Africa: What It Gave Me, What It Took from Me

Remembrances from My Life as a German Settler in South West Africa

Margarethe von Eckenbrecher - Edited and translated by David P. Crandall; Hans-Wilhelm Kelling and Paul E. Kerry - Introduction by David P. Crandall; Paul E. Kerry and Hans-Wilhelm Kelling

Africa: What It Gave Me, What It Took from Me is a memoir of an extraordinary woman who, as a newlywed, travelled with her husband to German South West Africa, a colony situated just above South African on the Atlantic coast. Here they begin a farm in a quite remote area where they raise cattle, sheep, and goats and plant large gardens on the banks of the Omaruru River. They build a comfortable home and welcome their first child. As the von Eckenbrechers work hard to build, their farm natives, whose land has been appropriated by the colonial government, are planning a revolt against colonial rule. Insurrection begins and the von Eckenbrechers are in the midst of it all. As the rebellion strengthens, Frau von Eckenbrecher returns to Germany to wait out the insurrection. Her husband eventually returns as well. Frau von Eckenbrecher never feels completely at home again in Germany. The von Eckenbrechers divorce and Frau von Eckenbrecher returns to South West Africa with her two sons. Her former husband emigrates to Paraguay. Frau von Eckenbrecher eventually takes a position in a German language school in Windhoek, the capital city, and rears her two sons there. In her book she chronicles colonial life, the natives of the colony, how the Spanish Influenza pandemic raged in Namibia, World War I in Africa, German surrender, and the South African occupation of German South West Africa and the eventual ceding of the colony to South Africa. We bring the memoir to a close with an update of Frau von Eckenbrecher’s later life and death, and a short remembrance from one of her two grandsons.

University Press Copublishing Division / Lehigh University Press

Pages: 398 • Trim: 6¾ x 9¼

978-1-61146-150-3 • Hardback • May 2015 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

978-1-61146-151-0 • eBook • May 2015 • $99.50 • (£77.00)

Subjects: History / Africa / General, Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs, Social Science / Women's Studies

Africa: What It Gave Me, What It Took from Me

Remembrances from My Life as a German Settler in South West Africa

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Africa: What It Gave Me, What It Took from Me is a memoir of an extraordinary woman who, as a newlywed, travelled with her husband to German South West Africa, a colony situated just above South African on the Atlantic coast. Here they begin a farm in a quite remote area where they raise cattle, sheep, and goats and plant large gardens on the banks of the Omaruru River. They build a comfortable home and welcome their first child. As the von Eckenbrechers work hard to build, their farm natives, whose land has been appropriated by the colonial government, are planning a revolt against colonial rule. Insurrection begins and the von Eckenbrechers are in the midst of it all. As the rebellion strengthens, Frau von Eckenbrecher returns to Germany to wait out the insurrection. Her husband eventually returns as well. Frau von Eckenbrecher never feels completely at home again in Germany. The von Eckenbrechers divorce and Frau von Eckenbrecher returns to South West Africa with her two sons. Her former husband emigrates to Paraguay. Frau von Eckenbrecher eventually takes a position in a German language school in Windhoek, the capital city, and rears her two sons there. In her book she chronicles colonial life, the natives of the colony, how the Spanish Influenza pandemic raged in Namibia, World War I in Africa, German surrender, and the South African occupation of German South West Africa and the eventual ceding of the colony to South Africa. We bring the memoir to a close with an update of Frau von Eckenbrecher’s later life and death, and a short remembrance from one of her two grandsons.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Lehigh University Press

Pages: 398 • Trim: 6¾ x 9¼

978-1-61146-150-3 • Hardback • May 2015 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

978-1-61146-151-0 • eBook • May 2015 • $99.50 • (£77.00)

Subjects: History / Africa / General, Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs, Social Science / Women's Studies

Author

David P. Crandall is associate professor of anthropology at Brigham Young University.

Hans-Wilhelm Kelling is professor of German studies at Brigham Young University.

Paul Kerry is associate professor History at Brigham Young University and associate visiting research fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Biographical Entries

A Reader’s Introduction

Book I

Preface

Leaving Home
1. The First Ten Days
2. Las Palmas
3. Monrovia
4. Nifu
5. Mossamdes
6. Port Alexander
7. Swakopmund
8. The Journey to Karibib
9. Karibib
10. By Oxcart from Karibib to Okombahe

Okombahe
1. Something about the Natives of the Colony
2. The Activities of the Missionaries in the Protectorate
3. Our First Abode
4. Worries of a Housewife
5. Building Our Home
6. Future Plans and Disappointments
7. Cattle Raising
8. Gui-Gams
9. Cultivating a Garden
10. Experiences and Observations
11. Spitzkoppies

Insurrection
1. Foreboding Weather
2. The Insurrection Begins
3. A Dangerous Ride
4. In the Fortress
5. Under the Protection of the Franke Company
6. In the Barracks at Omaruru
7. My Return to Germany

Book II
A Note to my Readers

The New South West
1. My Return to South West Africa
2. Our Idealic Life in Klein-Windhuk

How I Experienced the First World War
1. The Impending Storm
2. The Future is Foreshadowed in Everyday Events
3. The People of the Colony Prepare Themselves
4. Mobilization
5. South Africa Begins Hostilities
6. Treachery at Naulila
7. Our Commander Dies
8. A Punitive Expedition to Naulila
9. The Baster War
10. The Germans must be Cleared Out
11. General Botha Occupies Windhuk
12. An Honorable Surrender
13. Living under Martial Law

South West Becomes a League of Nations Mandate
1. Dissolution?
2. Expulsions
3. The Influenza Epidemic of 1918
4. Changes
5. New Unrest
6. The House on the Mountain
7. Life under Mandate Rule
8. Our German Schools
9. My Sons
10. Hunting in the African Bush and a Return to our Home in Okombahe
11. From the Brandberg to Franzfontein
12. Korichaams
13. Etoscha and the Waterberg
14. 1934: The Year of Torrential Rains
15. Of Diamonds, Gold, and other Treasures

A Concluding and Final Word

Postscript

Africa: What It Gave Me, What It Took from Me

Remembrances from My Life as a German Settler in South West Africa

Margarethe von Eckenbrecher - Edited and translated by David P. Crandall; Hans-Wilhelm Kelling and Paul E. Kerry - Introduction by David P. Crandall; Paul E. Kerry and Hans-Wilhelm Kelling

Africa: What It Gave Me, What It Took from Me

Remembrances from My Life as a German Settler in South West Africa

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