The report on the unveiling of the refurbished German settler memorial (DD, May 25) makes for interesting reading.
It is undoubtedly to be welcomed that the executive mayor of Buffalo City managed to squeeze in the official re-opening of the memorial between special council meetings, fighting with the municipal manager and court appearances.
But the report is especially interesting for statements by the German consul- general, Dr Bernd Rinnert. If he was quoted correctly, then the statement that the Germans were merely “innocent settlers” and that, “they came here not to colonise the people, but to settle, to develop, to cultivate the land and co-operate with local people” reveals a particularly one-sided way of viewing the history of this area.
Perhaps as a diplomat he was being diplomatic. Such a myopic view of history should, however, not go unchallenged.
Of course, as the CEO of the National Heritage Council has pointed out several times in opinion pieces in the Daily Dispatch and in the Dispatch Dialogues, there is a big difference between history and heritage.
The rededication of the memorial was after all a heritage event and heritage is what we take from the past to emphasise for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of present and future generations. Nonetheless the idea that German settlers were somehow detached from the colonial project is absurd.
While it is true some Germans might have identified with local Africans, learnt Xhosa and even taken some Africans as wives, it is also true that in their attitudes to race they were generally little different from other settlers.
There are many examples one can cite. The first group of Germans to arrive here were mercenaries. In a very short time they created havoc through their drunken and criminal behaviour.
The criminal record book for British Kaffraria for 1857-61 contains numerous examples of serious crimes committed by Germans. One of the most prominent to be convicted was Lieutenant Frederick Schermbrucker, who fatally shot a Xhosa person who had been walking past his home. There were several similar cases.
The easy frequency with which Germans discharged firearms at Xhosa men and women is suggestive of different racial attitudes to those described by Dr Rinnert. To portray the settlers as innocents abroad is to create a myth of monumental proportions.
If the consul general meant that individual Germans who came to the Cape Colony and British Kaffraria did not do so with the personal intention of colonising locals and stealing their land, then he is probably correct in this narrow sense.
This would also apply to other settler groups such as the English and Scottish settlers of 1820.
But that does not mean they were not part of the extension of colonial hegemony over the area.
Most of the Germans who emigrated here arrived in the wake of the cattle killing and were given land recently taken away from the Xhosa. They, together with the so-called grantee farmers from the Cape Colony, more effectively occupied Xhosa territory than soldiers in forts had been able to do.
They carried with them all the negative racial stereotypes and cultural attitudes of other settlers. They were part and parcel of the colonial process and they benefitted from it.
If the good doctor was seeking to imply the Germans did not come to South Africa as part of an official German colonial project and that German colonialism was somehow more benign than other forms of colonialism, then he is only partly right.
The first group of German military settlers were mercenaries who joined the British army to fight in the Crimea. When the war inconveniently ended while most were still in training in the south of England, Britain was faced with the dilemma of what to do with a lot of trained German soldiers on English soil. The solution was presented by the notorious governor and high commissioner, Sir George Grey, who was looking for European settlers for his colonial schemes in British Kaffraria.
The second group of Germans mostly consisted of peasants and labourers with their families. They were also brought out by Grey, so both immigration schemes were very firmly located within Grey’s colonisation of the Xhosa.
To suggest they came here to develop the area and to cooperate with locals is simply stretching credibility.
Whether German colonialism, when it occurred, was somehow gentler than its English variety is, of course, also a myth.
The conduct of German officials and soldiers in Namibia during the Namibian war of 1904-08 against the Herero and others has decisively illustrated that point. Indeed, the massacre of the Herero by the Germans has been labelled by some as the first genocide of the 20th century.
There is nothing inherently wrong in commemorating the arrival and achievements of German immigrants to South Africa, as the executive mayor said in her address. But we should not do so on the basis of some rosy-tinged myth.
We should do so knowing full well that Germans, like other Europeans who settled here, were part of a process of colonial dispossession of the Xhosa and other Africans which caused large-scale death, destruction, disruption and loss of land.
German settler descendants today, like descendants of the 1820 and other settlers, are heirs to that colonial process.
If the recent statues controversy sparked off by the #RhodesMustFall campaign has taught us anything it is that as South Africans we need to find a common heritage upon which we can build a shared South African identity.
It is only on the basis of acknowledging the wrongs of the past and admitting broader views that encompass the experiences and history of the African majority that we can build a genuinely all-embracing heritage.
Dr Denver A Webb is a historian whose doctorate deals with the history of colonial conquest in the Eastern Cape. He has researched and written numerous articles on the German settlers and heritage matters. He currently serves on a task team, appointed by the National Minister of Arts and Culture, for the transformation of the heritage landscape of South Africa. He writes in his personal capacity
Creating new mythology about German settlers
It is undoubtedly to be welcomed that the executive mayor of Buffalo City managed to squeeze in the official re-opening of the memorial between special council meetings, fighting with the municipal manager and court appearances.
