trajan Posted 3 July , 2015 Share Posted 3 July , 2015 See: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33329661 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon92 Posted 3 July , 2015 Share Posted 3 July , 2015 A most informative and interesting read. It certainly added to my knowledge base. Thank you for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CSMMo Posted 3 July , 2015 Share Posted 3 July , 2015 Trajan, Thanks for passing that along. History is written, preserved and read by people who care about it, as Oswald Masebo clearly cares about it. I hope he continues to do so and publishes his interesting research. Mike Morrison Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squirrel Posted 3 July , 2015 Share Posted 3 July , 2015 Interesting read - thanks for posting the link Trajan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaforths Posted 10 July , 2015 Share Posted 10 July , 2015 Thanks for posting Trajan. I mentioned to you a while ago that I had acquired a large number of publicatons bound into a single volume. There are several hundred pages on this subject. Now I've read the article posted in your link, I'll take a closer look at those pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajan Posted 16 July , 2015 Author Share Posted 16 July , 2015 I have just received a copy of J.Kraus and T.Mueller, The German Colonial Troops, Vienna 2009, and this looks to have a great deal of data on these guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushfighter Posted 16 July , 2015 Share Posted 16 July , 2015 Sadly the article title is all-embracing and does a disservice to the Askari of both sides who all eagerly volunteered - and many thousands were turned away because neither side had the resources to employ all the suitable applicants. However on the issue of labour required for porterage then the title has relevance. On both sides many of those men were provided through the tribal chief or village headman, and whilst the British did pay them and supply a blanket and basic necessities (against re-payment), the Germans sometimes just requisitioned them and hung recalcitrant chiefs who did not supply their quota. The African labour situation on both sides is a murky area with insufficient information yet available. It needs an impartial researcher who can relate issues to the standards and expectations of the time to produce a definitive account. Harry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaforths Posted 16 July , 2015 Share Posted 16 July , 2015 I would tend to agree Harry. It is an area little touched on in terms of research and there is probably a lot of evidence from an array of different sources that could or, would need to be pulled together to present the whole picture. For what it's worth the stuff I have is on the British fighting their corner and addressing or trying to re-dress German atrocities against these poor people. They were able to get accounts and photographs from various sources that came from interviewing many of the Africans who had been subjected to, or witnessed atricities being committed. It would be interesting to know what Trajan's source says on the subject which I'm just off to investigate now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaforths Posted 16 July , 2015 Share Posted 16 July , 2015 Can't find a copy of that one for under a hundred quid! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajan Posted 17 July , 2015 Author Share Posted 17 July , 2015 Can't find a copy of that one for under a hundred quid! I am highly fortunate in having a friendly univ. librarian... Haven't had a chance to read much of it yet but it does have a pretty detailed first part on the history of the German colonies - I'll report in later on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaforths Posted 17 July , 2015 Share Posted 17 July , 2015 Well, I hope your librarian is an orangutan. They are the best. I kind of got the feeling it was a long book packed with information about uniforms and weapons - unless that was just a marketing ploy I was picking up on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajan Posted 18 July , 2015 Author Share Posted 18 July , 2015 Well, I hope your librarian is an orangutan. They are the best. I kind of got the feeling it was a long book packed with information about uniforms and weapons - unless that was just a marketing ploy I was picking up on. Is that the correct term for a Cambridge history Ph.D, chappie turned librarian? Hmmm. Yes, the book breaks into two main parts, the first, up to p.248, is an overview of the colonies, and their organisation, part 2 up to 574, being mainly uniforms - very little on equipment. Very well illustrated though! I am still in Part 1, and admit that I skimmed through the history section to get to grips with the unit organisation, after which comes military activities before and during WW1, which I look forward to reading - and where the Herero and Nama uprisings are discussed. On surprise to me was to learn of the 'Congo Act', resulting from the Berlin Congress of 1884-85, which Germany seems to have interpreted as enforcing neutrality on all European colonies in Africa if war broke out between the various parties who ratified this agreement - i.e., there would be no fighting there. Thus, or so the authors of the book believe, the lack of any proper system of defence for the German colonies other than the Schutztruppen and a small naval force. Now to read on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaforths Posted 18 July , 2015 Share Posted 18 July , 2015 Is that the correct term for a Cambridge history Ph.D, chappie turned librarian? Hmmm. Yes, the book breaks into two main parts, the first, up to p.248, is an overview of the colonies, and their organisation, part 2 up to 574, being mainly uniforms - very little on equipment. Very well illustrated though! I am still in Part 1, and admit that I skimmed through the history section to get to grips with the unit organisation, after which comes military activities before and during WW1, which I look forward to reading - and where the Herero and Nama uprisings are discussed. On surprise to me was to learn of the 'Congo Act', resulting from the Berlin Congress of 1884-85, which Germany seems to have interpreted as enforcing neutrality on all European colonies in Africa if war broke out between the various parties who ratified this agreement - i.e., there would be no fighting there. Thus, or so the authors of the book believe, the lack of any proper system of defence for the German colonies other than the Schutztruppen and a small naval force. Now to read on... Orangutan-Pratchett-Unseen University. Librarian turned into an Orangutan. He found it quite handy and didn't need a ladder to get to the highers shelves. I wonder if the authors expanded on who did/did not ratify...The Germans, if memory serves me right, didn't ratify the last installment of the Haig agreement. This in turn allowed them to use the conditions of the previous agreement, which they did ratify and it affected how they were able to treat POWs. That of course, would have implications across the colonies too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now