A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...

of economic, social and political interests in colonial expansion. When expansionists
sought to create interest throughout German society through propaganda, they hinted at
some of the propelling forces of colonialism by stressing certain aspects of colonial
expansion.
At the beginning, German colonists sought to displace African values in favour of
German social structures. As Mannoni observes, the social dimension of colonialism is
vital to understanding colonial relations, for colonist populations brought their own
prejudices to the colony and tried to impose them on indigenous peoples. 9 Germans
sought to establish what Zimmerer identifies as a Herrschaftsutopie (utopia of
domination) in their colonies where German social, political, cultural and economic
codes would be paramount. 10 This was an attempt by the colonizers to remake African
society in a German image. 11 German attempts to destroy the social existence of the
Herero tribe after their 1904 revolt, by taking their land and their cattle, is clearly
indicative of this desire. Government endeavours to confine nomadic groups to sedentary
reservations and to establish European economic relationships over traditional barter
trade networks also display this desire to Germanize African society. Native social
orders were also stratified in European terms to reflect German administrative desires.
Noyes’ argument that the nomad represents the contrary of empire is illustrated in the
German efforts to force African nomad society to conform to German social, political,
economic and cultural norms that would position them within colonial power. 12 As well,
the efforts of government agents and missionaries to establish Deutschtum (German-ness)
in African society clearly testify to the German colonial practice of reterritorializing
difference and deterritorialization in African society.
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