DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.6| FRAUWALLNER: IN//OUT OF FRAME_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 31non-forced labourers, women were often required todo the most physically demanding jobs at night.9The Death Register for Natives sheds light on theharsh conditions of these camps, recording the deaths of all non-white men, women, and children inSwakopmund between 27 July 1905 and 27 February 1906. A majority of the deceased were“adult”Herero women over twelve years of age. Many likelyperished due to the harsh conditions and forced labour. Within just six months, 342 Herero women diedin Swakopmund’s concentration camps. Some mighthave worked on the construction of the Otavi railwayas forced labourers for the Arthur Koppel AG.10This brutal campaign and the systematic extermination of the Herero by the German colonial troopsmarked the beginning of the first genocide of thetwentieth century. The genocide against the Hereroand the Nama groups continued in the post-war years. The casualties were devastating, and the impactof this genocide on subsequent generations of theaffected communities is still felt today. The atrocitiescommitted during the German-Namibian War raiseimportant questions about colonial violence, oppression, and the responsibility of the perpetrators’ descendants.11Herero women warriors: a byproduct of war propaganda?According to Krüger, the alleged participation ofHerero women in battle was a result of German warpropaganda. 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. Thisvisible support from the women led soldiers and settlers to perceive Herero women as instigators of war.12Staging them for photographs in such a manner andattributing them a role through the title of the photograph is an expression of an idea rooted in colonialwar propaganda, especially the notion of“womenas castrating beasts”13. Soldiers of theSchutztruppewere tasked with rounding up and capturing womenand children, who they saw as“merely defencelessvictims of the war.”14This juxtaposition suggeststhat the role of local women in the German-Namibian War was multifaceted and not entirely clear.15This becomes evident through the portrayal of Herero women in various visual sources, like the photographs included in the photo album by Nath and, bycontrasting, in their seeming invisibility in the Otavirailway 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 afew photographs which clearly refer to the war:Herero-Bambusen16showing ten young Black men(possibly boys) kneeling in a line mimicking the shootingof a rifle; two other photographs referencing the war,entitledVerbrecher(“criminal[s]”), confront the viewer with the hanging of(in total) nine Black people.These violent motifs disrupt the overall picture of a9Lyon,Namibian Labor Empire,87–88(see n. 8).10in both cases: Lyon,Namibian Labor Empire,112–113(see n. 8).11L. Förster,“From‘General Field Marshal’ to‘Miss Genocide’: The Reworking of Traumatic Experiences among Herero-SpeakingNamibians”,Journal of Material Culture, 13(2008), 175–194: 181–182.12G. Krüger,Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein: Realität, Deutung und Verarbeitung des deutschen Kolonialkriegs inNamibia 1904 bis 1907(Göttingen, 1999), 116–117.13Krüger,Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein,116(see n. 12).14Krüger,Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein, 117(see n. 12)..15Krüger,Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein, 118(see n. 12)..16Africans who served German military personnel as personal attendants(not exclusively) during military operations were referredto as“Bambusen”(pl.). They were not owned as slaves or forced labourers, but the relationship nevertheless seems to have been ofan exploitative nature. See Krüger,Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein,93, 101 102(see n. 12).