Research Project Synopsis

Research Project Synopsis

In the field of international academic study the most active and multi-faceted subjects are naturally those which sweep across national boundaries and left a tremendous impact on entire continents, and in some very momentous examples on the entire world and the lasting relationships between the entire societies of the people involved. For this very reason the interwar period between World War I and World War II has been perhaps one of the most deeply and passionately investigated moments in all of history. Historians have struggled and searched for concrete valid explanations to explain how the people and nations of Europe could go though such a dramatically horrendous ordeal as The Great War, yet less than two decades later many of the same countries involved in that devastating event would be pulled in to another catastrophic military explosion of even greater international suffering and turmoil. The political actions and cultural happenings which contributed to this development have seemingly been sorted thru and dissected from every possible angle, but in my research of primary data from the period and the social tempest leading into and carrying on after The First World War I have found the lack of a unifying analysis over the issue of African involvement in the growth of cross-cultural hatred and resentment which would lead to a second crippling World War.

The first difficulty to be faced when investigating the period directly after the end of the First World War is the intensely personal and focused motivation which stood as the driving force behind nearly every writer, chronicler, and journalist of the time. An unending list of questions and uncertainties tormented these intellectuals and cultural narrators who would serve as the major force of social influence at a time when millions upon millions of citizens all over Europe were reaching out for answers to explain the horrors they had just experienced in war. In response to this clamoring for explanations, much of the material created and distributed in the post-WWI era was strikingly subjective and editorial. This is perhaps the most dominant reason for the specialized direction of study when later historians have gone back to try and achieve a better overall view of the period. The overarching characteristic I have found in my research of secondary sources on the period is that academic limitations and powerful individual passion towards the subject very nearly demand that historians focus directly on specific issues and arguments with a very restricted inclusion of varying factors and alternative explanations. As I continued to dig in and hunt for these same answers myself I found many brilliant and inspirational fountains of avid intellectual offerings which seemed to be begging for a universal connection; a fluid link which would not only erase the holes and nagging questions, but highlight these gray spaces in otherwise logical conclusions as indispensable and significant factors lending to the emergence of a final complete historical narrative.

One of the most moving and stimulating articles I have come across in my research is entitled “’Black Shame’ -- The Campaign Against ‘Racial Degeneration’ and Female Degradation in Interwar Europe” written by Iris Wigger, a lecturer in sociology at Loughborough University. Ms. Wigger has put together a fantastic collection of ideas which ratified and encouraged my choice to delve deeper into this specific subject and the whirlwind if issues that came out of the interwar period. The main idea which bursts thru as I read this article was the extreme fear that existed in German society, as well as among many other pockets of European and American groups of people, directed toward the Africans and black immigrants whose presence increased so dramatically during the time of the First World War. After first reading thru my collection of primary sources I certainly had a strong notion of the sense of trepidation and anxiety which permeated European culture at this time in regards to blacks and their influence on white hegemony, but Ms. Wigger forced me to reassess my interpretation of these forces. Her approach shined a tragic light on the depth and reach to which these feelings of racial fear and apprehension had spread inside European social structures, being found within otherwise differing political parties, working-class associations, religious groups, and even women’s groups who perpetuated these feelings. I was compelled to go back to my primary documents and analyze them anew with this fresh sense of racial frenzy and fanaticism guiding my absorption of the material.

The strength of her arguments and observations comes from the fact that colonial history played very heavily upon the minds of Europeans who saw the post-war period as a time when Africans would seek to gain a sense of retribution and revenge against weakened and vulnerable nations in retaliation for the abuses committed during the period of intense slave activity and colonial oppression. This message comes through quite strongly in her description of forced French occupation of the defeated Germans as purposefully humiliating a long-time enemy and taking advantage of the relative positions of both countries after the war. However, I believe there exists an essential flaw in her assessment of the contributing factors behind German racial aggression, namely the implied self-image of weakness and helplessness within and among the German people which they supposedly had of themselves. The long-standing nationalistic view of white supremacy and domination of lesser races is not an idea that could have been so easily defeated and overturned by means of military defeat, and certainly not a defeat at the hands of combined European and predominantly white forces. The use of African troops during the war was most definitely a well-known and highly commented on aspect of battlefield tactics both among the defeated Germans and in racist groups in areas outside of Germany. It would be an extreme stance to take if one were to argue that the German fear of blacks and African culture was based on any overwhelming physical threat of the German nation being overtaken by a military advance made up primarily of black soldiers as a response to slave-related oppression.

