Border Neighbourhoods in Anglo-German Colonial Encounters in West Africa, 1890–1919

In recent years, there has been a flurry of interest in trans-imperial history by analysing the entanglements among the European colonising nations. Using the neighbourhoods on the boundaries between British Gold Coast (Ghana) and German Togoland, this article explores Anglo-German entanglements over colonial and boundary questions, from 1890, when the first border demarcation between German Togoland and the British Gold Coast was concluded at the Treaty of Helgoland–Zanzibar, to 1919, when German Togoland was shared between Britain and France, following the defeat of Germany in the First World War (1914–1918). It highlights the nature of these encounters, their effects on the local populations and the reaction of the border communities to the tension of the imperial conflicts. Drawing on extensive archival research in Berlin, Koblenz, Lomé and Accra, this article makes an original contribution to research on borderlands, trans-imperial history, and the effects of the First World War on the extra-European theatres.