13 Between State Mission and Everyday Life: Private Photographs of East Germans in Mozambique in the 1980s

As the Second World War came to an end, African colonies underwent tremendous political, social, and economic changes. The colonial powers Great Britain and France saw their economic base severely weakened after the Second World War, as newly founded liberation movements in those colonies began to revolt against their colonial rulers. As a result, most of the formerly colonized African countries achieved independence during the 1960s. Each state, however, faced similar problems in its attempt to overcome colonial legacies and to implement well-suited political systems. While few African countries consciously chose a capitalist path, many African governments at least theoretically pursued one form or another of socialism—derived from the assumption that capitalism was an extension of colonialism and imperialism.1 Socialism, therefore, was seen as a way to achieve liberation and future development. Beginning with the armed struggle in 1964, it took the liberation movement Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO) until 1975 to achieve political independence in Mozambique. While British and French colonies followed a classic “neocolonial solution,” Portugal remained uncompromising and refused to surrender its colonies.2 Following the Carnation Revolution in Portugal in April 1974, and the uprising in the other Portuguese colonies Angola and Guinea-Bissau, the colonial power was now unwilling and felt increasingly unable to retain its grip on power; ultimately, this condition, paired with FRELIMO’s struggle for independence, resulted in the sovereignty of Mozambique on June 25, 1975. Though Portugal’s presence in Mozambique was limited to the coastlines and specific trade routes in the hinterland for many centuries, the colonized had suffered greatly under the Portuguese, including from the exploitation of its people and resources to other foreign interests; forced labor and slavery, underdevelopment in the agricultural and economic sectors, illiteracy, malnutri-

tion, tribalism, and racism had turned Mozambique into one of the poorest African countries.³ The experience of Portuguese colonialism, markedb ye conomic exploitation, and the foreseen threat of neighboring anti-communist countries,led FRE-LIMO to direct its political mission towards socialist countries and to establish a "Socialism with aM ozambican face."⁴ One of FRELIMO'sa llies was the German Democratic Republic (GDR)-which, duetothe West German Hallstein Doctrine, itself struggled for state recognition since 1955.First contacts between the GDR's ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED)a nd FRELIMOw eree stablished in the 1960s when the East Germang overnmenta greed to train Mozambican FRELIMOf ighters in the GDR,financed by the Solidarity Committeeofthe GDR.⁵ Additionally, a handful of East German specialists⁶ weres ent to Mozambique to teach in the camps of FRELIMO.⁷ The exodus of Portuguese settlers on the eveo fM ozambique'sp olitical independence left the country devastated with neither trained personnelnor the infrastructure and technicalequipment to reconstruct its economy. Based on the cordial relations established duringF RELIMO'sl iberation struggle, the SED government intensified its collaboration with Mozambique. Those first socialist encounters led to the signingo ft he Treaty of Friendship (Freundschaftsvertrag)o nF ebruary 24,1 979.⁸ Furthermore, they strengthened the relations between the two countries and pavedt he wayf or thousandso f East German specialists and their families who would visit the country over the next ten years.⁹ In the GDR'so fficial discourse, these specialistsa rrived under the prospect of international solidarity.A saconcept,i nternational solid- Saul, AD ifficult Road,3 6-48;I saacman and Isaacman, Mozambique,3 ,2 7 -60.  Isaacman and Isaacman, Mozambique,3 ;S aul, AD ifficult Road,9-31.  See Ilona Schleicher, "Berufsbildung und Wirtschaftsbeziehungend er DDR-Mosambik," in Engagiert fürA frika:D ie DDR und Afrika II,e d. Ulrich vand er Heyden, Ilona Schleicher,a nd Hans-GeorgS chleicher (Münster: Lit,1 994), 179 -180;H ans-GeorgS chleicher, "The German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the Liberation Struggle of Southern Africa," in Southern African Liberation Struggles:C ontemporaneous Documents, 1960 -1994,e d. A. J. Temu and Joel das Neves Tembe (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers,2 014), 507-598.  In the bureaucratic jargonofthe GDR,the term specialist (Spezialist)referredtocitizens working abroad.  