Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest, and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa

New African Histories

by Michelle R. Moyd

The askari , African soldiers recruited in the 1890s to fill the ranks of the German East African colonial army, occupy a unique space at the intersection of East African history, German colonial history, and military history. Lauded by Germans for their loyalty during the East Africa campaign of World War I, but reviled by Tanzanians for the violence they committed during the making of the colonial state between 1890 and 1918, the askari have been poorly understood as historical agents. Violent Intermediaries situates them in their everyday household, community, military, and constabulary roles, as men who helped make colonialism in German East Africa. By linking microhistories with wider nineteenth-century African historical processes, Michelle Moyd shows how as soldiers and colonial intermediaries, the askari built the colonial state while simultaneously carving out paths to respectability, becoming men of influence within their local contexts. Through its focus on the making of empire from the ground up, Violent Intermediaries offers a fresh perspective on African colonial troops as state-making agents and critiques the mythologies surrounding the askari by focusing on the nature of colonial violence.

Genres: History, Germany, Africa

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2014

Reviews

[Dasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michelle R. Moyd’s Violent Intermediaries: African Soldiers, Conquest and Everyday Colonialism in German East Africa seeks to uncover the complicated social and military lives of African askari soldiers that comprised Germany’s colonial army, the Schutztruppe, between 1889 and 1918. Moyd uses an “interpretative method” with sources to outline factors that helped shape askari, such as their motivations, culture, and pre-colonial history. Moreover, Moyd argues that the myth of askari as unwaveringly loyal soldiers to the German colonial state-building project is not wholly accurate. Moyd examines the askari in various contexts while attempting to avoid categorizing the askari as being violent colonizers or heroic, loyal soldiers as historians have done in the previous literature.
Moyd’s book does an excellent job of describing askari military and cultural lives before and during German rule. However, the book could benefit from a more in-depth analysis of the askari’s post- Schutztruppe life after 1918. Moyd’s conclusion briefly touches on the lives of askari after 1918 in which they struggled to adapt to the new political situation and their existence as a visible group dropped off. The reader is left wondering if any askari succeeded in adapting to new military or economic roles, how askari from different backgrounds adapted, how society viewed and treated them and if that played a role in their struggle to adapt. In answering these questions, a more well-rounded picture of the askari could be provided.

[Chris Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is one of those niche histories that become fascinating as they give depth, nuance, and clarity to the larger arenas within which they took place. With this book, Dr. Moyd has given us an up-close and personal look at the askari, or Schutztruppe, the colonial troops supporting the Germans in East Africa. Using a plethora of sources, she takes us through the creation, use, and value of these troops, while showing that they also gained by their employment and helped modernize (for good or ill) their adopted or native country. It is an excellent read.

[Elias Perez-zetune · Rating 4 out of 5]

African History and Society since 1800-Prof. Abou Bamba