Programme:

Colonial Capitalism in Action: The New Social and Economic History of German Colonialism

 Virtual Conference (via ZOOM), 5th, 6th and 7th May 2021

Conveners: Kim Sebastian Todzi (University of Hamburg), Tristan Oestermann (Humboldt University Berlin), Deborah J. Neill (York University, Toronto)

Wednesday, 5th May 2021

16:45 – 17:00 (UTC+2) (Berlin 4:45 PM / Yaoundé 3:45 PM / New York 10:45 AM / Sydney 0:45 AM)

Workshop Opening

  • Kim Sebastian Todzi (University of Hamburg), Tristan Oestermann (Humboldt University Berlin), Deborah J. Neill (York University, Toronto): Introduction and Welcoming Remarks

17:00 – 19:00 (UTC+2) (Berlin 5 PM / Yaoundé 4 PM / New York 11 AM / Sydney 1 AM)

Panel I: Money and Markets

Chair: Tristan Oestermann (Humboldt University Berlin)

  • Emma Thomas (University of Michigan): “Entangled Economies: Bridewealth, Colonial Capitalism, and Gendering of Labor in German New Guinea”
  • Robin Frisch (University of Bayreuth): “The Colonial Myth of Barter. Money and German Colonialism in West Africa (late 19th century-1914)”
  • Holger Droessler (Worcester Polytechnic Institute): „Coconuts and Coercion: Colonial Capitalism in German Samoa”
  • Ana Carolina Schveitzer (Humboldt University Berlin): “Photography, Market and Colonialism: Ideas about Colonial Commodity”

Comment: Nina Berman (Arizona State University)

Thursday, 6th May 2021

12:00 – 14:00 (UTC+2) (Berlin 12 PM / Yaoundé 11 AM / New York 6 AM / Sydney 8 PM)

Panel II: Companies and the State

Chair: Kim Sebastian Todzi (University of Hamburg)

  • Nina Kleinöder (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg): „Whose „safety“? – Business in the German „Schutzgebiete“ at the turn of the 19th/20th century”
  • Olisa Godson Muojama (University of Ibadan): “Dispossession and Repossession: The Dynamics of German Properties in Colonial Africa”
  • Matthew Fitzpatrick (Flinders University): “Population Policy and the Plantation Economy in German Samoa”

Comment: Bronwen Everill (University of Cambridge)

17:00 – 19:00 (UTC+2) (Berlin 5 PM / Yaoundé 4 PM / New York 11 AM / Sydney 1 AM)

Panel III: Infrastructure

Chair: Caroline Authaler (University of Bielefeld)

  • Monika Motylinska / Paul Sprute (Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung (IRS)): „(Re)Constructing German Colonial Capitalism from its Margins“
  • Andreas Greiner (German Historical Institute, Washington, DC): „Tensions of Transport: Caravan Trade and Colonial Transformation in German East Africa”
  • Walter Gam Nkwi (University of Leiden): „Technologies of Labour Mobility during the Mandate in Cameroon Province: 1924-1945: German Capitalism in British Southern Cameroons and its Durability”
  • Sean Lawrence (University of California, Santa Cruz): “A Fertile Plain for Our Concern: The Konya Irrigation Project and monetary valuation of Anatolian rain, 1903-1913”

Comment: Lasse Heerten (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

Friday, 7th May 2021

15:00 – 17:00 (UTC+2) (Berlin 3 PM / Yaoundé 2 PM / New York 9 AM / Sydney 11 PM)

Panel IV: Labor

Chair: Deborah J. Neill (York University)

  • Henry Kam Kah (University of Buea): “Coercion and Violence in German Labour Conscription in Cameroon”
  • Jonas Kreienbaum (University of Rostock): „A History of Violence. Railway Construction and local labourers in German South West Africa, 1903-1909”
  • William Blakemore Lyon (Humboldt University Berlin): “Italian Laborers in the Namib: Subcontractors, Trains and War in German Colonial Namibia”
  • Michael Rösser (University of Erfurt): “Tracing the Tracks – A Portrait of European Railway Employees in German East Africa”

Comment: Robert Heinze (University of Trier)

17:00 – 17:30 (UTC+2) Wrap-up