While debates are now common in France and Britain over the impact of empire on former colonies and colonising societies, German imperialism has only more recently become a topic of wider public interest. In 2015, the German government belatedly and half-heartedly conceded that the extermination policies carried out over 1904–8 in the settler colony of German South West Africa (now Namibia) qualify as genocide. But the recent invigoration of debate on Germany’s colonial past has been hindered by continued amnesia, denialism and a populist right endorsing colonial revisionism. A campaign against postcolonial studies has sought to denounce and ostracise any serious engagement with the crimes of the imperial age.
This book presents an overview of German colonial rule and analyses how its legacy has affected and been debated in German society, politics and the media. It also discusses the quotidian experiences of Afro-Germans, the restitution of colonial loot, and how the history of colonialism affects important institutions such as the Humboldt Forum.
The image of Sweden is one of a small, democratic and peace-loving country without the moral burden of a colonial past. However, in this Current African Issues publication, the notion that Sweden lacks a colonial past in Africa is brought into question. At the Berlin Conference 1884–85, the rules for colonisation of Africa were agreed upon among a handful of white men. With the blessing of King Oscar II, the united kingdoms of Sweden-Norway participated in the Berlin conference, ratified the resulting convention and signed a trade agreement with King Leopold’s International Congo Association. Thereafter, hundreds of Swedish militaries, seamen and missionaries took an active part in the brutal colonial project in the Congo. What was Sweden-Norway really doing at the Berlin Conference and in the ensuing Scramble for Africa? Is it now time to re-assess Swedish identity in relation to Africa, an identity so far centered on colonial innocence?
Dr DAVID NILSSON is a researcher at the Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. His research focuses on global longterm perspectives on sustainable development in Africa.