I intend to argue that the race-based fear which swept through Germany and other parts of the world was a reaction inspired by the encroaching tide of African culture which had, in the eyes of bigoted white observes, invaded France in the wake of The Great War and taken over with a zealous drive that threatened to spread out to all areas of the continent. This cultural takeover was seen as a spotlight on the weakness of the French people, and as a marker of their inability to or lack of concern in keeping their branch of the undeniably dominant white race pure and undiluted. It was the possibility of inferior cultural seepage from a neighboring nation which threatened the pristine wholesome centers of white glory with being overrun by a savage and uncontrollable people who would muddy and poison their bloodlines beyond any state of conservation. The ever-increasing rise in black individuality and African independence which France offered to soldiers who had fought against Germany in the war stood as an example of the greatest threat to white hegemony, and would lead to the development of the harshest and most racially intolerant political dogma to emerge after the cataclysmic events of the war.

To expand upon this argument and the various other ideas which I feel contributed to the atmosphere of racial hate and bigotry I turn to an article written by Jennifer Anne Boittin entitled “In Black and White: Gender, Race Relations, and the Nardal Sisters in Interwar Paris”. Although this piece was written to relay the tremendous steps which blacks could now take in the realms of politics, popular culture, and overall social participation in interwar France as being a very positive sign for Africans in Europe and setting a foundation for the eventual racial enlightenment which would come decades later, I have chosen to approach the material from the point of view that would have been taken by anti-black groups and influential supporters of continued white dominance. The fact that this piece was written from a liberated and exceedingly supportive vision of the leaps and bounds being made by Africans who had finally managed to breach European society en masse serves as a superlative example of how anti-black groups would have taken a very similar stance when attempting to arouse fear, suspicion, and dread at the onslaught of African presence so very close to home.

The key words mentioned repeatedly by Ms. Boittin which stood out so starkly as I read them were challenged and demanded. The notion of members of the black race reached a point where they could challenge traditionally held beliefs of white superiority and demand changes in favor of their unhindered inclusion in the global environment would certainly have led the most powerful leaders of opposing nations to search for any means by which they could use these developments to their advantage and retain an even stronger grasp on control. Negritude was established not only as a key factor in helping Africans achieve a greater sense of equality and acceptance than they had ever known before, but it was also a dangerous and sinister tool used by people filled not so much with hate as with a craving and unending desire to secure their place in the upper echelons of European society and to garner fervent popular support for their racist and prejudiced ideologies and propaganda. Another important aspect of this subject which seems to be raised solely on one aside of the issue or the other is women’s involvement in the ever-increasing relations between the white and non-white races. Ms. Boittin describes the strong and independent minded African woman who fought for change and far-reaching freedoms, but she fails to approach the outside view of these women as it relates to the consequences of their struggle and rise in influence when used as a ploy in propagandist measures to incite racial hate, intolerance, and fear.

Likewise, Tina Campt approaches the aspect of the female role in interwar race relations quite engagingly in her insightful book Other Germans: Black Germans and the Politics of Race, Gender, and Memory in the Third Reich. Ms. Campt uses startling examples of how women were used by hateful whites to set up African men as the ultimate evil which threatens the continued prosperity of the white races. Her main point of focus is on the occupation of the Rhine directly after the settlements of World War II and the intensely resentful backlash which was caused by this terrible and costly misstep in international policy by the victors of The Great War. Although offering a fantastic glimpse of the German mindset during the time and the ways in which anti-black hatred found its various outlets, Ms. Campt fails to stretch these gender-focused ideals onto other nations and to come to a deeper conclusion regarding the emotional impact of the female spirit on the white male European mind. She goes into great detail on the tendency toward ostracism and loathing created by German women mixing with African men, but denies us a glimpse thru German eyes of the African woman or the supportive French matron. Feelings of disgust toward interracial sexual relations are undoubtedly the primary result in any popularized opinion of the time, however this viewpoint shies too far from the important aspect of black women in France and their role in assuming a powerful partnership with white men and the significance of sexual lust on both men and women. This stance of white male purity may have been the dominating ideal at the time, but a deeper discussion of the impact of liberated females outside of Germany is certainly called for.

