Listening to Colonial History. Echoes of Coercive Knowledge Production in Historical Sound Recordings from Southern Africa : Echoes of Coercive Knowledge Production in Historical Sound Recordings from Southern Africa / Annette Hoffman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hoffman, Annette, author.

Standardized Title:

Kolonialgeschichte hören. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Po¨ch, Rudolf, 1870-1921.

Po¨ch, Rudolf.

Archives--Germany.

Archives.

Ethnological museums and collections--Germany.

Ethnological museums and collections.

Africa, Southern--Colonization--History.

Africa, Southern.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (174 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Basel, Switzerland : Basler Afrika Bibliographien, [2023]

Summary:

European archives hold historical voice recordings that were produced by linguists, ethnologists and musicologists during colonial rule in African countries. While these recordings reverberate with the polyphonic echoes of colonial knowledge production, to date, acoustic collections have rarely been consulted as sources of colonial history. In this book Anette Hoffmann engages with a Southern African audio-visual collection, which is located in five different institutions across Vienna, Austria. Several recordings collected by the anthropologist Rudolf Pch in August 1908 have been retranslated for this book. These translations provide new insights into Pchs collecting expedition to the Kalahari. Pchs narrative of his heroic journey is called into question by the Naro speakers comments, which address colonial violence and criticise the research practices of the anthropologist. By attending to the spoken texts on the recordings and reconnecting them to photographs, ethnographic objects, archival documentation and Pchs travelogue, Hoffmann offers a different reading of this research trip into a war zone.triesries.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Preface

1 Phonograph, Archive, Swallow

Close Listening

2 Spoken Words Disappear, A Speaker Becomes A Dancer

What Can And Cannot Be Read

Who Is "Bushman"?

Of Greed, Drought, And War

Hunting The Foragers

Producing Sound Recordings In Kg'au Tshàa

The Past, The Present And The Deafness Of Colonial Knowledge Production

The Eternal "Bushman"

3 Echoes Of Fear And The Anthropologist As "Bushman"

Gibberish And Danger

Ikxara The Younger

4 Ikxara The Elder Reclaims His Knife

The Appropriation Of Objects With Military Support

Listening To The Colonial Archive

List Of The Sound Recordings Discussed

Glossary Of Characters Appearing In The Text For Click Sounds In Naro

List Of Illustrations

Bibliography

Back Cover.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

3-906927-40-7

OCLC:

1409079616