A Decolonial View

philemon arens

it was a significant period in german history: the genocide of tens of thousands of individuals in german southwest africa following a revolt against colonial governance by the ovaherero and nama people. over a century later, a feature film delves into the violent actions carried out by germany in present-day namibia, shedding light on this dark colonial history for the first time, in that format. the director – lars kraume – aims for measures of men to raise awareness among everyday germans about this tragic chapter of their history. he stateted that “germany has denied its colonial past for 120 years, […] most people are unaware germany even had a colonial past, let alone anything about the brutality of it – it is not even taught in schools” (connolly 2023). 

in the film, alexander hoffmann (leonard scheicher), a fictional young ethnologist sets out on a research expedition to the german colony of southwest africa, where he initiates the collection of human skulls for his “racial research”. during this endeavour, he observes the genocide carried out by the “deutsche schutztruppe,” the military unit responsible for upholding the german empire, against the ovaherero and nama tribes from 1904 to 1908. however, beyond merely observing these atrocities, the ethnologist progressively transitions into a perpetrator himself. 

terminologies such as “moral decay” (tschierse 2023) or “moral degeneration” (connolly 2023) are quite common in reviews and media coverage regarding the character of hoffman making for a character with a bizarre image of an innocent german who just happened to be part of a genocide, something like hanna arendt’s “hanswurst”.

kraume emphasised that due to germany’s role as a perpetrator during this period there is no redeeming quality to the character. “create a film about genuine heroes wherever you find them, but it is impossible to fabricate a german hero.”

kraume sees hoffmann as a mirror of the german society, “they have chosen to flee – [reminiscent in …] how we continually handle africa, evading acknowledgment of the atrocities we have inflicted on the continent, and disregarding their issues as if they are unrelated to us” (connolly 2023). 

the director tries to discover how the genocide was made possible shaped by “colonial mentality” (assheuer 2023). interesting is that the colonial mentality was also used to avoid blame by the very first apology by a german official toward the overherero and nama victims (arens 2024). the film is however attempting to show the spirit of modernity and social-darwinism prevalent in the wilhelminan era in germany. therefore, the film has been described as: “it lets us stare into our own abyss” (ttt 2023).

kraume uses the protagonist to show how easily one can become caught up in the dealings of a state even when you initially opposed them (assheuer 2023), thus he wants to portray the only position he can. but at the same moment, it might just be seen as a mechanism to avoid guilt and responsibility.

the film has further been criticised for pushing racism and genocide on a level of personal failure and away from a structural coloniality critique. thus, a viewing is made possible that rids germany and germans nowadays of any responsibility (kelly and malonda 2023). making for a similar argument and guilt aversion as the german government in its proposed joint declaration with namibia concerning the genocide (arens 2024).

after the premiere at the berlinale film festival of 2023, an open letter by the schwarze filmschaffende (black filmmakers) was sent to influential figures in the german cultural industry, it criticised the prevalent anti-black racism in films shown at the festival that year, including der vermessene mensch. the main points were that the genocide was only a secondary plotline rendering the victims mere extras leading to the humanising of the perpetrators whilst denying it to the victims, while simultaneously recreating images that have the potential to re-traumatise without holding educational potential (schwarze filmschaffende e.v. 2023: 4-5). the film fails even to point towards the resistance on the side of the ovaherero and nama dismissing historically important figures such as hendrik witbooi and samuel maharero (fanizadeh 2023) – making the stamen by kraume that film about heroes should be made when they are present frankly bizarre. 

that presentation is rather common for german media engagement with the colonial past, usually drawing on the explorer and adventurer genre in connection with glorifying “civilising mission” (weber and weber 2020: 104). the film also fails at the portrayal of the historical events, relying on a one-dimensional account of it that lacks accuracy. it has been described as “a crude eurocentric narrowing” (fanizadeh 2023). 

the only non-white actor who is afforded a role that gives her distinct features as a character is kezia kunouje kambazembi played by girley jazama who was also central to the promotion of the film and was showcased as an ovaherero woman whose ancestors were targeted by the german troops. it was however done to an extent that far exceeded her role and did leave the aftertaste of tokenism.

natasha kelly a german anti-racism activist and academic schooler was commissioned in 2021 to make an anti-racism assessment of an early script of the film, already then criticising the plotline as romanticising, far removed from reality and too much centred around the white characters (kelly and malonda 2023).

lars kraume justified the use of said perspective as a result of his position as a white german and that it would also be inappropriate for him to tell a story of ovaherero and nama resistance. he also used that to account for the passivity of the non-german characters. he further sees the film as one part of many to work against colonial amnesia in germany thus it is supposed to hold up a mirror to the german society (deutschlandradio 2023).

