A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...

commercial rights for German companies within the territories. 111 The economic and
expansionist character of these treaties belies their existence as deterritorializations of
German colonialist desire in the colonies.
The colonial tax regime was a similar expression of colonial imperatives in the
colonies. One of the first actions taken by Lüderitz upon planting the German flag was to
impose a tax upon the local inhabitants. 112 All four of the colonies were subject to house
(1886-1888, 1908), dogs (1906-1911), spirits (1908-1914), brewing (1908-1911), land
(1906-14), trade (1909-1913) and municipal taxes (1910-1914). As African peoples were
often seen as “born sluggards,” many taxes were not premised upon work or wealth. 113
Colonial enthusiasts called for head and hut taxes that would secure taxes from all
citizens as well as benefit the traders who would subsequently pave the way for further
expansion. 114 These duties served a dual function for the colonizers by gaining revenue
for the state and forcing natives to labour in order to acquire the money to pay the tax.
These taxes were in contradiction to an earlier policy of minimizing taxes over concerns
of poverty, migration and revolt. 115 But German administrators were growing desperate
for funding as they were never able to squeeze enough tax revenue out of the colonies to
pay for their administration. German domestic requirements were deterritorialized to the
colonies in the form of tax regimes and were modified by the syncretism of settler
demands and African situations. The tax impositions were further subverted and
reterritorialized by indigenous groups by false reporting, migration from German territory
and the refusal to pay taxes.
Intrinsically connected with policy on treaties and tax, law formed an essential
part of the German extension of control over its colonies. 116 There was a special
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