Talk:German West Africa

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on German West Africa. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20121010042206/http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/kaiserreich/aussenpolitik/kolonien2/index.html to http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/kaiserreich/aussenpolitik/kolonien2/index.html

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 08:49, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

No valid lemma, delete it
the lemma is phantasy. There was never anything like a "Deutsch-Westafrika". The designation did not exist, neither an administrative unit. The article gives no source for it. The names for 2 companies just say these were German companies trading in West Africa.

The quoted source for Deutsch-Westafrikanische Handelsgesellschaft (1) does not exist; Schnee's book discusses missions in Africa on the quoted pages, no companies. The article can be deleted. Kipala (talk) 09:10, 11 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Sorry I just see that I had already placed the tag here and that the discussion had taken place. Deciding to keep. Mainly on the argument "If German Wikipedia has it, lets leave it..". Ok if anybody could read German (or of those claiming to do it: had read) he/she might have seen the discussion page and the answer of the original author "Gegen eine Umbenennung in Deutsche Kolonien in Westafrika habe ich nichts einzuwenden." (I am ok with a renaming to "German colonies in Westafrica".) So lets do it there first. And let the Amis over here remain with the nonsense. Kipala (talk) 13:15, 5 February 2019 (UTC)
 * Deutsch-Westafrika is gone in dewiki. Remained as a subparagraph in article about German colonies in West Africa. Great that you keep up the Reichsflagge, guys! Kipala (talk) 14:17, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

Still better delete
I took out all (unsourced and because of lack of reality unsourcable) references to an administrative unit named German West Africa which never existed. What remains is the statement that this was a rarely used designation for German colonies in West Africa. If that should have an own article on enwiki I leave to the wisdom of the locals. The German article on dewiki "Deutsch-Westafrika" does not exist any more. Its assembly of historical information about Germany in West Africa looked valuable enough to keep it under "Deutsche Kolonien in Westafrika". The references to a "Deutsch-Westafrika" were removed, and the rare use of the term is presented in an own sub paragraph. Kipala (talk) 06:44, 6 February 2019 (UTC)

No designation for a network
User:Mccapra changed the introductory paragraph to include the claim, that "German West Africa" was the "name given in the late 19th century to the network of German military, naval, diplomatic and commercial interests in West Africa before colonial administration was established in 1884". This is not the case. He has no source to show. To my knowledge there is no example fo the designation before 1884. Later these are extremely rare. It was never used for an administarional entity, even if in the beginning the Kamerun governour was also Commissioner for Togo. These were two different positions held for a shorter time by one person. The fact that the higher court for European affairs in Kamerun was also in charge of European cases in Togo never made it an administrational unit. It is helpful to understand a bit German to get the difference between "Deutsch-Westafrikanische Handelsgesellschaft" and "Deutsch Westafrika". The adjectiv implies German activities directed to Western Africa, the noun combination implies something belonging to Germany in West Africa. Like the Deutsch-Westafrikanische Handelsgesellschaft worked in Kamerun, Nigeria, Togo and the Gold Coast Colony, and the name just means it was a German company trading in the West African area (founded only in 1896). So i change the intro text back to the previous, more correct version. Kipala (talk) 18:51, 26 February 2019 (UTC)


 * Thanks - I'm happy with this change. Mccapra (talk) 19:13, 26 February 2019 (UTC)

Paragraph "Later use of the term 'German West Africa'"
The whole section has to be deleted. Before I delete it I wait 2 days for arguments. 1. All quoted "sources" are not sources but a colorful compilation of internet sites.

2. Everybody is free to check Die deutsche Kolonial-Gesetzgebung (archived copy of the German colonial laws, Berlin 1893). On pp 179 - 281 there are all the laws and decrees pertaining to Kamerun and Togo. Both are handled as clearly separate areas and entities. This comes down to details like in 1886 the governor of Kamerun decrees introduction of the Reichsmark as currency (p. 231) whereas the same change is ordered by the Komissar for Togo in 1887 (p.258).

3. The system of courts is clearly described as institution of an Imperial Court each for Kamerun and Togo, plus a joint Appellate Court for both colonies - which is not the apellate court of Kamerun but the "Kaiserliches Obergericht der Schutzgebiete von Kamerun und Togo" (p.187). Kipala (talk) 20:44, 26 February 2019 (UTC)


 * If your examination of German sources indicates that this section is wrong then no need to wait for two days. Mccapra (talk) 22:25, 26 February 2019 (UTC)


 * By the way I see that the original article on de.wiki has been moved to a new title. One of the reasons for my being reluctant to agree to delete the en.wiki article was that the related German article was intact.  By the same logic if the de.wiki article is now under a new title I have no objection to moving this article to a new title.  My only objection was to the complete deletion of properly-sourced and informative content.  Mccapra (talk) 22:42, 26 February 2019 (UTC)