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8. Back in Berlin
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8 Back in Berlin All colonial policies are basically about attempts to exploit a foreign people to the greatest possible extent. Wherever we look in colonial history in the last three hundred years, we find atrocities and the oppression of whole peoples, not infrequently ending with their total destruction. A leading representative of the German Social Democratic Party, August Bebel, in a parliamentary speech in 1889 Lacking a firm social footing in Hamburg, the Bakaris returned to Berlin shortly after Mtoro was dismissed in December 1913. The available sources reveal nothing about his private life and, as in Hamburg, do not contain any evidence of contacts with Africans in Berlin. According to the official registration file, the Bakaris quickly found an apartment in a new block in Neukölln, a southern suburb of Berlin, which was increasingly attracting lower and middle class immigrants at that time. In the beginning they must have lived on their savings. Presumably, Bertha contributed substantially to their income since she was able to stay in the same apartment after her husband died.1 After the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 many people in Europe faced a difficult time. Lacking any permanent employment, Mtoro Bakari gave talks on East Africa. Apart from schools, there were not many institutions in Berlin that might have been interested in inviting him. For instance, the adult education classes (Volkshochschulen), which were in vogue at that time, mainly drew on academics and focussed on the canon of German and European culture. The Urania, an association contributing to the popularization of scientific knowledge, preferred German travellers or former colonial officers to cover non-European topics.2 Reportedly, Mtoro Bakari travelled to different places in Germany. Since his earnings were low he presumably did not publish any advertisements about his lectures. In fact, it is 1 This apartment, which has 2 rooms and a kitchen, still exists in the third floor of the back premises in the Lichtenrader Straße 40. The Bakaris lived there from 22 January 1914, according to Mtoro Bakari’s registration file in the state archives in Berlin. 2 Most of the programs of these institutions probably no longer exist. In the case of the Urania, I checked the annual reports (Bericht der Urania) for the years 1907/08 and 1914 to 1922. E I G H T 86 likely that his activities largely depended on the recommendations of Protestant priests and school teachers12 The only known statement made by anyone who attended his lectures is a letter which Otto Sand, a pastor in Harsleben, a small town 180 kilometres southwest of Berlin, wrote to the director of the SOL in December 1917:3 Last Friday night the Swahili Negro Mtoro Bakari gave an interesting lecture on East Africa at the local high school. On that occasion, I persuaded him to tell me his life story. It is an account full of disappointment, which brought me to make this plea on his behalf. If I understood Bakari correctly, he was asked by the German government to come to Germany about 14 years ago, found employment as a lecturer at the School of Oriental Languages in Berlin, and subsequently moved to the Colonial Institute in Hamburg together with Pastor Meinhof, but was suddenly dismissed, if I am correct, in 1914. After that he travelled to Africa together with his wife – he has been married to a white woman from Berlinchen in the Mark for 13 years – in order to obtain a permanent position there. In his home country he had previously worked as a teacher. After letting him travel to Africa without any objection, the German government barred him from staying there and transferred him back to Germany 8 days later. Here [in Germany] he is allowed to give lectures in schools. Hence he travels from town to town and tries to secure a miserable living for himself and his wife (he does not have children) by charging low entrance fees – 10 or 15 cents! I told Bakari that I would contact the Imperial Colonial Office, the School of Oriental Languages and the mission house, and ask them to provide a permanent position for him. I advised him to introduce himself personally to Your Excellency and to explain his wishes. For I think that if Bakari really came from East Africa to Germany at the request of the German government, it is the obligation of the German government not to simply drop him, since, at least...