DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.6| FRAUWALLNER: IN//OUT OF FRAME_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 30to gain an understanding of how women were made(in-)visible in different contexts. Through a(neo-)colonial and patriarchal gaze, the work of women oftenremains“unseen, unacknowledged, and unpaid”.4However, regarding the issue of in-visibility, Muthienand Bam stress the importance of asking by whomand to whom women were made invisible: Indigenouswomen were and are very much visible to themselveswhile they might have been or might be invisible to awhite academic audience.5Gesine Krüger’s 1999 bookKriegsbewältigung undGeschichtsbewusstsein: Realität, Deutung und Verarbeitung des deutschen Kolonialkriegs in Namibia1904 bis 1907proved to be a highly interesting readas it features a section on women’s roles in the war – invaluable insights into the interactions between forcedand 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testimonies archived at the National Archives of Namibia(NAN), were offered by William Blakemore Lyon in his(so far unpublished) 2022 PhD-thesis on Namibian labour history, titledNamibian Labor Empire: Genocide,Migrant Labor, and the Origins of Colonial Capitalismin South-West Africa, 1892–19256.First, the tense relations which ultimately lead to theGerman-Namibian War will be discussed in order togain an understanding of the setting. Next, the representation of Herero women will be analysed inthe context of German war propaganda. In the thirdsection, the erasure of women forced labourers fromthe visual documentation of a colonial infrastructureproject will be examined. Then, the issue of the colonial gaze and clothing will be briefly touched upon tohelp understand the difference in portrayals.A battle for land:the German–Namibian War,1904–1908The ongoing conflicts between the local populationand the colonialists escalated after the increasingland appropriation by the Germans and the accompanying displacement of local groups, especiallythe Herero. When a Herero group led by SamuelMaherero attacked German farms, railways, andtrading posts in early 1904 and killed several German settlers in the battle for the town of Okahandja,the colonial administration retaliated violently. Thecommander-in-chief of theSchutztruppe,Lothar vonTrotha, would soon declare the extermination of theHerero as the only solution to the conflicts surrounding land use. The so-called“Vernichtungsbefehl”(“extermination order”) issued by von Trotha statedthat all Herero, whether armed or not, were to bekilled or expelled from the colony.7In January 1905, the colonial administration begansetting up internment camps. These were located inWindhoek, Karibib, Omaruru, Swakopmund, and Lüderitzbucht, primarily housing Herero prisoners ofwar. Prisoners would work as forced labourers for themilitary in field hospitals where they were exposed tomedical experiments on other prisoners, as well asin businesses and private households. Herero womenwere subjected to demonstrations and examinationsby German military doctors.8Among the businessesmaking use of forced labour was the Arthur KoppelAG, which had women work not only at the officesof the firm, providing care work, but also had themdoing heavy construction jobs on the Otavi railway– and according to testimonies by other forced and4B. Muthien and J. Bam(eds.),Rethinking Africa: Indigenous Women Re-Interpret Southern Africa’s Pasts(Johannesburg, 2021), 10.5Muthien and Bam,Rethinking Africa, 10(see n. 4).6Lyon’s book Forged in Genocide:Migrant Workers Shaping Colonial Capitalism in Namibia, 1890–1925,published by De Gruyter,will be released in July 2024.7Wallace 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.
