In//out of frame Herero women as forced laborers in the construction of the Otavi Railway in colonial Namibia during the German-Namibian War, 1904–1908 Michaela Frauwallner

DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.6| FRAUWALLNER: IN//OUT OF FRAME_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 28 Michaela Frauwallner In//out of frame Herero women as forced laborers in the construction of the Otavi Railway in colonial Namibia during the German-Namibian War, 1904–1908 ABSTRACT This contribution aims to examine the experiences of Herero women as forced laborers in the construction of the Otavi Railway in colonial Namibia during the German-Namibian War. The case of Herero women performing forced labor as prisoners of war challenges the notion of labor, infrastructure, and war as exclusively male domains, necessitating a reexamination of these"male spaces”. By exploring various sources, including photographs and witness accounts, the study reveals the gendered dynamics of labor exploitation under German colonialism. The paper highlights the intersecting oppressions of race and gender that shaped the realities of Herero women, illustrating the particular vulnerabilities they faced as colonial subjects. By analyzing the historical legacy of the colonial infrastructure projects and the gendered implications of forced labor, this paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the complexities of gender and colonialism in Namibia during this critical period. CV Michaela Frauwallner is a scholar of African studies and has been working as a researcher for the project"Colonial Infrastructures" at the Vienna Museum of Technology since 2023. In this context, she examines colonial railroad networks in German Southwest Africa(Namibia) and British India(India and Pakistan). Her research interests include the role of railroads as instruments of colonial rule and Austrian participation in colonial exploitation. KEYWORDS Forced labor, Colonial infrastructure, Herero women, Colonial Namibia Michaela Frauwallner,“In//out of frame: Herero women as forced laborers in the construction of the Otavi Railway in colonial Namibia during the German-Namibian War, 1904–1908”, insightOut. Journal on Gender and Sexuality in STEM Collections and Cultures , 2(2024), 27–36, DOI: 10.60531/insightout.2024.2.6 DOI: 10.60531/insightout.2024.2.6 Published under license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.6| FRAUWALLNER: IN//OUT OF FRAME_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 29 Women are rarely visible in the photographs that show labourers; there are only a few examples in which women are “hidden” in crowds of men. Global North through photographs. In this respect, Herero women appear invisible in one context and highly visible in another. The case of Herero women performing forced labour as prisoners of war challenges the notion of labour, infrastructure, and war as exclusively male domains, necessitating a re-examination of these“male spaces”. By exploring sources like photographs and witness accounts, this paper aims to reveal the gendered dynamics of labour exploitation under German colonialism. Marion Wallace notes that“[…] it remains a depressing constant[…] that gender is frequently not incorporated into the paradigm in which many new[histories] are written.” 2 This paper aims to highlight the intersecting oppressions of race and gender that shaped the realities of Herero women, illustrating the particular vulnerabiliIntroduction The German-Namibian War of 1904–1908 has gaities they faced as colonial subjects. 3 Sources and methodology ned an infamous status as the first genocide com- The first primary source, an album published by Armitted by Germans in the twentieth century. De- thur Koppel AG in 1907, documents the construction spite there being a long discourse on the atrocities of the Otavi railway from Swakopmund to the copcommitted by the German Schutztruppe 1 in colonial per mines of Tsumeb. While two specific photographs Namibia against the Herero and Nama people, one highlight the clear pro-German propagandistic laaspect has largely been sidelined by scholarship: the belling and intention of the photo album, the rest role of Herero women as prisoners of war and forced mostly aims to showcase the success of infrastruclabourers in colonial enterprises. This contribution ex- ture projects such as the expansion of the colonial amines the experiences of Herero women as forced railway network. The second is a privately assemlabourers in the construction of the Otavi railway du- bled album by one Lieutenant Nath, likely tracing his ring the war. These experiences are contrasted with own route from Germany to its colonies in Southern German war propaganda that created an image of and East Africa in 1904. These sources were surveyHerero women as ruthless warriors – an image which ed to study the representation of Herero women in had been exported to Germany and the rest of the the context of the German-Namibian War in order 1 German colonial troops in the African territories. 2 M. Wallace and J. Kinahan, History of Namibia: From the Beginnings to 1990 (Oxford, 2011), 10. 3 Research on this topic was conducted as part of the research project,“Koloniale Infrastrukturen” of the Museum of Technology Vienna(TMW), concerning colonial provenance research and Austrian participation in colonial infrastructure enterprises. This research project is funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport(BMKÖS). I would also like to express my gratitude to my colleagues, especially Bettina Jernej for her support during the research process and expert advice on railway media.

DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.6| FRAUWALLNER: IN//OUT OF FRAME_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 30 to gain an understanding of how women were made (in-)visible in different contexts. Through a(neo-)colonial and patriarchal gaze, the work of women often remains“unseen, unacknowledged, and unpaid”. 4 However, regarding the issue of in-visibility, Muthien and Bam stress the importance of asking by whom and to whom women were made invisible: Indigenous women were and are very much visible to themselves while they might have been or might be invisible to a white academic audience. 5 Gesine Krüger’s 1999 book Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein: Realität, Deutung und Verarbeitung des deutschen Kolonialkriegs in Namibia 1904 bis 1907 proved to be a highly interesting read as it features a section on women’s roles in the war – invaluable insights into the interactions between forced and non-forced labourers, some stemming from testimonies archived at the National Archives of Namibia (NAN), were offered by William Blakemore Lyon in his (so far unpublished) 2022 PhD-thesis on Namibian labour history, titled Namibian Labor Empire: Genocide, Migrant Labor, and the Origins of Colonial Capitalism in South-West Africa, 1892–1925 6 . First, the tense relations which ultimately lead to the German-Namibian War will be discussed in order to gain an understanding of the setting. Next, the representation of Herero women will be analysed in the context of German war propaganda. In the third section, the erasure of women forced labourers from the visual documentation of a colonial infrastructure project will be examined. Then, the issue of the colonial gaze and clothing will be briefly touched upon to help understand the difference in portrayals. A battle for land: the German–Namibian War, 1904–1908 The ongoing conflicts between the local population and the colonialists escalated after the increasing land appropriation by the Germans and the accompanying displacement of local groups, especially the Herero. When a Herero group led by Samuel Maherero attacked German farms, railways, and trading posts in early 1904 and killed several German settlers in the battle for the town of Okahandja, the colonial administration retaliated violently. The commander-in-chief of the Schutztruppe, Lothar von Trotha, would soon declare the extermination of the Herero as the only solution to the conflicts surrounding land use. The so-called “Vernichtungsbefehl” (“extermination order”) issued by von Trotha stated that all Herero, whether armed or not, were to be killed or expelled from the colony. 7 In January 1905, the colonial administration began setting up internment camps. These were located in Windhoek, Karibib, Omaruru, Swakopmund, and Lüderitzbucht, primarily housing Herero prisoners of war. Prisoners would work as forced labourers for the military in field hospitals where they were exposed to medical experiments on other prisoners, as well as in businesses and private households. Herero women were subjected to demonstrations and examinations by German military doctors. 8 Among the businesses making use of forced labour was the Arthur Koppel AG, which had women work not only at the offices of the firm, providing care work, but also had them doing heavy construction jobs on the Otavi railway – and according to testimonies by other forced and 4 B. Muthien and J. Bam(eds.), Rethinking Africa: Indigenous Women Re-Interpret Southern Africa’s Pasts (Johannesburg, 2021), 10. 5 Muthien and Bam, Rethinking Africa , 10(see n. 4). 6 Lyon’s book Forged in Genocide: Migrant Workers Shaping Colonial Capitalism in Namibia, 1890–1925, published by De Gruyter, will be released in July 2024. 7 Wallace and Kinahan, History of Namibia, 237(see n. 2). 8 W. B. Lyon, Namibian Labor Empire: Genocide, Migrant Labor, and the Origins of Colonial Capitalism in South-West Africa, 1892–1925 , PhD thesis, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin(Berlin, 2022), 97, 120–121.

DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.6| FRAUWALLNER: IN//OUT OF FRAME_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 31 non-forced labourers, women were often required to do the most physically demanding jobs at night. 9 The Death Register for Natives sheds light on the harsh conditions of these camps, recording the deaths of all non-white men, women, and children in Swakopmund between 27 July 1905 and 27 February 1906. A majority of the deceased were“adult” Herero women over twelve years of age. Many likely perished due to the harsh conditions and forced labour. Within just six months, 342 Herero women died in Swakopmund’s concentration camps. Some might have worked on the construction of the Otavi railway as forced labourers for the Arthur Koppel AG. 10 This brutal campaign and the systematic extermination of the Herero by the German colonial troops marked the beginning of the first genocide of the twentieth century. The genocide against the Herero and the Nama groups continued in the post-war years. The casualties were devastating, and the impact of this genocide on subsequent generations of the affected communities is still felt today. The atrocities committed during the German-Namibian War raise important questions about colonial violence, oppression, and the responsibility of the perpetrators’ descendants. 11 Herero women warriors: a byproduct of war propaganda? According to Krüger, the alleged participation of Herero women in battle was a result of German war propaganda. Krüger finds it unlikely that women actively fought with weapons. However, they were present on the battlefield, directly behind the male fighters, cheering them on with shouts and songs. This visible support from the women led soldiers and settlers to perceive Herero women as instigators of war. 12 Staging them for photographs in such a manner and attributing them a role through the title of the photograph is an expression of an idea rooted in colonial war propaganda, especially the notion of“women as castrating beasts” 13 . Soldiers of the Schutztruppe were tasked with rounding up and capturing women and children, who they saw as“merely defenceless victims of the war.” 14 This juxtaposition suggests that the role of local women in the German-Namibian War was multifaceted and not entirely clear. 15 This becomes evident through the portrayal of Herero women in various visual sources, like the photographs included in the photo album by Nath and, by contrasting, in their seeming invisibility in the Otavi railway remembrance album. Most of the twenty-eight images referencing German South West Africa in Nath’s album are depictions of landmarks and locals. However, there are a few photographs which clearly refer to the war: Herero-Bambusen 16 showing ten young Black men(possibly boys) kneeling in a line mimicking the shooting of a rifle; two other photographs referencing the war, entitled Verbrecher (“criminal[s]”), confront the viewer with the hanging of(in total) nine Black people. These violent motifs disrupt the overall picture of a 9 Lyon, Namibian Labor Empire, 87–88(see n. 8). 10 in both cases: Lyon, Namibian Labor Empire, 112–113(see n. 8). 11 L. Förster,“From‘General Field Marshal’ to‘Miss Genocide’: The Reworking of Traumatic Experiences among Herero-Speaking Namibians”, Journal of Material Culture , 13(2008), 175–194: 181–182. 12 G. Krüger, Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein: Realität, Deutung und Verarbeitung des deutschen Kolonialkriegs in Namibia 1904 bis 1907 (Göttingen, 1999), 116–117. 13 Krüger, Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein, 116(see n. 12). 14 Krüger, Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein , 117(see n. 12).. 15 Krüger, Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein , 118(see n. 12).. 16 Africans who served German military personnel as personal attendants(not exclusively) during military operations were referred to as“Bambusen”(pl.). They were not owned as slaves or forced labourers, but the relationship nevertheless seems to have been of an exploitative nature. See Krüger, Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein, 93, 101 102(see n. 12).

DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.6| FRAUWALLNER: IN//OUT OF FRAME_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 32 tourist’s souvenir that the other photographs in the album convey. In this context, Axster speaks of the pictorial motifs as a kind of trophy, even souvenir. 17 To continue this idea of photographs as trophies: Nath seems to have taken a special interest in images of Herero women. One image of a Herero woman is titled Herero-Schönheit [Herero Beauty], a portrait of a Black woman slightly crouched forward with her gaze fixed to the right side of the image, her breasts exposed. This photo is followed by a Hererofrau in Kriegsschmuck [Herero Woman in War Ornaments]: a young woman posing in front of a desert landscape, touching her face with one hand while the other hangs straight next to her body(fig. 1). 18 The“war ornaments” depicted are actually a four-part attire, including a characteristic piece of headwear, usually worn by Herero women early during adolescence. Women in similar“war dress” can be seen in other photos. Invisible female labour: the erasure of forced women labourers The Otavi railway was constructed between 1903 and 1906, initially to connect the port town of Swakopmund with the mines of Tsumeb to ease the transport of resources. As the route of the railway crossed contested territory, it was co-opted for warfare against Herero groups, for example to move soldiers of the Schutztruppe , supplies and prisoners of war or forced labourers. Simultaneously, railway spaces became targets of Herero-led attacks, which made construction work undesirable for white contract labourers. 19 Fig. 1:: woman with a piece of headwear which consists of a leather cap with a"crown" of horns symbolizing the Herero’s traditional source of livelihood: cattle husbandry. The photo album Zur Erinnerung an den Bau der Otavi-Bahn, 1903–1906 [In Remembrance of the Construction of the Otavi Railway, 1903–1906] was published by the Arthur Koppel AG in May 1907. Women are rarely visible in the photographs that show labourers; there are only a few examples in which women are“hidden” in crowds of men, for example in Otavi-Bahn: Kostausgabe an der Bauspitze [Otavi Railway: Meal Distribution at the Forefront of Construction]. The few examples where women come to the fore hint at their status as prisoners of war 20 but do not specify what they are doing at the construction sites. The caption of a photograph depicting at least one woman, Otavi-Bahn: Verlegen von Wellblechrohren [Otavi Railway: Laying Corrugated Iron Pipes] does not acknowledge the human presence in 17 F. Axster, Koloniales Bildspektakel in 9x14: Bildpostkarten im Deutschen Kaiserreich (Bielefeld, 2014), 105–106,111. 18 TMW, Archiv für österr. Eisenbahngeschichte, EA-002910-29, Leutnant Nath, photo album(c. 1904–1908), n.p. 19 Lyon, Namibian Labor Empire, 115ff.(see n. 8). 20 See the images entitled Otavi-Bahn: Aus dem Felde gekommene Hereros melden sich an der Bauspitze als Gefangene and Otavi-Bahn: Hereros nach mehrwöchigem Aufenthalt bei der Otavi-Bahn.

DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.6| FRAUWALLNER: IN//OUT OF FRAME_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 33 Fig. 2:: image titled"Otavi-Bahn: laying of corrugated metal pipes" does not acknowledge the presence of the depicted African laborers, among them women. Fig. 3: image titled„Otavi-Bahn: well construction at Otjivarongo, km 378.“ the image and focuses instead on the technical task of installing metal pipes(fig.2). 21 Similarly, the four women present in the image entitled Otavi-Bahn: Brunnenbau in Otjivarongo, km 378 [Otavi Railway: Well-Building in Otjiwarongo, km 378] provides more information on the location and construction site at hand than any of the eight people engaging in the task(fig.3). 22 21 TMW, Archiv für österr. Eisenbahngeschichte, EA- 002742-35, Arthur Koppel Aktiengesellschaft, Zur Erinnerung an den Bau der Otavibahn 1903–1906, Berlin(1907). 22 TMW, Archiv für österr. Eisenbahngeschichte, EA- 002742-37, Arthur Koppel Aktiengesellschaft, Zur Erinnerung an den Bau der Otavibahn 1903–1906, Berlin(1907).

DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.6| FRAUWALLNER: IN//OUT OF FRAME_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 34 This is a theme woven into not only the Otavi-album, but the Nath-album as well. Considering this on a larger scale, I argue that this negation of bodily presence applies to many other visual media from the period, thereby making it a colonial visual practice which intends to present colonised bodies as an intricate part of their location rather than as individual human beings. Colonial gaze and clothing Another striking visual practice can be observed within the Otavi and Nath albums: the presentation of non-white bodies through specific clothing or the lack thereof. For example, Black women can be seen wearing various items of clothing – of European or local fashion – in Nath’s album, but the meaning of the garments is subverted by the respective caption which is an accomplice to a colonial gaze. The marking of non-white and colonised bodies occupies an ambivalent position in colonial visual practice. This practice was part of pseudo-scientific racial theory and served to emphasise the supposed superiority of the white race and justify the oppression of non-white people. 23 On the other hand, voyeuristic images show the performative adaptation of European clothing as an expression of a distinct identity, as was the case with Herero women who made their own version of the ohorokweva onde (a long, A-line dress with petticoats) modelled on Victorian dresses. 24 The depictions of non-white people in the Otavi and Nath albums illustrate this ambivalence. It is important to note that white people are usually shown fully clothed while non-white people are shown clothed, partially clothed, or naked. Garments are a means of incorporating other cultures into a familiar setFig. 4:: While depicting the captioned„house of a Herero chief”, this photographs also shows the(supposedly) associated familial entourage of women. The spacial division of the women into two groups according to their clothing is striking. 23 J. Marti, Africa,„Colonized Bodies, Bodies as Identities“, Consejo Superior Investigaciones Cientificas-Csic Revista de dialectología y tradiciones populares , 67(2012), 319–346. 24 A. A. B. Hendrickson, Historical Idioms of Identity Representation Among the Ovaherero in Southern Africa , PhD thesis, New York University(New York, 1992), 293–294.

DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.6| FRAUWALLNER: IN//OUT OF FRAME_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 35 ting or highlighting cultural differences, often to reinforce cultural identity through a contrast with the“other”. 25 the colony. Their bodies are employed to spark recognition of the“other” among an imperial-minded European audience. The photograph captioned Haus eines HereroHäuptlings [House of a Herero Chief] provides an interesting example of how subtly the colonial gaze can function through the choice of clothing and spatial positioning. 26 The photograph(fig.4) depicts two groups of women posing for the camera in front of two small buildings. The group of seven women on the left are wearing dresses reminiscent of European fashion in the mid-nineteenth century, but they are made of fabrics with patterns common to the region. Meanwhile, the group on the right are dressed in local fashion consisting of the oneheke and oruhira (back and front skirt-like panels which are tied around the waist, reaching to the knees), the orupera (a cloak tied over the shoulders, reaching to the knees, covering the back of the body) and an ekori (in this case a head covering with a three-pointed top). All these elements were made from sheepskin rubbed with otjize (a paste of red ochre and fat). 27 The staging of this image is no coincidence; it is intended to show a white audience the difference between the precolonial and the colonial – or to put it more bluntly: to make clear the difference between“uncivilised” and“civilised” people. Notably, the same four-element dress is also worn by the woman photographed for Hererofrau in Kriegsschmuck (fig. 1). However, in her case, the meaning ascribed to her attire reaches beyond showcasing“tradition” and takes on a propagandistic claim marking her as a“warrior”. In photographs like these, Black women are made highly visible according to a colonial imagining of the visual distinction between the future and the past of Conclusion Photographs of Herero women ascribed them the role of warriors, which fit neatly into the image perpetuated by German war propaganda that women were active participants in battle. In this context, Herero women were made hyper-visible. Simultaneously, Herero women were made invisible in the photographs taken to document the construction of the Otavi railway. Here, they were erased from image and text, despite them performing strenuous physical work as forced labourers. The case of Herero women performing forced labour as prisoners of war challenges the notion of labour, infrastructure, and war as exclusively male domains, necessitating a re-examination of these“male spaces”. While the images analysed for this article do hint at a gendered difference in representations of colonised bodies by the means of clothing, a more in-depth analysis of a larger number of images is required to draw any meaningful conclusions about the particular ways in which different genders are represented in colonial photography. Little if anything is known about the incentives or directions given to anyone involved – whether photographer or photographed – which makes the production process all the more obscure. However, to pick up on the observation by Muthien and Bam 28 referenced at the beginning, the fact that indigenous women are often not tangible is due to the contempo25 V. Rovine,„Colonialism’s Clothing: Africa, France, and the Deployment of Fashion“, Design, 25(2009), 44–61: 44–45 . 26 TMW, Archiv für österr. Eisenbahngeschichte, EA-002910-31, Leutnant Nath, photo album(c. 1904–1908), n.p. 27 Hendrickson, Historical idioms, 304(see n. 24 28 Muthien and Bam, Rethinking Africa (see n. 4).

DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.6| FRAUWALLNER: IN//OUT OF FRAME_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 36 rary academic lens through which we look at them. Even today, there is a lack of primary sources on/by indigenous women and paradigm shifts have only recently occurred that facilitate precedents and space for gendered approaches to historiography, especially historiographies of the Global South. In the colonial setting discussed here, Herero women were very much visible to themselves and their communities, even if they were invisible or instrumentalised in these Western albums. This paper highlights the intersecting oppressions of race and gender that shaped the realities of Herero women, illustrating the particular vulnerabilities they faced as colonial subjects. By drawing attention to the gendered implications of colonialism in the context of the German-Namibian War, it contributes to a deeper understanding of the legacy of colonialism and colonial infrastructure projects in Namibian historiography.