Africans in GR
Hartwin Alfred Gebhardt
hag at iafrica.com
Sun Mar 17 13:41:56 CST 1996
Nick Spencer writes:
> Over the last couple of months I've been trying to track down historical
> sources for the presence of transplanted Herero in Nazi Germany - with
> absolutely no luck.
I have always asumed that this part of GR was made up - but it's the
kind of thing that somehow _sounds_ true beyond the usual truths....
> There is a general dearth of writings on the
> treament of blacks by the Germans; some references to the Rhineland
> mulattoes, and the occasional hint that blacks may have been incarcerated
> in concentration camps, but nothing very substantial. Anybody got any
> info on this?
In Namibia (Sudwest), two great revolts ocurred against the German
occupation. The Herero revolt resulted in 80% genocide, the Nama
(Hottentott) revolt in 50+%. After the war, remaining prisoners were
incarcerated in concentration camps (modelled on concentration camps
invented by the British and used against Boers in the 1900/1901 war).
Hardly any prisoners survived. Especially the Herero massacres are
now seen as Holocaust trial-runs. Check Tim Ware's web guides for
more info.
> Was Dora supposed to have black inmates? Is the presence
> of Hereroes in Nazi Germany a pure invention on Pynchon's part? If this
> is so, then I think it reinforces the idea that GR is, in part, an
> allegory of racial identity in the USA (which would certainly correlate
> with the idea that the concluding sections on LA's freeways are crucial,
> Watts being passed over and all that).
A good and potentially very interesting reading, I think - certainly worth
some more work. How about it?
hg
hag at iafrica.com
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