Matthias Voß, "Um de nós -einer vonu ns! Gespräch mit Achim Kindler,d er als Lehreri m Auftrag des Solidaritätskomitees der DDR als ersterD DR-Bürgerb ei der FRELIMOa rbeitete," in Wir haben Spurenhinterlassen! Die DDR in Mosambik:Erlebnisse, Erfahrungen und Erkenntnisse aus dreiJ ahrzehnten, ed. Matthias Voß( Münster: Lit,2 005), 34-46.  Schleicher, "Berufsbildung und WirtschaftsbeziehungenD DR-Mosambik," 179 -195.  Form orei nformationo nt he negotiations of the contractl abor accord between the GDR and Mozambique and the sendingofMozambican contract workers (Vertragsarbeiter)tothe GDR see FranziskaR antzsch in this volume. arity was seen as the counter-project to the Western understanding of development aid, and was interpreted as ar elationship among equals; "instead of continuityw ith the past,i te mphasized rupture; insteado fo therness, likeness;i nstead of differentiation, integration; and instead of continuing subjugation, political emancipation."¹⁰ Dependingo nt he work assignments,E ast German specialistsr emained in Mozambique for ap eriod of six months to three years, and weredeployed across the country,with the majority living in the capital Maputo.¹¹ Beyond their solidarity,GDR citizens brought their technical knowledgeoccupations ranged from railwayengineers,mechanics, and bricklayers to teachers, doctors,a nd geologists.E quipped with their cameras,E ast Germanst ook snapshots both at their workplaces and in their domestic environments. Largely, though,t he people who took these privatep hotographs werea mateurs in our current understanding of the word.
While scholars became increasinglyi nterested in the foreign policy of the GDR in the early1 990s, most of the resulting research remained limited to the political and economic sphere.¹² More recent studies have begunt ol ook at the everydayl ife experiences of East Germans, focusingo nt he workinga nd living conditions abroad and the collaborations with their respective counterparts.¹³  Toni Weis, "The Politics Machine: On the Concept of 'Solidarity' in East German Support for SWAPO," Journal of Southern African Studies 37 (2011).  They were divided into three groups: Reisekader (short-term deployment up to six months and business trips), Auslandskader (long-term deployment up to threey ears), and FDJ-Brigadisten (young people from the Free German Youth Brigades,the official youth organization of the GDR). Onlythe Auslandskader and sometimes also the FDJbrigade leaders wereallowed to bring along their families (with restriction). See also Jens Niederhut, Die Reisekader: Auswahl und Disziplinierung einer privilegierten Minderheit in der DDR (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2005) and Informationen über das Kollektivd er DDR-Bürgeri nd er VRM, Botschaft der DDR in der VRM, Maputo 5. 7. 1989,S tiftungA rchivd er Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR im Bundesarchiv, Berlin (henceforth: SAPMO-BArch),D Y3 0/14095.  Some pioneering works worth mentioning areSiegfried Baske and GottfriedZieger, Die Dritte Welt und die beiden Staaten in Deutschland (Asperg: Edition Meyn, 1983); Gareth M. Winrow, The Foreign Policy of the GDR in Africa (Cambridge:C ambridge University Press,1 990); Ilona Schleichera nd Hans-GeorgS chleicher, Die DDR im südlichen Afrika:S olidaritätu nd Kalter Krieg (Hamburg: Institut fürA frikakunde, 1997).  Iris ChristinaO bernhummer, "Experten der 'wissenschaftlich-technischen Zusammenarbeit' der DDR in Afrika:A lltag und Lebensweisenz wischen DDR-Richtlinien und angespannter Sicherheitslage in den 1970er und 1980er Jahren" (diploma thesis,University of Vienna, 2010); Hubertus Büschel,Hilfe zurSelbsthilfe: Deutsche Entwicklungsarbeit in Afrika 1960-1975(Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag, 2014; Alexandra Piepiorka, "Exploring 'Socialist Solidarity' in Higher Education: East German Advisors in Post-Independence Mozambique (1975 -1992)," in Education and Development in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa, Global HistoriesofEducation:Policies,Para-Edited volumes that include interviews with formerspecialists about their experiences in Mozambique established another narrative of the GDR'sp articipation in Africa.¹⁴ Researchers became increasingly interested in the visual representation of everydaylife within the GDR,but have not yetl ooked across the borders of the nation state. While researchers have begun to discuss the representation of international solidarity in official state photographs,¹⁵ scholars have yettomake use of private photographs taken by East Germansd ocumenting socialist encounters, solidarity,a nd the everydayl ife in African and other non-European countries.
