Stefanie Michels Knihy

Die »schwarzen« deutschen Kolonialsoldaten sind seit der Niederlage im Ersten Weltkrieg als »treue Askari« bekannt. Sie waren in den deutschen Kolonialgebieten die Träger kolonialer Gewalt und damit die Basis deutsch-kolonialer Machtausübung. Ihre zentrale Funktion in der Repräsentation kolonialer Ordnung und deren ständige Bedrohung wird in diesem Buch an Text- und Bilddokumenten gezeigt. In globalgeschichtlicher Perspektive werden sowohl die kosmopolitischen Vorgeschichten der Kolonialsoldaten sowie Aneignungs- und Umdeutungsprozesse in Afrika bis ins 21. Jahrhundert verfolgt und so etablierte Wahrnehmungsregime dezentriert.

"The whole village consulted and came to the conclusion that the Germans had come to 'climb on our heads'. What could we do? Those who said they had come to develop us had come to destroy us only. We started planning a resistance. The people sent a bag of stones to the white man with the Mpaw Manku wants to fight with you to see who is stronger!" (Apa Martin Apa, 2001). ** This study shows how power was constructed, enacted and contested by discursive and non-discursive strategies and practices. It emphasises the local and historic divergence of these processes and illustrates how Germans and Africans were able to produce exclusive power arenas but also engaged in a reciprocal extraversion of the respective power of the other.

This study challenges the notion of 'backward African peasants', who depend on outside intervention in order to innovate their farming systems. Two case studies from Manyu Division, Cameroon illustrate the complex relationship between smallholder farmers and the macro-economic environment from a historical perspective. This reveals that the smallholders in Manyu Division are constantly adapting to ecological, economic and socio-institutional constraints. The current rational adaption seems to be a withdrawal from the international economy, after drastic changes in the macro-economic environment (Structural Adjustment Programme) have intensified the direct link between the farmers and the global economy. The weakening of the state who functioned as a shock absorber in previous years (Marketing Board, fixed price system) has fully revealed the marginality of the farmers in Manyu Division as opposed to other areas in Cameroon. Foreign organisations that stepped in to fill this gap have so far not been successful in achieving their goal. This is often caused by clashing interests, especially in conservation (Korup park) and conversion to organic agriculture.