Acknowledgments I owe a debt of gratitude to a number of people who have offered their guidance and assistance during the writing of this dissertation. I would first like to thank my supervisor, Doris Bergen, whose many years of generosity and guidance have expanded my intellectual horizons and deepened my appreciation of the study and teaching of history. Her insights have been crucial to shaping my thinking about this project, and it is the case that without her endless patience and unwavering support, this dissertation would not have been written. Sean Hawkins has been an important guide during my graduate work at the University of Toronto, and the originality of his thinking about colonialism in Africa has challenged me to approach the German colonial period in unfamiliar and stimulating ways. I would also like to thank John Noyes for agreeing to join my committee and particularly for his encouragement and support during the long process of writing this dissertation, above all at times when I doubted my ability to see it through to completion. I am also grateful to Belinda Davis for generously agreeing to act as an external reviewer for my dissertation and offering her expertise as I move forward with this project. I would like to extend thanks, as well, to my internal externals Mark Meyerson and Yigal Nizri for lending their time and insights at this most crucial stage. I would also like to thank Carolyn Kay, who enthusiastically supported my work from early on and whose courses at Trent University first made me aware of my fondness for German history. I am sure that her teaching has had the same effect on countless other students who have studied at the university. Also at Trent University, I owe thanks to Tim Stapleton, who iv encouraged my interest in African history and was generous with his time in helping me to grapple with issues around violence in modern Africa. The research for this dissertation was made possible by the assistance of archivists and staff at the Bundesarchiv in Berlin, who showed considerable patience in helping a sometimes bewildered Canadian graduate student to navigate the colonial files held there. The staff at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin were also exceedingly kind and helpful, and I have fond memories of the afternoons I spent reading in the library when I lived in the city. I would also like to thank the staff of the Photo Archives at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for their assistance during a research trip I made there late in the process of writing this dissertation. Although the photographs I viewed in the archives did not ultimately end up in this dissertation, I am grateful for having had the chance to immerse myself in the extensive visual archive held at the Museum. My research has also been supported by number of fellowships and grants, including from the Ontario government, German Academic Exchange Program, Joint Initiative in German and European Studies, and the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto. I owe special thanks to Professor Natalie Zemon Davis for her generous support, in the form of a Director’s Merit Award in Jewish Studies, which gave me the opportunity to visit the USHMM Photo Archives. In addition, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the Annual Summer Institute on the Holocaust and Jewish Civilization, at Northwestern University, and the Genocide and Human Rights University Program organized by the Zoryan Institute in Toronto, both of which helped me to deepen my thinking on the history of violence. My friendships both within and outside the university have challenged me intellectually and sustained me through the many years of this project. My thinking about history has been v challenged and influenced by countless discussions with my fellow graduate students in history, in particular Peter Mersereau, Vanessa McCarthy, Lindsay Sidders, Bret Edwards and Dale Barbour, who have been friends and comrades throughout my studies at the University of Toronto. My friends Brooke McIntosh, Holly McDaniel, Michael Bruder, Aurora Wells, Alessandro Marcon and Oliver Jones have been at my side since practically the beginning, and I thank them for sustaining me through all of these years. Finally, I owe more than I will ever be able to repay to my mom, Jill, and my sister, Katie, who never wavered in their support of me during what turned into a decade-long process. This dissertation is dedicated to them. vi Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................... ii-iii Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................. iv-vi Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................... vii List of Images ........................................................................................................................... viii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Social Conflict and Colonial Law: Georg Passarge in East Africa ..........................29 Chapter 2: Crossing the Line: Georg Passarge in Court ............................................................68 Chapter 3: Disciplinary Violence in East Africa: Boundaries, Uncertainties and Contestations ..................................................................................................................................................104 Chapter 4: Visible Violence: Framing, Unease and the Boundaries of Acceptability .............155 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................207 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................222 vii List of Images Image 1: “Execution of a Punishment in East Africa” ...............................................................161 Image 2: “American Criminal Justice” .......................................................................................176 Image 3: A flogging in German East Africa, I............................................................................181 Image 4: A flogging in German East Africa, II ..........................................................................182 Image 5: Mwera prisoners in chains ...........................................................................................184 Image 6: “Prisoners in chains in Kilimatinde,” I ........................................................................185 Image 7: “Prisoners in chains in