Navigating Colonial Orders: Norwegian Entrepreneurship in Africa and Oceania

414 Pages·2015·2.448 MB·English

by  Kirsten Alsaker Kjerland, Bjørn Enge Bertelsen (eds.)

NAVIGATING COLONIAL ORDERS

N C O
AVIGATING OLONIAL RDERS
Norwegian Entrepreneurship in Africa and Oceania
Edited by
Kirsten Alsaker Kjerland
and Bjørn Enge Bertelsen
berghahn
N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
Published by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2015 Kirsten Alsaker Kjerland and Bjørn Enge Bertelsen
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without writt en permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Navigating colonial orders : Norwegian entrepreneurship in Africa and
 Oceania / edited by Kirsten Alsaker Kjerland and Bjørn Enge Bertelsen.
     pages cm
   Includes bibliographical references and index.
   ISBN 978-1-78238-539-4 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-78238-540-0
 (ebook)
    1. Norway—Foreign economic relations—Africa. 2. Norway—Foreign eco-
nomic relations—Oceania. 3. Colonies—Africa—Economic conditions.
4. Colonies—Oceania—Economic conditions. 5. Norwegians—Africa—
History. 6. Norwegians—Oceania—History. 7. Entrepreneurship—Africa—
History. 8. Entrepreneurship—Oceania—History. 9. Africa—Foreign
economic relations—Norway. 10. Oceania—Foreign economic relations—
Norway. I. Kjerland, Kirsten Alsaker. II. Bertelsen, Bjørn Enge.
 HF1566.5.A35N38 2014
 338’.04089398206—dc23
2014018761
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Printed on acid-free paper
ISBN: 978-1-78238-539-4 hardback
ISBN: 978-1-78238-540-0 ebook
(cid:2)
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Maps x
Preface xiv
Kirsten Alsaker Kjerland
Introduction Norwegians Navigating Colonial Orders
in Africa and Oceania 1
Bjørn Enge Bertelsen
Chapter 1 Interconnecting the British Empire: Swedish
and Norwegian Shipping to South Africa,
1850–1914 38
Knut M. Nygaard
Chapter 2 Long-Haul Tramp Trade and Norwegian
Sailing Ships in Africa, Australia and the Pacifi c,
1850–1920: Captain Haave’s Voyages 54
Gustav Sætra
Chapter 3 Liminal but Omnipotent: Thesen & Co. –
Norwegian Migrants in the Cape Colony 79
Erlend Eidsvik
Chapter 4 Business Communication in Colonial Times:
The Norway-East Africa Trading Company
in Zanzibar, 1895–1925 106
Anne K. Bang
Chapter 5 ‘Three Black Labourers Did the Job of Two
Whites’: African Labourers in Modern
Norwegian Whaling 127
Dag Ingemar Børresen
Chapter 6 The Consular Aff airs Issue and Colonialism 153
Svein Ivar Angell
vi • Contents
Chapter 7 Norwegian Shipping and Landfall in the
South Sea in the Age of Sail 173
Edvard Hviding
Chapter 8 Adventurous Adaptability in the South Sea:
Norwegians in ‘the Terrible Solomons’,
ca. 1870–1930 187
Edvard Hviding
Chapter 9 Norwegians in the Cook Islands: The Legacy
of Captain Reinert G. Jonassen (1866–1915) 219
Jon Tikivanotau Michael Jonassen
Chapter 10 From Adventure to Industry and Nation Making:
The History of a Norwegian Sugar Plantation
in Hawai’i 240
Knut M. Rio
Chapter 11 Scandinavians in Colonial Trading Companies
and Capital-Intensive Networks: The Case of
Christian Thams 267
Elsa Reiersen
Chapter 12 Colonialism in Norwegian and Portuguese:
Madal in Mozambique 291
Bjørn Enge Bertelsen
Chapter 13 Norwegian Investors and Their Agents in
Colonial Kenya 321
Kirsten Alsaker Kjerland
Chapter 14 Scandinavian Agents and Entrepreneurs in
the Scramble for Ethnographica during
Colonial Expansion in the Congo 339
Espen Wæhle
Afterword Her og nå (Here and Now): History and
the Idea of Globalization 368
Peter Vale
Notes on Contributors 374
Index 378
(cid:2)
Illustrations
Tables
