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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.