A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
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Through such cultural deterritorialization and reterritorialization, <strong>German</strong>y’s interaction<br />
with Africa shaped the cultural history of <strong>German</strong>y.<br />
Although <strong>German</strong>s happily consumed these expressions of the African exotic and<br />
as striking as these interactions were, the broad impact of colonial cultural propaganda<br />
was minimal. The continually-reiterated focus upon developing popular awareness of the<br />
colonies in order to secure increased government funding and intervention demonstrates<br />
how the various colonial social organizations viewed the apathy of the populace. Yet the<br />
cultural propaganda ultimately failed in that it never garnered much support for<br />
expansion. The expressions of colonial deterritorialization in the cultural sphere were<br />
therefore reterritorialized through public ambivalence.<br />
There was an additional deterritorialization of cultures through the transplanting<br />
of people and not just <strong>German</strong> emigration. A substantial number of Africans also<br />
traveled to <strong>German</strong>y, such as the young men who were brought from the colonies to<br />
assist advertising in the Kolonialhaus. 84 Through this cultural exchange, Africans<br />
deterritorialized some elements of Africa to <strong>German</strong>y. In this respect, Bechhaus-Gerst<br />
and Klein-Arendt’s ideas of the importance of encounters between African and <strong>German</strong><br />
introduce a neglected dynamic within colonialism. 85 Likewise, in Africa the introduction<br />
of <strong>German</strong> culture, like the introduction of <strong>German</strong> social values, prompted a re-assertion<br />
of traditional African culture alongside a syncretic assimilation of favourable elements of<br />
European culture. 86 This reciprocation problematizes the notion of colonial metropolis<br />
and periphery as cultural flows traveled back and forth in a manner similar to Bhabha’s<br />
vision of colonial mimicry. 87 Yet this cultural assimilation was not just the creation of<br />
alterity that was essential to colonial domination, but also suggests syncretism in culture.<br />
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