Bamboo

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Children called "Bambuses" in German South West Africa (Photo by Walther Dobbertin , 1906–1918)

Bamboo generally refers to a subordinate or unskilled person, mostly in seafaring . In German South West Africa , young African employees in particular were meant.

Origin of the term

The German Colonial Lexicon of 1920 names the term as an example “for the wanderings that a short and practical term can go through as a result of modern world traffic”. Accordingly, the missionary Carl Hugo Hahn led him back to a racist term used by English-speaking immigrants for the Indians of North America . Due to their assigned peculiarity, these were called “red skins”, meaning monkeys or “half-humans”, baboons : English for baboons . The word reached German South West Africa via Berlin and the casino in Windhoek . As recently as the 1990s, the Afrikaans word bobbejaan , which also means baboon, was used as an insult in Namibia .

According to other sources, the word has its origins in nautical science or in seafaring language . According to this, a bamboo is an unskilled or inexperienced seaman . According to the journalist and former Mare boss Dietmar Bartz , the word stands for bad sailor or ship's carpenter who only serves as a handyman . It could come from the Dutch word bamboe ( bamboo ), as a figurative name for someone who stands around as stiff as a bamboo stick. In addition, it derives from the French word bamboche (also bamboo, but used further like marionette or short stature ). In addition, there is a reference to the Italian word bambino (child), to which everything has to be explained in the figurative sense as a learner or recipient of orders.

Social position in German South West Africa

As "bamboo soldiers" designated train of the protection force (photo by Walther Dobbertin, 1906-1918)

German colonialists in German South West Africa referred to African children or young people as bamboos when they worked as simple domestic workers or so-called troop bamboos for the protection force . The latter were servants of soldiers and were also called soldier boys in other colonies . Until the beginning of the war against the Herero in 1904, they often came from the Damara people . From the Herero's point of view , they were at the lowest level of the military hierarchy.

literature

  • Dietmar Bartz: Ropes, Pütz and Wanten - the sailor's language. 3rd edition, Wiesbaden: Marixverlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8438-0444-8 .
  • Karl Dove : Bambusen, in: Heinrich Schnee (Hg.): German Colonial Lexicon. Volume 1, Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1920, p. 124.
  • Stefanie Michels: Black German Colonial Soldiers - Ambiguous Representation Rooms and Early Cosmopolitanism in Africa. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8376-1054-3 . ( Open access )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ K. Dove: Bambusen, in: Heinrich Schnee (ed.): Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon. Vol. 1, Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1920, p. 124.
  2. ↑ Bartholomäus Grill : Wir Herrenmenschen - Our racist legacy: A journey through German colonial history. 2nd edition, Siedler, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-8275-0110-3 , p. 181 f.
  3. ↑ a b S. Michels: Black German Colonial Soldiers. Bielefeld: transcript, 2009, p. 115.
  4. ↑ D. Bartz: Tampen, Pütz and Wanten. 3rd edition, Wiesbaden: Marixverlag, 2014.