German Africanistics and the Investigation of Precolonial Africa's Past (Late 19th – Early 20th Centuries)

The article examines the mechanisms of knowledge production about precolonial Africa in German historiography of the late 19th – early 20th centuries. It demonstrates that German African studies emerged as an integral part of the colonial project, combining the pragmatic tasks of colonial administration and missionary work with the epistemological frameworks of European evolutionism, diffusionism, and racial theories. By reconstructing the map of research centers across various German federal states, the study reveals a direct dependence of the directions and methods of African research on regional economic and political interests. Key institutional structures are analyzed. These institutions not only collected empirical data but also shaped the public image of Africa as a “backward” continent in need of European governance. Special attention is paid to the dominant theoretical paradigms: Leo Frobenius’s theory of “culture circles,” Friedrich Ratzel’s anthropogeography, and Carl Meinhof’s comparative linguistics. Despite the empirical value of the gathered material, these paradigms constructed an image of Africa as a space devoid of autonomous historical subjectivity. The article also traces the evolution of interpretations of the precolonial past – from the outright denial of African authorship of complex cultural phenomena to “decline” theories that likewise served to justify colonial intervention. It is concluded that German African studies of this period constituted an institutional mechanism for the symbolic appropriation of Africa’s past. Its dual legacy poses a challenge for the decolonization of contemporary academic approaches, including the identification of hidden ideologemes, the restitution of cultural assets, and the amplification of African voices in historical scholarship.