In this chapter,Ishow that privatep hotographs are documents of vital importance for the discussion of the GDR'sp articipation in developmenta ctivities abroad, and, more specificallyfor this work, in Mozambique. Firstly,privatephotographs give insights into the different liveso fE ast Germansa nd their individual interactions and entanglements with Mozambicans. They combine apersonal-political messageo ft he state and the photographer'so wn endeavort oa pply international solidarity in thatm oment and space. The everydayl ife (Alltagsleben)¹⁶ thatE ast Germans experienceda broad contrasted with their livesi nt he GDR.Importantly, the privatepictures that East Germans took serveasacounter narrativet ot he existing photographs of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst (ADN)-the main state news agency thatpublished its photographs in various newspapers and magazines.¹⁷ While most of the official photographs only portray the (overwhelminglym ale) specialistsa tw ork, the privatep hotographs, in contrast, portray an umbero fa spectso ft he everydayl ife abroad thatw ere usually absent in the state-official portrayals.I nt his context,amore gendered digms,and Entanglements, 1890s-1980s,ed. Damiano Matasci et al. (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020 perspective becomes visible. Crucially, the pictures illuminate the various roles of women within the concept of international solidarity and their participation in the preservation of aE urocentric idea at home. Women are portrayedo rganizing solidarity bazaars with other socialist countries and undertaking leisurely activities such as knitting Macramé (a knitting technique to createw all hangings, tablecloths,a nd other homef urnishings). And finally,while those photographs are private snapshots, they also show how colonial structures werep erpetuated by the concept of solidarity.The photographs highlight that the state ideologyo fa nti-racism and anti-colonialism did not hold off the whitem ale gaze but rather assumedacertain superiority towards their subjects of interest.
To substantiatemyclaims, Iwill first explore the meaning of photographyas amediumthatreflects on Alltagsleben. In this context,itisimportant to examine the various genres of photographythat wereusedinthe GDR in order to be able to embed privatephotographs in the broader discourse of GDR amateur photographya nd its representation of GDR culture. Secondly, Iw ill discuss the representation of East German specialists and their Mozambican counterparts in official state photographs and how those photographs werec onnected to the understanding of international solidarity and the GDR'ss tate mission. Having set the foundation for the use of photographs to discuss the GDR'si nvolvement in Africa, Iw ill then analyze the meaningo fp rivatep hotographs.D uring ar esearch trip to Germanyin2016,Ireceivedo ver2,000 photographs from my German interview partners who wereo nl ong-term deploymenti nM ozambique in the 1980s. Most of these photos came without caption and can thereforeo nly be discussed on an image-based analysis.T he photographs discussed in this chapter all appear with context provided by my interview partners-as such, a text-based analysis accompanies these photos.T he historical contribution of the aforementioned interviews, however,h as to be evaluated criticallya st hey constitutec onstructions of memoriest hat partlya im to justify one'so wn action.¹⁸ Moreover,Idiscuss photographs of two travel reports published by GDR specialists workingi nMozambique duringthe 1980s. In my analysis,Idifferentiate between work and leisure time, and show the personal lens East Germans applied when taking photographs.Importantly, Iwill also include the types of representation of East German women in those pictures.I nc losing,Itrace colonial continuities in botht he official and privatep hotographs Ih avea nalyzed.

