One of my new projects is that I am a host of New Books in German Studies, a podcast on the New Books Network. I recorded my first podcast with Marie Muschalek (pronounced with a stress on the “a”) about her book Violence as Usual: Policing and the Colonial State in German Southwest Africa published by Cornell University Press in 2019.
I have read quite a few books about the genocide German colonists committed against the Herero and Nama people but this book focuses on a different kind of violence: on everyday violence that was precisely not excessive but in a way constructive as it build a post-genocidal colonial space. It was marked by improvisation where German and African policemen used their military background and bureaucratic regulations to shape laws and their enforcement. It struck me how Marie Muschalek complicates the image of violence we may have and in particular of racist, colonial violence. Between excessive violence of settlers and an alleged limitation of violence by the state, she draws the image of the police as both an executive institution of violence and one that is supposed to teach the “right” kind of violence, one which is bureaucratically legitimate and honorable. This approach in no way minimizes the brutality of a racist regime but adds unknown layers that are also unusual for colonial spaces as such when for example compared to British colonies.
You can listen to my conversation with Marie Muschalek here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/violence-as-usual