Knowing by Ear Listening to Voice Recordings with African Prisoners of War in German Camps (1915–1918)
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Anette Hoffmann is a Senior Researcher at the University of Cologne’s Institute for African Studies and Egyptology. She is the author of Listening to Colonial History: Echoes of Coercive Knowledge Production in Historical Sound Recordings from Southern Africa.Knowing by Ear Listening to Voice Recordings with African Prisoners of War in German Camps (1915–1918)
“Baffling, confronting, and revealing-those are a few of the qualities that struck me as I read Anette Hoffmann’s new book. I read it in one breath but with vicarious shame. Like her <i>Listening to Colonial History</i>, <i>Knowing by Ear</i> makes clear how much undiscovered information about colonial history is waiting for us in sonic archives all over the world. By investigating these sonic archives Hoffmann shows how African prisoners of war were simultaneously misunderstood, mistreated, and dehumanized.” - Marcel Cobussen, Professor of Auditory Culture at Leiden University, the Netherlands “<i>Knowing by Ear</i> is a much-anticipated, urgent study of the coercive recording of African prisoners of war by German researchers during World War I. Challenging the original epistemic frames of this archive, Anette Hoffmann offers a sensitive analysis of the African speakers and their recordings. A highly rewarding read for all interested in war, media, and colonial archives, <i>Knowing by Ear</i> engages close listening, translation, and collaborative research as vital tools for reactivating these fragments today.” - Carolyn Birdsall, Associate Professor of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam
Prologue: Catchers of the Living 1
Fragment 1. Samba Diallo: “The War of the Whites” / "Catcher of the Living"
Introduction: Listening to Acoustic Fragments 11
Fragment II. JÁmafÁda: “The War is Horrible”
1. Abdoulay Niang: Voice, Race, and the Suspension of Communication in Linguistic Recordings 23
Fragment III. Asmani Ben Ahmad: “Once Upon a Time”
2. Mohamed Nur: Traces in Archives, Linguistics Texts, and Museums in Germany 66
Fragment IV. Josef Ntwanumbi: “We are Initiates”
3. Albert Kudjabo and Stephan Bischoff: Mysterious Sounds, Opaque Languages and Otherworldly Voices 101
Fragment V. Mamadou Gregoire: “The Sea Requests Fish from the Rivers”
Afterword: Knowing by Ear 147
Acknowledgments 157
Notes 161
References 183
Index 201
“Baffling, confronting, and revealing-those are a few of the qualities that struck me as I read Anette Hoffmann’s new book. I read it in one breath but with vicarious shame. Like her <i>Listening to Colonial History</i>, <i>Knowing by Ear</i> makes clear how much undiscovered information about colonial history is waiting for us in sonic archives all over the world. By investigating these sonic archives Hoffmann shows how African prisoners of war were simultaneously misunderstood, mistreated, and dehumanized.” - Marcel Cobussen, Professor of Auditory Culture at Leiden University, the Netherlands “<i>Knowing by Ear</i> is a much-anticipated, urgent study of the coercive recording of African prisoners of war by German researchers during World War I. Challenging the original epistemic frames of this archive, Anette Hoffmann offers a sensitive analysis of the African speakers and their recordings. A highly rewarding read for all interested in war, media, and colonial archives, <i>Knowing by Ear</i> engages close listening, translation, and collaborative research as vital tools for reactivating these fragments today.” - Carolyn Birdsall, Associate Professor of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam
Prologue: Catchers of the Living 1
Fragment 1. Samba Diallo: “The War of the Whites” / "Catcher of the Living"
Introduction: Listening to Acoustic Fragments 11
Fragment II. JÁmafÁda: “The War is Horrible”
1. Abdoulay Niang: Voice, Race, and the Suspension of Communication in Linguistic Recordings 23
Fragment III. Asmani Ben Ahmad: “Once Upon a Time”
2. Mohamed Nur: Traces in Archives, Linguistics Texts, and Museums in Germany 66
Fragment IV. Josef Ntwanumbi: “We are Initiates”
3. Albert Kudjabo and Stephan Bischoff: Mysterious Sounds, Opaque Languages and Otherworldly Voices 101
Fragment V. Mamadou Gregoire: “The Sea Requests Fish from the Rivers”
Afterword: Knowing by Ear 147
Acknowledgments 157
Notes 161
References 183
Index 201