Photographsa saMediumt oD ocument Alltagsleben
The use of photographyasamedium for documenting everydaylife creates arelationship between those people who take and those who view photographs.Pictures taken with acamera are sociallydistinct objects that exist and interact in a certain time and space, moving between the past and the present,and therefore reflect on the social and culturalexperiences of the photographers.They tell stories thata re carried on visually and orally. Photographs are social objectst hat have ac ertain effect in conveying the stories and experiences of the photographers and incorporate real-life experiences,b iographical narratives, and agency.¹⁹ In evaluatingEast German photographs,researchers have mainlyfocused on the artistic or professional photographyp roduced of the SED government.²⁰ Studies on amateur photographs as part of the state'sp roject mostlyr efer to the pictures of Betriebsfotogruppen,p hotographic circles which operated in manys tate-owned companies abbreviated VEBs (Volkseigene Betriebe).²¹ In the 1950s it was the German Cultural Association (Deutscher Kulturbund)a nd the Free German Trade Union Confederation (Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, aka FDGB), which tried to establish amateur photography( Hobbyfotografie)a s part of "photo work in the service of socialism,"-ac lassification thatw as consequentlymeant to also control its people.²² In her book Greif zurK amera, Kumpel!,culturalhistorian Regine Schiermeyer pointsout that in the eyes of the GDR state, amateur photographywas an "organized hobby photographywith an artistic claim."²³ Accordingt oc ulturalh istorian KarinH artewig, the state differentiated between "serious amateur photographers" (ernsthafte Amateure)and "unreflective amateur photographers" (gedankenlose Knipser), who took pictures for their own privateu se.²⁴ The state,h owever,was more interested in the "serious amateur photographers" who took pictures for their Brigadetagebücher,the brigade journals thatdocumented the work of the brigade collective.²⁵ In contrastto official GDR photographers, the so-called "unreflective amateur photographers" weret hosew ho took photographs without ap rimarily socialist intention, and whose pictures were thereforec onsidered meaningless products.
Researchers have maintained the division between professional and amateur photographs in so far thatthe formerare embedded in the narrative of presumed socialist success and achievement.²⁶ But it was the "unreflective amateur photographers" who provided their own projections,w ith niches and forms of expression becomingincreasinglyimportant.Art historian Catherine Zuromski defines these privatep hotographs as snapshots that do not belong to ac learly defined genre. A "subjective purity" differentiates them from other photographic genres and challenges the notion of ad efined style or conventiono fa ny kind based on the plentiful number of photographs and the paradoxesthey present.²⁷ In the caseo ft he GDR,thosep ictures are individual, non-normative,a nd unexpected, therefore, in completecontrasttothe regime of control and standardization that the East German regime implemented. What makes them so interesting, moreover,i st hat they are not professionallys hot rather sometimes blurred or improperlye xposed. Most important is the setting in which they are "viewed, touched, framed, exchanged, discussed, remembered, collected, and, on certain occasions,d efaced."²⁸ By embedding them into social conventions and cultural patterns,the photographs document special events within the sphere of the individual, the family, or immediate relativesand friends. They follow achronology  Schiermeyer, Greif zurK amera, Kumpel!,12.  Hartewig, "Einleitung," 10.  See GerhardH enniger, Zur gesellschaftlichen Wirksamkeit der Amateurfotografie in der DDR: Hinweise und Erfahrungen (Berlin: Dt.K ulturbund, 1965), 5 -6. Brigadetagebücher werealso kept abroad by the friendship brigades of the FDJworkinginAfrican countries like Mali, Guinea, Zanzibar,a nd Angola. On the Brigadetagebücher of various friendshipb rigades working in Angola see Paul Sprute in this volume.  Hartewig, "Einleitung," 11.  Catherine Zuromski, Snapshot Photography:The Liveso fI mages (Cambridge:The MITP ress, 2013), 8 -9.  Zuromski,Snapshot Photography,48. that reveals the everydayl ife of the photographers and the people being photographed.

