A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...

ejected European economics. But this transformation of German economic structures
was minimal as African populations could only resist the German economy in minor
ways. As the following study of land disenfranchisement and native labour indicates,
indigenous peoples could not effectively challenge German economic imperatives.
The extension and restriction of land rights to native peoples makes manifest how
companies were able to undermine government in order to permit their commercial
expansion. While the government established indigenous territorial rights in Southwest
Africa as early as 1896, the colonial administration was hamstrung by the settler and
business lobby who desired the land for themselves. 35 The local government in the
colonies favoured the right of German commerce to acquire more territory over those of
the original possessors of the territory, which consequently led to the forced sedentary
life on reservations and the poverty of the region’s formerly nomadic pastoralists. In this
manner, the deterritorializations of colonial capital had great impact upon African
society.
In a manner similar to that described by Deleuze and Guattari, colonial peoples
were webbed into a colonial labour system founded in European capitalism. 36 The labour
system was premised upon a model of “schwarze Arme, weiße Köpfe” where Germans
directed and natives worked. African peoples registered their dissatisfaction with this
model by migrating out of German territory. Additionally, the abuses of the indigenous
population at the hands of German settlers, owners and traders also created a labour
shortage when migration further drained the labour pool. The solution to the labour
question was through the establishment of a peonage system or “half-free labour
market.” 37
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