A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...

German colonial imposition. But after the shock to the German colonial system
presented by the 1904-1905 uprising, a policy of annihilation took over with General
Lothar von Trotha’s Vernichtungsbefehl (extermination order). 89 The subsequent
massacre of the Herero population has been seen in genocidal terms by many historians. 90
The deaths were on such a large scale that companies and colonial administrators
cynically decried the extreme post-war shortages of workers for the farm, plantation and
mining industries. 91 When this absolute extension of German power is compared to other
colonial actions of compromise, it is evident how variable the degrees of
deterritorialization and violence were that were inflicted upon Africa. Yet there was an
innate quality to the violence that the extension of German power manifested over Africa
for African peoples were subject to German desires more than vice versa.
Less devastating but still predicated upon desires to destroy African tribal, social,
cultural and commercial structures, was the government’s policy of restriction of native
land and movement. The administration restricted natives’ movement geographically
through systems of “Control Orders” and “Pass Orders” that kept pastoral tribes away
from traditional grazing grounds and resource areas. 92 Though these limits upon
movement were designed to control nomadic tribes, the regulations resulted in
widespread impoverishment and immiseration when indigenous political, social and
economic existence was severely threatened. After the revolts, colonial policy had to
balance the military and political requirements of the weakening of the restive tribes with
the commercial and social needs of the native labour force. 93 Within this syncretic
compromise, German and African realities achieved some degree of harmonization.
95