A transient presence: black visitors and sojourners in Imperial Germany, 1884-1914

The onset of German colonial rule in Africa brought increasing numbers of Black men and women to Germany. Pre-1914 the vast majority of these Africans can best be described as visitors or sojourners and the Black population as a whole was a transient one. This makes recovering their presence in the archival record exceptionally difficult and it is not surprising that the existing historiography almost exclusively focuses on individual biographies of well documented lives. Through utilising a number of newly digitised archival materials, particularly the Hamburg Passenger Lists, this article draws upon a database with information on 1092 individuals from sub-Saharan Africa who spent time in Germany over the period 1884-1914 in order to add considerable bread and depth to our understanding of the Black presence as a whole. It provides increasing empirical detail about the make-up and character of this fluid population - where visitors came from, why they came to Germany, their age on arrival - as well as more accurate detail on the temporal and, to a lesser extent, spatial distribution of visitors

Njoya’s Alphabet

Shortly before the turn of the century Sultan Njoya of Bamum developed an independent written script to record the history of his people and provide a secure means of communication for royal affairs. The final version of his script, dubbed A ka u ku, was hailed by German colonial authorities as a symbol of intelligence and Njoya’s progressive character. The French initially held equally positive visions of Njoya when they replaced the Germans as Cameroon’s new colonial master in the wake of WWI. By the 1920s, however, their regard for Njoya was replaced by a growing antipathy which eventually led to the sultan’s arrest and exile to Yaoundé. Since the use of A ka u ku declined in the same period scholars have argued incorrectly for decades that it must have been outlawed by local French authorities as part of their campaign to undermine Njoya and curtail his power. In reality, Njoya’s script simply fell victim to inter-war politics and the clear material advantages to those Bamum who acquired literacy in French.Peu avant le tournant du siècle, le sultan Njoya des Bamoun a développé une écriture indépendante pour enregistrer l’histoire de son peuple et fournir un moyen de communication sécurisé pour les affaires royales. La version finale de son écriture, nommée A ka u ku, a été saluée par les autorités coloniales allemandes comme un symbole de l’intelligence et du caractère progressiste de Njoya. Les Français ont d’abord eu une approche positive de Njoya quand ils ont remplacé les Allemands comme nouveaux maîtres coloniaux du Cameroun après la Première Guerre mondiale. Cependant, dans les années 1920, leur respect pour Njoya s’est transformé en antipathie croissante qui a finalement conduit à l’arrestation et à l’exil du sultan à Yaoundé. Comme l’utilisation d’A ka u ku a diminué durant la même période, les chercheurs ont fait valoir à tort pendant des décennies qu’elle avait été interdite par les autorités locales françaises dans le cadre de leur campagne visant à affaiblir Njoya et à limiter son pouvoir. En réalité, l’écriture de Njoya a été simplement victime de la politique de l’Entre-deux-guerres et des avantages matériels évidents accordés aux Bamoun qui ont acquis l’alphabétisation en français

Preoperative Status and Risk of Complications in Patients with Hip Fracture

BACKGROUND: Limited information is available on preoperative status and risks for complications for older patients having surgery for hip fracture. Our objective was to identify potentially modifiable clinical findings that should be considered in decisions about the timing of surgery. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study with data obtained from medical records and through structured interviews with patients. A total of 571 adults with hip fracture who were admitted to 4 metropolitan hospitals were included. RESULTS: Multiple logistic regression was used to identify risk factors (including 11 categories of physical and laboratory findings, classified as mild and severe abnormalities) for in-hospital complications. The presence of more than 1 (odds ratiol [OR] 9.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.8 to 33.0) major abnormality before surgery or the presence of major abnormalities on admission that were not corrected prior to surgery (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.2 to 6.4) was independently associated with the development of postoperative complications. We also found that minor abnormalities, while warranting correction, did not increase risk (OR 0.70, 95% CI 0.28 to 1.73). CONCLUSIONS: In this study of older adults undergoing urgent surgery, potentially reversible abnormalities in laboratory and physical examination occurred frequently and significantly increased the risk of postoperative complications. Major clinical abnormalities should be corrected prior to surgery, but patients with minor abnormalities may proceed to surgery with attention to these medical problems perioperatively