Visual Colonization: Scenes, Objects, and Main Content of Postcards from German East Africa

Abstract

The paper deals with colonial representation of German East Africa in postcards, issued for exposure of conquered territories to the empire’s metropolis population. To the lesser degree they present peoples of distant land, their culture and life, concentrating more on (controversial) “achievements” brought by colonizers, like military stations, churches and Christian missions, infrastructure, askari troops recruited from local population etc. On these postcards we can see various species of acacias and palm trees, numerous Araberstrasse and Kaiserstrasse, monuments to the emperor and chancellor, ships in the Dar es Salaam bay, “native beauty” and “native quarters”. On the one hand, postcards reflect what colonizers wanted to display in their homeland, on the other — what homeland wished to see: images of exotic hot tropics, success of German administrators and troops. Content, scenes, objects shown on the postcards are analyzed in the article as specific patterns of “visual colonization”.