Otruppa (source of GR's Schwarzkommando?)

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

A review of the article --- Molly McCullers: 'We do it so that we will 
be men'. Masculinity Politics in Colonial Namibia 1915-1949, in: The 
Journal of African History, 52, Volume 1, Cambridge 2011 ---
you'll find an abstract of here, was in Wednesday's FAZ ( Joseph 
Croitoru: In Uniform. Hereros für Deutschland. 8/31/11, p. N3):

http://www.limnology-journal.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8257456&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S0021853711000077


The members of the paramilitary Otruppa wore German uniforms, marched like German troops, sang German
soldier songs and formed their hierarchy along the German example. They also liked to give themselves
German first names; one of their leaders - Fritz Kasutu - even decorated himself with the title
"Schmetterling von Preußen" (Butterfly of Prussia). By all this the young Hereros (plus some young
people from the tribes of the Ovambo and Damara) basically tried to compensate the decay of traditional
authority and initiatory rites. The Union of South Africa was always suspicious of the Otruppa and -
this should be of interest to readers of "Gravity's Rainbow" - although lots of its members eventually
fought on side of the Allies, the Union of South Africa feared around 1940 that the Otruppa would,
together with the Nazi supporters among the German settlers, organize a social upheaval. Of course,
the Schwarzkommando from "Gravity's Rainbow" has aspects which do not refer to the historical Hereros
(like the situation of African Americans in the USA), but I remember having read here that Pynchon
exchanged letters about the Hereros with a historian during the 1960s, so perhaps ...

In case anybody is a subscriber of The Journal of African History or has access to it via some library,
it would be great to get more information!



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