Kasia Cook and Dr. Hans-Wilhelm Kelling, Germanic and Slavic Languages (HUM)
In Tonga, an archipelago deep in the South Pacific Ocean, German immigrants during the middle and late nineteenth century played an important role in the development of the islands. The presence of businessmen involved in the Copra trade was especially significant, and according to historical evidence, members of the Wolfgramm and Sanft families, both from Pyritz, Pomerania, Prussia were among the most influential. During Germany’s colonial period, race was a primary factor in determining how a person was treated, yet despite European racial prejudice, all three men married Tongan women and eventually became fully immersed in Tongan culture. Regardless of the importance of these families in Tongan history, however, little to nothing is recorded about either them or the racial integration that occurred as they mixed German and Tongan blood. More importantly, there is nothing recorded about how such unions were perceived when these families traveled back to Germany with their mixed-race children. My 2010 ORCA mentored research project was to discover, via an examination of both family and historical records, to what extent racial prejudice in Germany immediately preceding World War II impacted the treatment of mixed-race individuals there from Tonga.
In pursuit of this objective, I traveled to and lived in Berlin, Germany from May to July, 2010. During the time I was there I was actively working each week in libraries and archives in and around Berlin, north-eastern Germany, and western Poland. In addition to working in the archives, my research also focused on interviewing family and other key members of the academic community involved with Tongan-Germans studies to gain insight into and piece together the true history of mixed-race individuals in Germany during this time. In addition to my own BYU mentoring professor, who was an invaluable source of help and support for me, a professor from the University of Hagen in Germany became a prime resource for me as well. Both of these distinguished professors assisted me greatly as I asked questions of the information I gleaned from various sources, and tried to investigate the validity of claims made by family historians. In addition to Dr. Wendt, librarians from various archives and preservation projects helped me find and copy many documents key to my research. As I studied, I was impressed and even surprised by the information I found.
Overall, the answers to the research questions I asked were answered in ways that I could not have correctly hypothesized. Though I had originally guessed that there was probably a great deal of drama that occurred as mixed race Tongan-German children tried to assimilate into German society, the small amount of concrete information I was able to find on this subject actually hints otherwise. According to records from their schools and members of the old communities, most Germans did not even realize that the dark-haired children were really all that different, and if they did know that their neighbors and friends were not “pure-Aryan,” despite what some of their countrymen did to the Jews, Gypsies, and others later, the mixed Tongan- German children were not treated differently or with prejudice. These results to my research are both surprising and fascinating, and they are very important.
According to the information I found by researching, for whatever reason, Polynesians were treated differently than other “savages,” and equated more with the “noble,” American Indian than the dark-skinned African or Chinese “heathen.” Racial prejudices which were so noticeable when Europeans, including Germans, interacted with other races, seemed to fade and even die away when coming into contact with Polynesians. Although my research cannot yet fully explain the reasons why Tongans were treated so much better than the native people in other colonized and non-colonized areas, it begins to open an important window in the history of European and German racial prejudice and integration. Because this research is important to me, I can guarantee that that window will not remain half-open. My findings this summer have paved the way for me to graduate school, and I intend to pursue a Masters degree in German at the University of Auckland in New Zealand while continuing to study Tongan-German ties.
It is for this end, and thanks to my 2010 ORCA mentored research grant, that I have applied for a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the University of Auckland under the direction of Dr. James Bade, the director of the Research Centre for Germanic Connections with New Zealand and the Pacific, during the 2011-2012 academic school year. Based on the importance of my research findings through the ORCA, Dr. Bade has already written me a letter of pledged intent to work with and mentor me as I study at the University of Auckland and with the Centre.
In addition to opening up graduate school opportunities, I was also able to present my research at the Western Regional Honors Conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming earlier this year. As my first conference experience, this event was pivotal in preparing me for future presentations and conferences in my field. And finally, though it is not yet finished, my ORCA research has also led to my honors thesis on this same subject, and which I am writing right now. Submitting, defending, and publishing my honors thesis will provide me with further experience and confidence in the work I plan to do in the future.
I cannot over-stress how grateful I am for the ORCA program. My experiences with it have given me confidence that I can find and contribute valid and even immensely important information to an academic field. Based on the paucity of researchers interested in this field at the moment, I can say that I have become an expert in Tongan-German studies, and as one of the first to explore the history and possibilities there, I am excited to share my interests with a larger community of researchers in New Zealand in the future, and hopefully build an academic discipline from my research now. I am also looking excitedly toward the future and the time when I will be able to give back and contribute both to BYU and the ORCA program. Thank you for this great opportunity.