Diana M. Natermann. Pursuing Whiteness in the Colonies. Private Memories from the Congo Free State and German East Africa (1884-1914). (Waxmann)
Pursuing Whiteness in the Colonies offers a new comprehension of colonial history from below by taking remnants of individual agencies from a whiteness studies perspective. It highlights the experiences and perceptions of colonisers and how they portrayed and re-interpreted their identities in Africa. The transcolonial approach is based on egodocuments from Belgian, German and Swedish men and women who migrated to Central Africa for reasons like a love for adventure, social betterment, new gender roles, or the conviction that colonising was their patrioticduty.
What's the one key idea or message you want readers to take from your book?
That identity issues travel globally. Who I am, what I identify as or with does not change or is left behind only because I leave my country of origin. Instead, especially in a colonial setting, it is important to keep two things in mind:
a) Identity-related thoughts and actions should never be underestimated.
b) Identity issues can be linked to topics of friendship, food and dining culture, and especially gendered matters.
What got you interested in the topic of your book?
The vast yet underresearched amount of egodocuments available in Western-European archives not linked to the big former empires (eg. UK, France, The Netherlands, and Spain); and their potential for both new questions and answers.
Books answer questions, but they also raise new questions. What questions does your book raise?
My book raises questions about both the origin of whiteness as a modern concept and its influence(s) on twenty-first-century debates related to (post-)colonial heritage. How influential are cultural markers linked to late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century high imperialism on the reflection of ‘white’ or ‘non-white’ nowadays? What are the long-term effects, if any?
What are you currently reading, in your field or just generally, and what do you like about it?
Currently I am reading the restitution report by Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy (Zurückgeben. Über die Restitution afrikanischer Kulturgüter/
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