Monday, June 4, 2012

Ten Little Niggers in German

Well it certainly was not that the story of the 'Ten Little Niggers' end of the 19th Century in Germany as easy and without any particular motivation was racist assumed to be assessed as a nursery rhyme. For in the last decades of the 19th Century Germany was in the circle of the colonial powers and acquired overseas territories, mainly in Africa with all the associated problems with the local population. Cameroon, on which the book from Cameroon refers was from 1884 - 1919 German colony and was mainly in the interior only gradually brought under the control of the German colonial rulers. Conflicts with the indigenous population and uprisings, which was countered by military means were not uncommon. A similar situation was also in the other African colonies of Germany.

It was at that time in Germany, therefore, an immediate and time-date access to the theme of "Negro", which was not significantly different from that of other colonial powers. The two pictures above from the book From Cameroon reflect the attitude towards black Africans very much again. The text to the image on the left is: Eight Little Niggers, / They went and stole turnips; / The one hit the (very 'German' subscribed) dead / Bauer Since there were only seven.

 A small Negro boy / Participated in ' . ne Mama / Ten Little Negro Boys Are / soon as the last surviving black boy turns out to be 'civilizable', apparently married in church founded a family and lives in a bourgeois apartment - Bismarck looks from the wall.
[http://members.aon.at/zeitlupe/zehnkleine2.html]

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