German colonial history in Angola: Time to listen to each other

A torn map lies on a desk in the ZAK, the center for contemporary art in the former barracks building of the Spandau Citadel. The map shows the African continent, colorfully divided into colonies and zones of influence of the major European powers. Germany also once had possessions there.

The exhibition “Penetração pacífica – Germans in Angola”, initiated by the Angolan artists Mussunda N’Zombo and Bruno Fonseca and supported by the Goethe Institute Luanda, now deals with a little-known chapter of this inglorious history. She deals with German emigrants who moved to what was then a Portuguese colony, especially in the periods before and after the First World War, and who experienced a transformation from economic refugees to wealthy farmers. Colonial conditions made this possible for white Europeans.

The central document is the twelve-minute documentary “German Planter in Angola” from 1932. The African explorer, big game hunter and former colonial official Hanns Schomburgk shows the planters and their families at work and paints an almost idyllic picture of the structure in tropical climes. The colonized population, on the other hand, remains “largely nameless and without its own perspective,” as the Antonio Amadeu Foundation quite rightly criticizes in an accompanying commentary.

“Penetração pacífica – Germans in Angola”: ZAK / Project Space, Spandau Citadel, Berlin, until January 3, 2027

The film can safely be seen as an advertising film for emigration. The exhibition also shows in numerous documents how heavily German authorities were involved in the emigration of their compatriots to the then Portuguese colony from the end of the 19th century until the 1930s.

After the end of the First World War, when Germany had to cede its colonies to the victorious powers in 1918, the then Berlin “Reich Office for Emigration” warned in a circular against excessively aggressive advertising. There were fears that the Portuguese colonial bureaucracy would make entry more difficult.

Most of the other colonial powers did not allow the World War losers between the Rhine and the Oder into the areas they controlled anyway. Angola, however, continued to be touted as a “settlement country” by various agencies. The agricultural products were primarily depicted in the most beautiful colors, but the population living there was not mentioned at all. Awareness of injustice does not mix well with colonization.

This also becomes clear in interviews with descendants of the German settlers. Most of them left the country after independence was achieved in 1975. Your retrospectives paint a largely idyllic picture of the time before.

Interestingly, interviews with former Angolan workers are also characterized by positive memories. They were employed as so-called “contratados” (contract workers) on farms and mines, often receiving starvation wages and being subjected to conditions that are now considered a system of forced labor.

Nevertheless, in an interview with the initiator of the exhibition Miguel Domingos De Menezes (artist name Mussunda N'Zombo) and the director of the Goethe Institute Luanda, Julia Schreiner, the former worker Avelino J. Pascual says that he looks back on this time in the service of the German masters without any bad feelings. Some of the old workers are portrayed by the photographer Bruno Fonseca.

What is remarkable is Mussunda N'Zombo's legacy, which he leaves in the form of a paper document in the exhibition: "I did not come to divide, but to unite and ask: What can we build together without denying our differences?" he writes and emphasizes: "Africa speaks. The diaspora speaks. Now perhaps it is time for us to listen to each other." The exhibition “Penetração pacífica” brings together very different voices that are worth listening to. The numerous books that are also part of the exhibition provide more information.