Between Colonial History and Genocide: On Continuity Lines of the Representation of Animal-Human Relationships in German Publications and Photographs on Rwanda

Abstract

Using texts and photographs from different eras, the article attempts to draw lines of continuity between the colonisation of Rwanda by the German Empire and the present day. The aim is to show that the Hamitic theories, which from the mid-1890s led to the gradual ethnification of the country and the essentialisation of three supposedly separate “ethnic groups,” produced a policy based on discrimination, expulsions, massacres and looting, particularly from 1959 onwards. These acts of violence against the Tutsi minority gradually prepared the ground for the genocide of 1994. The previous animalisation of the victims corresponded to a problematic humanisation of their cows. The goal was the same both times: the herds, like their owners, were subjected to violence that aimed for long, cruel agonies. In this way, the perpetrators attempted to realise the racist concept of a “body standard” from which both the Tutsi and their animals had “deviated.” Furthermore, the Tutsi, as supposedly “foreign,” were to be sent “back to their Egyptian homeland.” Although the Hamitic theories must be regarded as an integral part of the genocidal ideology, the old stereotypes have become a dominant theme in German development policy writings, novels, newspaper articles and reports on Rwanda. This goes so far that a decidedly negationist “expert” could still be found in the advisory staff of German President Köhler. In 2017, a museum was opened in Kigali, financed by Germany, which is named after a German colonialist whose role in the spread of “Hamitism” is beyond doubt. This raises the question of the suppression of a catastrophe that should have affected the Germans' identity with their call of “Never again!”