A colonial depiction of human-nature relationships in Johann Krönlein’s Wortschatz der Khoikhoin

Abstract

The 1889 dictionary Wortschatz der Khoikhoin (Namaquahottentotten) by missionary Johann Krönlein purports to provide a neutral depiction of the Nama language and culture through the example sentences accompanying its entries, yet a specific representation of colonial ideology is undeniable. The Nama sentences with parallel German translations had a distinctly negative tone, reflecting constant struggle, not only between people, but between humans and nature. This research argues that an emphasis on and negative depiction of the Nama people’s vulnerability to nature in the dictionary unconsciously served as a mechanism for designating the Nama as uncivilised in a post-Enlightenment Western paradigm, where nature was to be tamed, and civilisation required a separation from nature. In the article, Niklas Luhmann’s communication model and thoughts on systemic observation afford appreciation of the ways in which ideologies in Krönlein’s dictionary contributed to nineteenth century European society’s self-observation. An excerpt from Krönlein’s dictionary is analysed by the researcher and by means of artificial intelligence analysis to uncover the ideologically expressive depiction of Nama relationships with nature at the communicative levels of information and utterance. AI is also employed to allow comparison with a sample from another indigenous language dictionary published around the same time.