Women in the colonies were referred to as “women,” and this term was used to denote both wives and mothers in its original and simplest sense. In Southwest Africa, there are just not enough German women for the number of German men that arrived. German women were needed in the colonies as early as 1896, according to males. There was a disparity between the number of German men who were living with African women and those who were married to them (Schulte-Althoff 1985:62). In 1901, there were 1,763 single “white” males and 100 unmarried “white” women in Southwest Africa. Southwest Africa’s “woman dilemma” was seen as the most important issue, notwithstanding the large differences in other German colonies.
Colonists envisioned Southwest Africa to become “our new Germany on African soil,” in contrast to the commercial colonies where no permanent settlement was expected (Lora, 1993, 72). It was imperative that, if the German colony of Africa was indeed volkstümlich, it be a colony really of the (German) people. It was widely believed that the German state was engaged in a two-front battle for actual domination in Southwest Africa: one against Africans who had been enslaved and another between Germans and the other European settlers. On both sides of the war, German women played a crucial role. White German women were regarded to be required to prevent German men from marrying and having sex with African women. An essential component of the “race question,” or how legal and other ties should be between colonists and the colonized, was the challenge that such family relationships presented to the political categories of control in the colonies. The “danger” posed by children of Afro-German ancestry had to be eliminated by bringing them on par with “pure” Africans in terms of legal and social standing (Schulte-Althoff 1985:62). Because of the possibility that the children could claim or get something.
For twenty-first-century viewers, the bombings of female terrorists are jarring and shocking. However, they are still minor actors in a male-dominated battle, and the women are careful to use their femininity in various ways to hide their crimes (Misty, 1993, 65). As Pamela Pears points out, the clothes worn by the film’s militant women characterize them, whether they are veiled and ancient or blatantly European and stylish. The Remains of Empire in Algeria and Vietnam by Pamela A. Pears. Clothing and its repercussions are all that matter to the women featured in this tale. Men talk and direct, while women emulate, albeit with terrible repercussions. However, when it comes to the film’s interpretation of the events shown, we must give the filmmaker some leeway. Franco Solinas, the script’s author, was upset with the decision to remove language from moments where the ladies portray Europeans.
As a result of the Battle of Algiers, one could be forgiven for thinking that women were essential to the liberation movement and could not be replaced. Their ability to move through urban spaces extra quickly than men, disguised as French women, made them beneficial as porteuses de valises, who transported contraband, mainly weapons, across checkpoint guards (Lora, 1993, 72). However, we know that there were only a tiny handful of female activists of this caliber. Realistically, the FLN relegated them to more appropriate tasks for women, and their numbers were minimal. Moudjahidat, according to Marnia Lazreg, comprises about 200 women in uniformed jobs, such as nursing and preparing meals, while the rest work in civilian sectors such as raising funds, procuring and distributing weapons, maintaining safe homes, and putting explosives in the streets.
The Colonial Society ignored the proposals and started sending women under the contract of exploitation. There was still a gaping hole in the front door, though. An concept of the autonomous woman fanner was based on the concerns expressed by educated women in the early 1900s, which returned later. The German colonial power has undergone rapid transformation within a decade. Germany’s colonialism had been exposed and rattled by scandals and costly battles, most notably the Southwest African war of 1904-1907. Chancellor Biilow fell from power and called for early elections in 1907 after the Reichstag became deadlocked over financial payments to the colonies. The colonial problem served as a symbol of “patriotic” resistance against Social Democracy and its supporters throughout electoral campaigns. Mass support for colonialism has waned despite the “patriotic” organizations and the colonial powers winning the election.
Women in Berlin’s aristocratic army wives’ club convinced the German Colonial Society in the years 1906 and 1907 that women should be in charge of selecting acceptable brides for German colonial officers. To back up their claim that women are best prepared to pick and guide other females, the ladies cited commonly held views about gender differences. The Women’s Union of the German Colonies Society was formed to take up the responsibility of coordinating German women’s immigration to the Southwest African colonies of the British Empire.
Above all, to preserve and develop the spiritual and intellectual (geistigen) links between women in the Motherland and women fighting for their heritage (Kulturkämpferinnen) in the territories” (Misty, 1996, 265). As well as mobilizing and educating German women about the colonies, the new organization also provided assistance to German women settlers. In addition to the “Frauenwohl” women, who advocated suffrage and a greater public role for women, the Frauenbund attracted a wide range of women and men, including those interested in colonial policy, the conservative middle-class women who objected women’s emancipation but saw this organization as a patriotic duty for women, and eugenicists who were drawn to an establishment that fought “race-mixing.” The Frauenbund’s mission hinged on determining which German women should be transported to the colonies. It was colonial women’s struggle to find the correct mix of class and gender qualities that mirrored their particular social issues and class roots.
There were many working-class and dainty women applying, but the Frauenbund wanted to support women in its own bourgeoisie image. German Colonial Society selection techniques eventually came into conflict with the Frauenbund. Country ladies and experienced servants were favored by the Colonial Society because they were deemed to be most adapted to the rigors of colonial life. It was happy to finance working-class and peasant women who were eager to leave, marry quickly, and establish families elsewhere. However, being white and wanting to move and marry was not enough for the middle-class colonizing women in the Frauenbund to assure that a woman was suitable to represent the German country and safeguard the
Gendered analyses of decolonization and the role of women in these campaigns, regardless of their numbers, have a lot to recommend them. This analysis is not limited to Algeria; similarly, gendered remnants may be found throughout the history of decolonization (Lora, 1993,78). Sectarian strife was foreshadowed when British India was divided into two nations in the summer of 1947: Pakistan, which Muslims dominated, and India, which Hindus dominated. Many works of fiction and cinema and academic books have investigated and documented the bloodshed and devastation that erupted following the declaration of independence, particularly in the Punjabi borders. This was a case of decolonization from the top down, when the British sped up their departure and sparked mob violence.
Ignoring the presence of women was more than just an attempt to erase their memory. Nations that had just gained independence from colonial rule viewed women’s rights as subordinate to reconstructing their economy and infrastructure rather than mutually formed requirements. As male-led administrations confronted the daunting burden of rebuilding war-torn and often poor economies and communities following successful decolonization, failed, promises fell on women. ‘The tale of nationalist liberation is inherently a story of betrayal,’ writes Partha Chatterjee, because it fails to include women’s place, function, and experiences – colonized and colonialist, radical and conservative – in the recorded histories of decolonization. A national identity could only be established through exclusions since it was only possible to grant freedom by imposing new restrictions at the same time.
Sources
Wildenthal, Lora. “SHE IS THE VICTOR”: Bourgeois Women, Nationalist Identities and the Ideal of the Independent Woman Farmer in German Southwest Africa.” Social Analysis: The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice 33 (1993): 68-88.
Bastian, Misty L. “Vultures of the Marketplace: The Ogu Umunwaayi (Women’s War) of 1929.” (1996).
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