A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...

colonial policy and declared that the relationship should be one of guardian and ward
rather than enemy and enemy. 78 The government reacted swiftly to the criticisms and
made colonial decision-making more transparent and devoted increased funding to
indigenous peoples’ welfare. 79 For instance, taxes collected in Southwest and East Africa
were set aside for indigenous improvement. 80 This was largely in response to the
prevalence of revolts amongst these same tribal groups. As a result, Germany gave
African populations increased freedom through more indirect rule. 81
In several excellent examples of the ways in which the colonized subverted
German rule, the pro-native policy was undermined by indigenous populations in the
interests of tribal politics. Here the reciprocal process of accommodation between
colonizer and colonized was used by some tribal elites to achieve power unimagined in
pre-colonial times, as Ralph Austen evidences in the Haya chiefdom in East Africa. 82
The Germans depended upon hereditary chiefs to act as intermediaries and therefore great
efforts were expended to keep or place friendly leaders in power. Tribal chiefs often
exploited the weakness and ignorance of German colonists and administrators to establish
and consolidate their own power. Tribal groups could also gain advantageous bargaining
positions by conveying images of power, particularly in the potential to organize and
carry out armed resistance against the colonizer. 83 In this manner, African peoples
reterritorialized the deterritorialization of German rule over their existing social orders.
By exploiting German efforts, social organizations at the tribal level were able to gain
leverage and thus respond to the impositions of the German occupiers. Here
deterritorialization and reterritorialization highlight otherwise ignored connections within
social and political interaction and bestow greater complexity upon them.
93