[Leica] DAS Feature 76: Herrero Gothic

[firkin at ncable.net.au (Alastair Firkin)]

On 23/11/2006, at 9:41, Dante Stella wrote:

>
> A friend is doing her PhD dissertation on the Herrero tribe and its  
> relationship with Germany.  I tagged along on one of the  
> interviews, which took place on a farm (I haven't done the b/w film  
> pics yet, but they will be interesting).
>
> http://www.dantestella.com/past/past76.html
>
> By the way, the traditional dress of the older women is patterned  
> after the dresses worn by German colonial women in the 19th  
> century.  Better picture here:
>
> http://www.dantestella.com/past/past76a.html
>
> I found this interesting given that the Herrero have argued for  
> decades that the German government attempted to commit genocide on  
> the tribe early in the 20th (there is no question that a lot of  
> Herreros were killed by soldiers, but there is apparently some  
> dispute between the Herreros and the German government on whether a  
> decision to kill 'all the Herreros' was a state act or the idea of  
> a rogue German officer).
>
> In a way, things like this are vaguely reminiscent of those old  
> Star Trek episodes where Kirk and Spock would come to planets with  
> societies modeled after Chicago gangsters or Nazi Germany because  
> someone on the planet got ahold of an earth history book.  Or where  
> people said ancient prayers that turned out to be a misquoted  
> version of the U.S. Constitution.  The moral of the story is that  
> you can never go somewhere without leaving something behind!
>
> Dante

Lovely group images and story: at first I was "annoyed" by the  
background, but of course the importance of the "environment" grew on  
me. Thanks

Cheers

Alastair