Indian Ocean – Transformation of a Seascape
Dr. Katrin Bromber
The project investigates the transformations that re-shaped the
maritime influenced social and cultural landscape (seascape) of
the western Indian Ocean between the opening of the Suez Canal
in 1869 and the end of the Second World War. Following up on the
project "Indian Ocean – Space on the Move", the
focus is now on the flow of people, goods and information that
experienced fundamental change during the period under review.
The project seeks to identify different socio-economic transformations
and to reconstruct overlapping temporal layers and chronologies,
thereby considering the various entrepreneurs. In this respect,
it also studies the spatial re-organization of the Indian Ocean
seascape and its constituent elements.
Travelling through the War. Discursive Strategies for Encouraging
Transoceanic Mobility in the Swahili Military Press of the King’s
African Rifles in World War II
Dr. Katrin
Bromber
The incorporation of the King’s African Rifles (KAR) in
Britain’s military strategies led to an increased mobility
of East African combat units within the Indian Ocean region during
World War II. The necessary changes in Britain’s colonial
and information policies, which were introduced and implemented
from 1940 onwards, form the background for the central question
of the project: what discursive strategies were applied in the
Swahili military press to address KAR soldiers as mobile units
of combat and to legitimize their out-of-area employment. Applying
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the project sets up a typology
of strategic topoi and their linguistic realization. Newspaper
reports criticizing out-of-area employment will be analysed with
regard to the existence of a selected or channelled debate on
KAR mobility, e.g., by the selection of letters to the editor.
Moreover, the project studies the institutional history of the
KAR Swahili military newspapers.
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