The pornographic eye of the colonial photographer (Max Weiß, c. 1908)
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| Physice and Staure |
This
picture and the following were made by the German officer Max Weiß
during his first tour through the interlacustrine region around 1908
. After more than a hundred years, this picture still makes me sad.
Below the surface it is full of violence. In the eyes of the women
you can still see the anger and fear to be exposed in such a way.
Their clothes still lying on the ground. Nakedness was nothing that
was their usual habit. It was produced, forced by the photographer.
Weiß,
as I had said, in a previous post, was a particular violent agent of
colonial rule. During his expedition he destroyed several villages
and murdered dozens of Africans for a minor incident, when one of his
soldiers was shot at by some locals. His reputation for violence (as
well as of other Germans too) spread faster than his expedition
moved. Africans were well aware that resistance and discontent with
the wishes of the German could cause unforeseeable consequences.
Apart
from its economical and political structures of power, colonialism
was all about the unlimited control over Africans. At the spot and
at the very bottom this also included the access to the bodies of
Africans to pursue the phantasies, desires and perversions of the
colonizers, Africa was often celebrated by Germans (as well as by
other Europeans) as a promise of freedom and a space to transgress
the neat borders of their bourgeois societies at home. Violence and
transgressions of borders (both of European and African societies)
were key elements of the colonizer's pornographic eye.
Weiß
tried to hide the sexual desires underlying his pictures by
building a scientific, an anthropological setting. This series of
pictures is labeled as “Körperbau und Gestalt” (Physique and
Stature). The women are portrayed from different angles. The
pornographic eye, nevertheless, is obvious in all of his photographs.
This particular mixture of a scientific/rational setting with the
violence of the pornographic eye results in an Auschwitz-like
imaginary.
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| The usual appearance of Hima-Women |
In a time when "the West" again is in the businee to construct the "savage" Other, we should not forget that in many encounters with the Other in the 19th century, Europeans were behaving not a representants of rationality or civilisation, but, like people in interlacustrine Africa often saw it, as insane "children with big sticks".
In light of wise notions of regarding art as a universal language significant in engaging then eventually resolving social dialogue history is undeniable (especially in pictures), as an artist i would propose a campaign of visual work produced of naked european women done under African creative direction, whether video or photography but produced from real life and specfic to chosen sites in chosen European cities, that would be a great equalizer.
ReplyDeletewhat great equalizer? Equal would imply the same time and definitely the same circumstances to produce similar images with white women. African direction that was violently threatening to European women who were forced to undress and possibly raped or killed afterwards in 1908 or otherwise. This is not art, this is terror, photographed, by a murderer and racist. There is no equal from Africans, just Europeans.
DeleteI enjoy this website on how it is more helpful in terms of providing more information concerning the history of Central-East Africa especially the GREAT LAKES REGION OF AFRICA. I continue searching more information about Mashira son of Nkuba son of Nkoronko.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Thank you for your encouragment. I am very delighted to get this response
DeleteIt is my pleasure to read and get informed of what was going on in the Interlacustiline region as the human dignity was under attack. As an artist I can change the pile of trash into decorations, we need to look this history in the eye of Art. The world has been moving in to civilization era that such discrimination, hatred, and human dignity attack is a barbaric behaviour which was done by our brothers and sisters of those time. Thanks for the blog builders to teach us the dark times.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, I appreciate this very much
DeleteIt is also my pleasure to read this staining history in which human dignity was attacked. As a artist I can change trashes into decorations, it is time then to change those trashes into decorations . The world is changing from uncivilized to civilized. So we need to listen our conscience.
ReplyDeleteAn insight into the mindset of the European coloniser in the East African interlucustrine region. No doubt, such a colonial mindset was cultivated by the writings of people like Richard Francis Burton. A reading of the latter adventurer's "The Lake Regions of Central Africa" would complete the picture of what the early colonisers thought of the African; hence the glaring pictorial denigration of the African. Nevertheless, I like the information gleaned here.
ReplyDelete