The Long Shadow of German Colonialism. Amnesia, Denialism and Revisionism

CONTENTS

Preface

1.Introduction: Which Past, Whose Past?

Blind-Spot Colonialism

New Agenda—Old Blinkers

One’s Own and Others’ Past

Beyond Tokenism?

2.Enlightenment, Racism, Colonialism and Genocide

The Dark Side of Enlightenment

Colonial Mass Violence and the Notion of Genocide

Towards Decolonisation

3.The German Colonial Brand

Germany Goes Overseas

The German Colonies

Some Colonial Leftovers

Colonial Discourses at Home

Colonialism without Colonies

Africans in Colonial Germany

4.(Post-)Colonial (West) Germany

West German Africa

Colonial Remnants in United Germany

Black Germany

Reactionary Revisionism: The Case of the AfD

Light at the End of the Tunnel?

5.Germany and Namibia

An Initial Caveat

The Historical Record

A German Sonderweg?

The Long Denial

The Return of Human Remains and Looted Artefacts

Negotiating Genocide

The Joint Declaration and Its Aftermath

Reparations and Intertemporality

Namibian Disagreements

Ploughing Through

No End in Sight

6.Challenging Colonial Asymmetries and Blind Spots

Selective Memory

Learning from the Past

The Coloniality of Power

Acknowledgements

Notes

Bibliography

Index