But the report is especially interesting for statements by the German consul- general, Dr Bernd Rinnert. If he was quoted correctly, then the statement that the Germans were merely “innocent settlers” and that, “they came here not to colonise the people, but to settle, to develop, to cultivate the land and co-operate with local people” reveals a particularly one-sided way of viewing the history of this area.
Perhaps as a diplomat he was being diplomatic. Such a myopic view of history should, however, not go unchallenged.
Of course, as the CEO of the National Heritage Council has pointed out several times in opinion pieces in the Daily Dispatch and in the Dispatch Dialogues, there is a big difference between history and heritage.
The rededication of the memorial was after all a heritage event and heritage is what we take from the past to emphasise for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of present and future generations. Nonetheless the idea that German settlers were somehow detached from the colonial project is absurd.
While it is true some Germans might have identified with local Africans, learnt Xhosa and even taken some Africans as wives, it is also true that in their attitudes to race they were generally little different from other settlers.
There are many examples one can cite. The first group of Germans to arrive here were mercenaries. In a very short time they created havoc through their drunken and criminal behaviour.
The criminal record book for British Kaffraria for 1857-61 contains numerous examples of serious crimes committed by Germans. One of the most prominent to be convicted was Lieutenant Frederick Schermbrucker, who fatally shot a Xhosa person who had been walking past his home. There were several similar cases.
The easy frequency with which Germans discharged firearms at Xhosa men and women is suggestive of different racial attitudes to those described by Dr Rinnert. To portray the settlers as innocents abroad is to create a myth of monumental proportions.
If the consul general meant that individual Germans who came to the Cape Colony and British Kaffraria did not do so with the personal intention of colonising locals and stealing their land, then he is probably correct in this narrow sense.
This would also apply to other settler groups such as the English and Scottish settlers of 1820.
But that does not mean they were not part of the extension of colonial hegemony over the area.
Most of the Germans who emigrated here arrived in the wake of the cattle killing and were given land recently taken away from the Xhosa. They, together with the so-called grantee farmers from the Cape Colony, more effectively occupied Xhosa territory than soldiers in forts had been able to do.
They carried with them all the negative racial stereotypes and cultural attitudes of other settlers. They were part and parcel of the colonial process and they benefitted from it.
If the good doctor was seeking to imply the Germans did not come to South Africa as part of an official German colonial project and that German colonialism was somehow more benign than other forms of colonialism, then he is only partly right.
The first group of German military settlers were mercenaries who joined the British army to fight in the Crimea. When the war inconveniently ended while most were still in training in the south of England, Britain was faced with the dilemma of what to do with a lot of trained German soldiers on English soil. The solution was presented by the notorious governor and high commissioner, Sir George Grey, who was looking for European settlers for his colonial schemes in British Kaffraria.
The second group of Germans mostly consisted of peasants and labourers with their families. They were also brought out by Grey, so both immigration schemes were very firmly located within Grey’s colonisation of the Xhosa.
To suggest they came here to develop the area and to cooperate with locals is simply stretching credibility.
Whether German colonialism, when it occurred, was somehow gentler than its English variety is, of course, also a myth.
The conduct of German officials and soldiers in Namibia during the Namibian war of 1904-08 against the Herero and others has decisively illustrated that point. Indeed, the massacre of the Herero by the Germans has been labelled by some as the first genocide of the 20th century.
There is nothing inherently wrong in commemorating the arrival and achievements of German immigrants to South Africa, as the executive mayor said in her address. But we should not do so on the basis of some rosy-tinged myth.
We should do so knowing full well that Germans, like other Europeans who settled here, were part of a process of colonial dispossession of the Xhosa and other Africans which caused large-scale death, destruction, disruption and loss of land.
German settler descendants today, like descendants of the 1820 and other settlers, are heirs to that colonial process.
If the recent statues controversy sparked off by the #RhodesMustFall campaign has taught us anything it is that as South Africans we need to find a common heritage upon which we can build a shared South African identity.
It is only on the basis of acknowledging the wrongs of the past and admitting broader views that encompass the experiences and history of the African majority that we can build a genuinely all-embracing heritage.
Dr Denver A Webb is a historian whose doctorate deals with the history of colonial conquest in the Eastern Cape. He has researched and written numerous articles on the German settlers and heritage matters. He currently serves on a task team, appointed by the National Minister of Arts and Culture, for the transformation of the heritage landscape of South Africa. He writes in his personal capacity
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