Citation

Muschalek M. J. Imp. Commonw. Hist. 2013; 41(4): 584-599.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/03086534.2013.836363

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Policing in German Southwest Africa (1905-1918) fell to a small force of German and African men called the Landespolizei. Charged with representing the colonial state and with claiming the monopoly of legitimate use of physical force, the policemen struggled to assert authority towards both the settler and the colonised population. The identities that emerged out of this uneasy position are the object of inquiry of this article.I argue that honour played a significant role in the way colonial rule was executed in the everyday. The policemen of the Landespolizei were modern men of guns and paper. Their honour was the product of the correct coordination of violence and bureaucracy. White, black and mixed-race policemen aspired to respectable social standing, although racial hierarchy was preserved within this collective identity. Moreover, depending on the situation, policemen accentuated either their military or their civil duty, either their heroic or their paternalistic masculinity in order to be perceived as honourable. Above all, to the men of the police force, being policemen meant being authorised by the state and simultaneously being authors of the state. And the reciprocal reinforcement of individual and state honour made possible a highly adaptable state formation that seemed plausible to the actors of the colonial environment. The German colonial state was adaptable to various situations exactly because honour's reliance on external affirmation required improvised renegotiation in the everyday. This dynamic produced an effective and powerful colonial state with deeply transformative and devastating effects on the local society.

Language: en