Ms. Campt has directed her writing toward the internal workings of the German people and the effect that the defeat in WWI had on German consciousness. This narration is highly passionate and without a doubt offers a tremendous vision of how racial intolerance came to be one of the most dominant aspects of German politics and how the forced presence of black troops along the German borders created an explosive atmosphere wherein the Nazi party was allowed to rise and flourish. The main weakness of this account however is the inability to make the strong connection between the developments going on outside of the German nation and the political workings being manipulated in the German government. I plan to argue that as the National Socialists came into power they developed a policy repressed hate toward local black citizens and increased fear and trepidation towards outside forces. It would have been quite easy for those in power to eradicate ‘diluting’ influences within the national borders, but I argue that they took the stance of allowing these portions of society to fester and grow in the public mind as a constant unaddressed menace which would eventually give them a greater sway over the will of the people. By focusing on the rise of black pressures and movements outside of the nations borders, Hitler’s party could claim total control and assume the position of righteous saviors of the nation against an invading horde of savage and power-hungry blacks. The political strategy of the Nazis was founded on the outside forces which must be faced, and not on the internal threats which had to be eliminated. The purity of the race could not simply be maintained by looking inward and sterilizing mixed-raced German citizens, but the outside peril must be attacked and pushed back. The key to Nazi control lay not in preservation or defensive posturing, but in an all-out offensive blitzkrieg on any and every outside force threatening the realm.

These ideas and arguments are of course in need of strong and powerful first-hand accounts of the interwar period to give them any sense of lasting historical weight. To achieve this I have used two main primary sources from the time to create a vision of the European mindset after the war, and to highlight the dangerously fertile ground that existed for anti-black influences to attain massive amounts of power and public sway as a result of growing African mobility on the continent. The first of these is entitled “The African Roots of War”, written by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois for the Atlantic Monthly. This tremendous piece of primary documentation presents the opinions which reigned throughout European society after the war in which Africans were seen as bringing the white races down to a horrific level of brutality by their involvement in the battles on European soil. Added to these visions of negative influence of European sensibilities was the incredible and darkly imagined specter of possibilities for revenge seen in the increased African presence. These threatening possibilities were expounded upon and spread by hateful groups who wishes to promote anti-black hysteria and forceful expulsion of all Africans from the European continent. This powerful wellspring of racist propaganda stayed imbedded in the European mindset all through the interwar period and would be played upon and brought back to life by hate-mongering forces which would lead Europe right into a second World War.

Another article which provides remarkable support for the arguments I intend to present, as well as serving as a source for a second strong pillar of my presented connections across international boundaries, is entitled “The Colour Problem” by Lord F. D. Lugard. this article not only shows the preponderance of racist ideology and widespread blame in the years following WWI, but expands on these ideals to show the incredible impact which the United States had on the formation of anti-black political parties and their inferred sense of international support. This article very clearly draws a line between anti-black and negritude-like feelings across the European continent. Another important aspect which I lean heavily upon in this article is the notion that no matter what type of relationship was formed between blacks and whites in the post-war period, those in power who sought to use racist ideology as a means of attaining control and popular influence could twist and contort these interactions so serve their purposes. If blacks were embraced by a society such as was the case most notably in France, it could be said that Africans were taking over and replacing white culture with their own. If blacks were shunned and spoken out against as took place in England, these feelings could certainly be played upon to instigate race riots and color-directed violence, and then the ever-increasing problems could be blamed squarely on the presence of blacks in the community. This ability to warp and misrepresent any kind of situation where blacks were involved would serve as the origins to the progression of racial political policy in Nazi Germany and the freedom which those political devils eventually came to possess.

Another aspect which I believe will strengthen my arguments is the burgeoning inclination for former colonial powers to now support libertarian movements in Africa on a level which had never been seen before. I intend to argue that this interesting and quizzical development came as a direct result of increased African presence in Europe and that the secret desire of the forces behind these movements was to create an atmosphere far from European centers of society where blacks would feel welcomed and in control so that they would cease to strive for increased participation and inclusion in European affairs. Of particular insight into this issue in an document entitles “Native Races and Peace Terms” produced by Anti-Slavery International.

Among these larger and more focused primary sources I will also be using newspaper articles and brief editorials from the interwar period to support my stances on how public opinion directed policy during this time, and how the preponderance of anti-black sentiment and hateful movements from Britain to America to Germany and other European nations found support and revitalization in each other and would eventually lead to the formation of an atmosphere in which political leaders felt that they could base their doctrines on anti-black ideals and gain massive undeniable support from the majority of their citizens. By linking the political, cultural, and international changes and developments of the turbulent post-war period in European society I will show how the increased presence of African citizens in Europe led to counter-cultures based on hate, ignorance, and manipulation; forces which would combine to lead the world into another devastating conflict which would have crippling consequences on the Europe and the world that we still feel the reverberations of today.

Wesley Randall