1.1. Total imports to South Africa, 1904–14, by exporting
countries (in per cent; in GBP). 48
4.1. Overview of chartered ships that departed with timber and
wood for NEAT, Zanzibar, 1894–1918. 114
Figures
1.1. The Swedish and Norwegian tonnage development from
1850 to 1914 (per thousand tons). 40
1.2. Unloading timber in Durban. 42
1.3. The number of Swedish and Norwegian sailing ship
arriving in South Africa, 1857–95. 43
1.4. Sailing vessels in the Alfred Basin, Cape Town, ca. 1880. 46
1.5. Income per ton of loaded Norwegian sailing ships arriving
in South Africa, 1897–1904 (in GBP). 47
2.1. Captain Jørgen Haave with his wife, Anna, and his son on
his lap, together with the crew of Socotra in Rio de Janeiro
in 1912. 62
2.2. The wooden bark Freidig was built at Tønnevold’s yard in
Vikkilen, east of Grimstad in 1897. 65
3.1. The Cape Colony, 1886 (adapted from Noble 1886). 82
3.2. Knysna and its surrounding regions at present. 83
3.3a, b. Manifestations of power and capital: Thesen residence,
‘The Hill’, 1899, and Knysna, 1910. 92
viii • Illustrations
4.1. The Norway-East Africa Trading Company receives a visit
from home. 109
4.2. SS Deka in Dar-es-Salaam: transhipment of timber from
Norway. 113
5.1. The Norwegian factory complex at Porto Alexandre,
Angola, 1913–14. 138
5.2. Spermacet whale on the fl ensing platform at Grytviken,
South Georgia (1920s). 142
6.1. The Norwegian consulate in Zanzibar resided in the
headquarters of the Norway-East Africa Trading Company. 155
6.2. The Norwegian Congo offi cer Martin Engh relaxing with
unknown companions in 1909. 164
8.1. Oscar Svensen and one of the Nerdrum brothers buying
copra at Tavanipupu in the 1890s. 207
8.2. Erik Andersen with wife, children and grandchildren at
home on Mahoro, 2007. 213
9.1. Jon Tikivanotau Michael Jonassen by his grandfather’s
grave, 2012. 229
9.2. Michael and Lily Jonassen with three daughters on board
the Norwegian cruise liner MS Bergensfj ord, at Rarotonga,
1967. 232
9.3. The Betela Dance Troup on tour in Japan, 1971. 236
10.1. Overseeing their new nation, the Knudsens, the Fayes and
the Doles on a recreational tour in Waimea Canyon in 1907. 251
10.2. The Kekaha Sugar Company factory in 1920. 261
11.1. The main offi ce for Société du Madal in Quelimane,
ca. 1906. 275
11.2. Société du Madal constructed narrow-gauge railway
lines, so-called lignes de Decauville, to transport fully
loaded wagons manually from the production sites on the
plantations to ports on the riverbanks. 277
12.1. ‘Province Mozambique’ in 1918, showing Madal’s
possessions highlighted by numbered points to the left . 299
Illustrations • ix
12.2. At Chinde, one of Madal’s plantations. Following the
shelling of coconuts, scraping is done manually, as seen
in this image from Bjørn Enge Bertelsen’s visit in 2007. 307
13.1. Some of the labourers at Yara Estate just before the First
World War. 323
13.2. Ulla Eriksen with her pupils in one of her sewing classes
in the mid-1950s. 331
14.1. In Gothersgade in central Copenhagen, Denmark, A.
Jacobsen’s Naturaliehandel specialized in natural history
specimens and ethnographica. The postcard, with
handwritt en announcements of new acquisitions, was
distributed to Scandinavian museums. 341
14.2. The artillery of the Congo Free State was the largest in
colonial Africa. 357
(cid:2)
Maps
Orkdal / TTTrrrooonnndddhhheeeiiimmm
Meldal /
Orkanger
FINLAND
SWEDEN
NORWAY
BBBeeerrrgggeeennn Helsinki
Oslo
(Christiania)
Stockholm
Tønsberg
Sandefjord Halden
Stavanger Larvik
Arendal
Lillesand Grimstad
SpinMdandalKristiansand
DDDEEENNNMMMAAARRRKKK
CCCooopppeeennnhhhaaagggeeennn
Map 1.  Scandinavia, with relevant locations.