one of the producers added that the film aimed to bring the topic into public consciousness as well as explore the part science and universities played in the genocide (haikali and dobson 2023: 404). the idea of the film was to first tell the story and enable namibian and especially ovaherero and nama filmmakers to tell further stories, thus functioning as a gateway for funding and publicity. 

the reception in namibia was also good but as there were only two screenings in windhoek, exes to the film were limited hindering any wide reception (ibid.: 109). 

the question must be asked then why the film funding went to kraume and not to, let’s say ovaherero and nama directors to tell the story or why at the very least he didn’t co-direct the film with more suitable storytellers. girley jazama who is also a producer and screenwriter even expressed willingness to tell her family story (renk 2023). the unwillingness of kraume to step back or share power might be seen in line with that “most black namibians have no safe space, agency or resources to express stories of colonial oppression and atrocity inflicted on them from own perspectives and for imagining or rather telling alternative narratives” (haikali and dobson 2023: 407).

kraume said that jazama was involved, but it is hard to allocate creative inspiration, thus she is not listed as a writer in the film (deutschlandradio 2023). it was reported that other than girley jazama only one overerero was involved in the filming process, namely a costume designer (tschierse 2023).

during the above-mentioned anti-racism assessment of 2021, it was already suggested to the director to have a more diverse writers’ room to accurately tell the story and give the black characters agency. a suggestion specially made regarding the character of kezia kunouje kambazembi and the long-standing problem of white men portraying racialized women, rendering them passive objects as is the case in the film (kelly and malonda 2023).

many ways could have been explored to avoid the problem the film holds and could actually work against colonial amnesia. 

the schwarzen filmschaffenden thus conclude that: “the racist murders and brutalisation of black bodies in white-majority societies are due in large part to the dissemination of such images that reinforce the belief that the lives of black people do not matter” (schwarze filmschaffende e.v. 2023: 5).

references:

arens, philemon. 2024 forthcoming. master thesis 

assheuer, thomas. 2023. sie übten für den weltkrieg. die zeit. https://www.zeit.de/2023/13/der-vermessene-mensch-film-kolonialismus-lars-kraume. published 2023.03.23, accessed 2024.03.24.

connolly, kate. 2023. ‘most are unaware’: film highlights germany’s genocidal past in namibia. the guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/22/most-are-unaware-film-highlights-germanys-genocidal-past-in-namibia. published 2023.03.22, accessed 2024.03.27.

deutschlandradio. 2023. rassistische klischees? „der vermessene mensch“ in der kritik. deutschlandradio. https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/rassistische-klischees-der-vermessene-mensch-in-der-kritik-dlf-kultur-f34ddce9-100.html. published 2023.04.18, accessed 2024.03.24.

fanizadeh, andreas. 2023. german kulissenschieber in namibia. taz. https://taz.de/spielfilm-der-vermessene-mensch/!5921347/. published 2023.03.26, accessed 2024.03.24.

haikali, joel and dobson, stephen. 2023. understanding liminality and intangible difficult heritage through film. the historic environment: policy & practice (14)3: 402-414.

kelly, natasha and malonda, achan. der vermessene film — kolumne malonda feat. natasha a. kelly. veto mag. https://veto-mag.de/achan-natasha/. published 2023.04.18, accessed 2024.03.24.

renk. 2023. „der vermessene mensch“ ein interview mit der hauptdarstellerin girley charlene jazama. renk magazin. https://renk-magazin.de/der-vermessene-mensch/. published 2023.03.24, accessed 2024.03.26.

schwarze filmschaffende e.v.. 2023. stellungnahme schwarze filmschaffende zu den anti-schwarzen filmen der vermessene mensch, seneca und helt super!. https://icapatrust.org/documents/stellungnahme-schwarzefilmschaffende-deutsch.pdf. published 2023.04.17, accessed 2024.03.24.

tschierse, kevin. 2023. ‘measures of men’ sheds light on german colonial crimes. deutsche welle. https://www.dw.com/en/measures-of-men-sheds-light-on-german-colonial-crimes/a-65134402. published 2023.03.27, accessed 2024.03.24.

ttt. 2023. der vermessene mensch. ttt. https://www.daserste.de/information/wissen-kultur/ttt/videos/ttt-titel-thesen-temperamente-video-1156.html. published 2023.03.19, accessed 2023.05.24.

weber, heloise and weber, martin. 2020. colonialism, genocide and international relations: the namibian–german case and struggles for restorative relations. european journal of international relations 26(1): 91-115.

picture reference:

https://www.kino-zeit.de/film-kritiken-trailer-streaming/der-vermessene-mensch-2023