Rostock Ritz

Eva Leitolf
Rostock Ritz

Photographs: Eva Leitolf

Publisher: Shaden

74 pages

Year: 2005

ISBN: 3-932187-46-6

Price: 50 €

Comments: Hardcover, 35 x 30, color photographs. Design by Eva Leitolf. In very good condition other than traces of use on the back cover. Text in English.

A hundred years after the genocide committed by the German colonial troops against Herero and Nama tribesmen, Eva Leitolf takes a close look at the commemorations of the Hereros and the identity of todays Namibians of German origin throwing light on a society that is shaped by resentiment and uncertainty and revealing issues behind national identity.

Later, in the re-enactment of the battle, the leader of the “German colonial troops” screams “Schweinhund, dreckig Schweinhund!”. The spectators laugh. The German soldiers are played by children, while men on horseback represent the Herero warriors. The child soldiers fall down “shot”, while the “injured” are dragged from the battlefield laughing, and the Hereros ride off victoriously to jubilant cries. Wooden rifles are left on the battlefield, and the injured limp across it. The Germans have been defeated, and the horsemen gallop across the field again and again, cheered on by the women.

-Excerpt from Rostock Ritz: 9 April 2004, Ovitoto, Okandjira Battle