Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest, and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa
by Michelle R. Moyd and Michelle R. Moyd
Ohio University Press, 2014 eISBN: 978-0-8214-4487-0 | Paper: 978-0-8214-2089-8 Library of Congress Classification DT447.M69 2014 Dewey Decimal Classification 967.802
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
The askari, African soldiers recruited in the 1890s to fill the ranks of the German East African colonial army, occupy a unique space at the intersection of East African history, German colonial history, and military history.
Lauded by Germans for their loyalty during the East Africa campaign of World War I, but reviled by Tanzanians for the violence they committed during the making of the colonial state between 1890 and 1918, the askari have been poorly understood as historical agents. Violent Intermediaries situates them in their everyday household, community, military, and constabulary roles, as men who helped make colonialism in German East Africa.
By linking microhistories with wider nineteenth-century African historical processes, Michelle Moyd shows how as soldiers and colonial intermediaries, the askari built the colonial state while simultaneously carving out paths to respectability, becoming men of influence within their local contexts.
Through its focus on the making of empire from the ground up, Violent Intermediaries offers a fresh perspective on African colonial troops as state-making agents and critiques the mythologies surrounding the askari by focusing on the nature of colonial violence.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Michelle R. Moyd is Ruth N. Halls Associate Professor of history at Indiana University. Previously, she has been a resident fellow at the International Research Center “Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History” of Humboldt University, Germany, and at the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. She was also an instructor in the Department of History at the United States Air Force Academy.
REVIEWS
“[Violent Intermediaries] offers a new and well researched perspective drawing on the insights of the social history of recent decades…[Moyd] has produced a fine social history of African soldiers as intermediaries in the everyday life of colonialism in German East Africa.”—International Journal of African Historical Studies
“Moyd’s insistence on viewing askari not only as soldiers but also as men with social lives and aspirations that transcended their professional activities in maboma, on expeditions, and on the battlefield is refreshing and insightful.…Violent Intermediaries is a highly readable monograph offering an empathetic view on the stigmatized African soldiers of the colonial army in German East Africa.”—H-Net
“Overcoming methodological challenges posed by translation, memory, and frankly a scarcity of documents disclosing askari voices, Moyd sought to understand these soldiers on their own terms. As a result she explores the everyday life of the askari, from within their households to their official and unofficial roles within colonial society, and she recovers a past widely misunderstood due to German praise and Tanzanian denunciation for their loyalty to the Schutztruppe (the official name of the German colonial army).… Violent Intermediaries, like other books in Ohio University Press’s New African Histories series edited by Jean Allman, Allen Isaacman, and Derek R. Peterson, expands the boundaries of African history in new and exciting directions.”—Canadian Journal of History
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
A Note on Spellings, Currency, and Measurements
Introduction: Reconstructing Askari Realities
Chapter 1: Becoming Askari Narratives of Early Schutztruppe
Recruitment in Context
Chapter 2: Making Askari Ways of War Military Training and Socialization
Chapter 3: The Askari Way of War
Chapter 4: Station Life
Chapter 5: Askari as Agents of Everyday Colonialism
Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest, and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa
by Michelle R. Moyd and Michelle R. Moyd
Ohio University Press, 2014 eISBN: 978-0-8214-4487-0 Paper: 978-0-8214-2089-8
The askari, African soldiers recruited in the 1890s to fill the ranks of the German East African colonial army, occupy a unique space at the intersection of East African history, German colonial history, and military history.
Lauded by Germans for their loyalty during the East Africa campaign of World War I, but reviled by Tanzanians for the violence they committed during the making of the colonial state between 1890 and 1918, the askari have been poorly understood as historical agents. Violent Intermediaries situates them in their everyday household, community, military, and constabulary roles, as men who helped make colonialism in German East Africa.
By linking microhistories with wider nineteenth-century African historical processes, Michelle Moyd shows how as soldiers and colonial intermediaries, the askari built the colonial state while simultaneously carving out paths to respectability, becoming men of influence within their local contexts.
Through its focus on the making of empire from the ground up, Violent Intermediaries offers a fresh perspective on African colonial troops as state-making agents and critiques the mythologies surrounding the askari by focusing on the nature of colonial violence.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Michelle R. Moyd is Ruth N. Halls Associate Professor of history at Indiana University. Previously, she has been a resident fellow at the International Research Center “Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History” of Humboldt University, Germany, and at the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. She was also an instructor in the Department of History at the United States Air Force Academy.
REVIEWS
“[Violent Intermediaries] offers a new and well researched perspective drawing on the insights of the social history of recent decades…[Moyd] has produced a fine social history of African soldiers as intermediaries in the everyday life of colonialism in German East Africa.”—International Journal of African Historical Studies
“Moyd’s insistence on viewing askari not only as soldiers but also as men with social lives and aspirations that transcended their professional activities in maboma, on expeditions, and on the battlefield is refreshing and insightful.…Violent Intermediaries is a highly readable monograph offering an empathetic view on the stigmatized African soldiers of the colonial army in German East Africa.”—H-Net
“Overcoming methodological challenges posed by translation, memory, and frankly a scarcity of documents disclosing askari voices, Moyd sought to understand these soldiers on their own terms. As a result she explores the everyday life of the askari, from within their households to their official and unofficial roles within colonial society, and she recovers a past widely misunderstood due to German praise and Tanzanian denunciation for their loyalty to the Schutztruppe (the official name of the German colonial army).… Violent Intermediaries, like other books in Ohio University Press’s New African Histories series edited by Jean Allman, Allen Isaacman, and Derek R. Peterson, expands the boundaries of African history in new and exciting directions.”—Canadian Journal of History
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
A Note on Spellings, Currency, and Measurements
Introduction: Reconstructing Askari Realities
Chapter 1: Becoming Askari Narratives of Early Schutztruppe
Recruitment in Context
Chapter 2: Making Askari Ways of War Military Training and Socialization
Chapter 3: The Askari Way of War
Chapter 4: Station Life
Chapter 5: Askari as Agents of Everyday Colonialism
Conclusion: Making Askari Myths
Chronology
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC