Restorative Justice, Humanitarian Rhetorics, and Public Memories of Colonial Camp Cultures

The abuses and atrocities committed against indigenous populations during the colonial era are coming back to haunt the old imperial powers. As the idea of retributive justice becomes increasingly popular, former colonizing countries such as Britain, Spain, and the Netherlands are being held to account, through lawsuits and national apologies, for crimes they committed against native populations, requiring them to confront some of the grimmer aspects of their imperial pasts. This comparative study explores attitudes toward the existence of German, Spanish, American, and British concentration camps at the turn of the 19th Century. Through a critical genealogical study of these camp cultures, this text explores how imperialists and anti-imperialists have justified and condemned these camps and analyzes the continued debate on their legality, legitimacy, and necessity. Crucially, the study looks at current disputes between those who wish to revive memories of the struggles faced by Cuban guerillas, the Boers, and the Herero and Nama communities who were the victim of such horrendous atrocities and those who against calls for restorative justice for these crimes.

Marouf Hasian, Jr is a Professor of Communications at the Department of Communications, University if Utah, USA. He is the author of more than 140 articles and book chapters, and he continues to write about the importance of rhetorical histories in 21st Century studies of atrocities, large scale massacres, and genocide. He is especially interested in investigations of the ways that military communities appropriates humanitarian discourses to justify national and international interventions.

1. The Biopolitical Usage of Colonial Camp Systems Between 1896 and 1908 and the Quest For Restorative Justice
2. General Valeriano Weyler, the Spanish 'Reconcentración Policy,' and American Calls for Military Intervention into Cub
3. The 'Faded Flowers' and the Concentration Camps of the Anglo-Boer War
4. The German Konzentrationslager and the Debates about the Annihilation of the Herero, 1905-1908
5. American 'Concentration' Camp Debates and Selective Remembrances of the Philippine-American War
6. (Post)colonial Presents and International Humanitarian Futures: Remembering the Age of the Colonial Camps