FAMILY REUNIONS IN GERMAN ADVENTURE LITERATURE ON AFRICA OF THE 1880S – A VISION FOR COLONIAL INTERVENTION: KARL BURMANN AND KARL MAY

Abstract

ABSTRACTLiterature for young readers provides a pertinent barometer for the moods and preoccupations of a society at a given time. The study of two examples of adventure literature set in Africa, Karl Burmann's Im Herzen von Afrika (1880) and Karl May's Die Sklavenkarawane (1889/90), illustrates the preponderance of certain motifs like family reunions in the imaginary conquest of colonial space and the definition of the role Germans assigned to themselves on the continent of desire. The separation and reunion of members of a travelling party serve to demonstrate how the foreign intruders cope with the hostile conditions without losing themselves and their sense of community. In the process, they assemble groups of indigenous people into family units of their making and under their tutelage, thus assuming the role of mentor to African societies and claiming a kind of leadership without which, or so the suggestion goes, Africa would not achieve any awareness of self. In Karl May's novel, this role is asserted in competition with slave hunters, rivals for dominance over inner Africa. Adventure literature thus provides a blueprint for, and a legitimisation of, colonialist interference in Africa and allows a new generation to imagine themselves as both adventurers and benefactors.