Smithsonian Libraries African Art Index Project DSI Search this
Type:
Articles
Place:
Africa, East
Germany
Africa
Tanzania
Date:
1988
Notes:
The Germans were in control of the Great Lakes area between 1890 and 1916. During that period, they produced a very rich corpus of works in various fields (travel accounts, economic or ethnological studies), containing extremely precise descriptions of artisan and agricultural technologies. Some of the most interesting authors on these topics include Richard Kandt, Hans Meyer and Jan Czekanowski. Nevertheless, their works are somewhat marred by the spirit of the times through museum-like classifications, diffusionist "explanations" derived from "Hamitic" and "Bantu" racial myths, and through the weakness of their social analysis. Development prospects are sketched out within the framework of a colonial economy.--original abstract.
