On the Body as a Site of Inscription of Colonial Domination: a Visualisation of Colonial Hierarchy in Labour and Porter Scenes in German Cameroon

The main argument underpinning this reflection is that the German colonies were increasingly present in the media, photographically, during the Empire. Pictures showed what they looked like, what was growing there, what the living conditions were like and what the colonial administration seemed to be achieving. The aim of this article is to examine the visual mediatisation of colonial relations of domination. My interest is to examine colonial practices of domination as they can be seen in colonial images. Using the example of German colonial images in Cameroon that have labour and porter scenes as their motif, the article shows that the body of the colonised was a place where colonial power was expressed or inscribed. In so doing, colonial labour and porter scenes locate colonialism as hegemonic inscription of Foucauldian power/knowledge on the colonised body.