African Roots: Shadows of German Colonialism

Mar 04 2024 28
African Roots: Shadows of German Colonialism Podcast artwork

DW’s Shadows of German Colonialism podcast explores how Germany’s imperial ambitions in Africa met fierce resistance, and descended into exploitation and violence. The series follows on from the African Roots podcast, which portrays the men and women who shaped Africa's past, present and future. We meets big names, and tell the story of others who have stayed out of the spotlight. But what binds them together, is their African Roots.

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Injected with fear: the legacy of colonial era vaccination programs

Mar 04 2024 11 mins  
Tropical medicine boomed as European powers claimed territories in Africa. Germany sent the famed Robert Koch and many others to the colonies to find cures to tropical illnesses - but also to test new medicines. This shadowy practice led to Africans being mistreated, and many died in the process, leaving a legacy of physical and psychological trauma that has never been properly cur

Unsettling continuities – from colonial racism to Nazism

Feb 27 2024 10 mins  
Respected German anthropologists made a career from dividing people by race, a new branch of science that conveniently put Europeans at the top. While eugenics and scientific racism was widely practiced in Western nations in the early 1900s, the ideas developed by Eugen Fischer and others served as the intellectual bedrock for race-based crimes committed by Nazi Germany.

Why African nations still fight over colonial era borders

Feb 22 2024 11 mins  
Why does Namibia have a bizarre panhandle? Why do some Ghanaians talk of being from "Western Togoland"? Much of this has to do with African borders drawn up in Europe during late 19th century. Borders that to this day are still very much contested, and have had deadly consequences. We explore how treaties designed to prevent war in Europe have caused conflict in Africa.

How German colonization of Namibia resulted in genocide

Feb 14 2024 12 mins  
After the decisive Battle of Waterberg between German and Herero fighters, colonial officers in the colony of South West Africa, today's Namibia, directed a violent, uncompromising persecution of Herero and Nama people. Their policies would result in the 20th century's first genocide.

How German colonists changed power dynamics in Togo forever

Feb 05 2024 9 mins  
Germany's control over Togoland drastically altered traditional power structures, favoring compliant chiefs and running roughshod over cultural norms. We explore how punitive expeditions and colonial subjugation has shaped Togo to this day.

Why did Germany target colonies in East Africa

Jan 30 2024 12 mins  
In East Africa and the Great Lakes region, German colonial conquest spurred courageous resistance from many local East African groups against well-armed and violent colonial forces.

The colonial legacy of Africa's place names

Jan 23 2024 9 mins  
In the context of colonial-era injustice, the renaming of landmarks almost seems like a footnote. But in this podcast we discover how renaming mountains, towns, and even people was another form of oppression. We also meet some characters who have outlived the colonialists' names, and why renaming landmarks is a form of reclaiming heritage.

Quane Martin Dibobe: From exhibit to anti-colonial activist

Dec 19 2023 11 mins  
Summer 1896: A Cameroonian man appeared in Treptower Park, Berlin as part of a human exhibition to increase enthusiasm for German colonialism. Little did anyone know this man — Martin Dibobe — would later become a pioneering human rights activist.

How colonialism boosted Germany's merchant fleets

Dec 07 2023 10 mins  
Running a colonial empire required a reliable merchant fleet. Hamburg-based businessman Adolph Woermann and his shipping line soon exerted considerable influence over Germany's colonial policy. We explore how the Woermann Company became an unofficial instrument of German colonization.

How colonial Germany extended its empire in Africa

Dec 06 2023 10 mins  
By 1885, Adolf Lüderitz had acquired vast territories in today's Namibia. But his contracts with local people were so dodgy that even German colonial officials doubted them.