The Powero fI mages:O fficialS tate Photographs
In a1 988 interview conducted with the Horizont-aw eeklym agazine reporting on international politics and economy-Kurt Seibt, chairman of the Central Revision Commission of the SED and Chairman of the Solidarity Committeeo f the GDR,spoke about the importance of promotingsolidarity with other peoples and nations. While the GDR alreadyhad ahistory of almost three decades of solidarity aid in African, Latin American, and Asian countries,S eibts tressedt he continuingeffort to anchor the idea of solidarity with those countries in the consciousnesso ft he East German population. Although ac ontinuous increase in public donations was fundamental to the solidarity campaigns, it was also considered important "thatthe unifying idea of solidarity is supported in all collectivesa nd in all families. This is even more effective […]w hen we bring our citizens closer to the struggle, the sufferingand hopes of the people of Asia, Africa, and Latin America."²⁹ In this sense, photographs became an important part in showing the struggle in those countries firsthand.³⁰ Besides depicting poverty and destruction in the aforementioned regions,which Susan Sontag describes as a "gazing on other people'sreality with curiosity but also detachment"-these photographs alsoh ighlighted East Germana ccomplishments.³¹ Showing one'so wn accomplishment was not an ew concept and had alreadya ccompanied the intrusion of Europeans before the advent of colonialism.³² In this context,p hotographyw as useda satool "through which Europeans soughttoestablish, stabilize and disseminate conceptsabout African pasts and imaginaries about African futures."³³ Photographs served as documentation of the work of missionaries in Africa, includingt heir construction of missionary schools and hospitals. Photographs also served to legitimate and illustrate one'so wn missionary work abroad and wereu sedt or aise donations in the homec ountry.³⁴ As scholars Richard Vokes and Darren Newburys tate, "the photograph'sorientation towards the future emergesnot onlyfrom the semiotics of their representations but also from the ways in which they are circulated and deployed."³⁵ It is thereforen ot as urprise that thosec oncepts continued to exist with decolonization and postcolonial independence in the making following the Second World War. While the Cold Wars aw an arms race between the East and West,i ta lso highlighted competingi deologies.W ithin this rivalry, both the United States and the Soviet Union used photographya sp art of their mission in Africa. The resulting images werem eant to represent solidarity in building af uture that each country had in mind for its African "recipient country".³⁶ The GDR engageditself in shaping narratives. Solidarity in the GDR was supposed to be everyone'sconcern, and therefore had to be staged accordingly. The "stagingofh elp" on television and in newspapers and magazines promoted, on the one hand, the willingness of the population to donate.Onthe other hand,it promoted political and ideological education.³⁷ Portrayals of encounters involving socialist assistance and support werep ersonalized by the faces of East German specialists and the friendship brigades (Freundschaftsbrigaden)o ft he Free German Youth, or FDJ(Freie Deutsche Jugend). As historian Hubertus Büschelar- gues, the photographs of the specialists' work abroad created an arrative of the "developed" GDR with a "still-in-development" Africa.³⁸ Accordingt oh istorian JürgenO sterhammel, the "civilizingm ission" (Zivilisierungsmission)f rom colonial times carries on into the present day.³⁹ During the ColdW ar,t he civilizing mission transformed into an ew developmental strategyo fs trategic support, the Hilfe zurS elbsthilfe or solidarity for self-help, in order to createalasting order of ideologies from the supporting countries.⁴⁰ Education and training was the focus of the GDR'sd evelopmentp olicies and the success of such solidarity projects was documented in the state'snewspapers and magazines. Photographs depicting East Germans with their counterparts often showed East Germans explaining the handling of machinery and equipment to Africans, all while the latter appeared to be watchingc losely. Africans are thereby depicted as the ones who must pave the path to modernity,tocatch up, and to make progress.⁴¹ This is the very same narrative Büschel describes for the West German specialistsw ho appeared in scientific journals and newspapers.T he photographs also connect to patterns used in the GDR'sr epresentation of work and its worker in the 1950s, in which we often seeanexperienced worker explaining something to his colleagues gathered around him. The speaker usuallyp oints with ad istinctive hand gesture at the discussed object,s uch as ap art of am achine. As art historian AgnetaM aria Jilek further notes,t hese types of images werem eantt oe stablish an authentic atmosphere of an ewlyc reated world.⁴² The themeo fl abor as ar epresentation of establishing socialism and economic wealth was alreadyi ncorporated in the state'sa rt photographyi nt he GDR in the 1950s.I nd oing so, the human being was seen as am ajor playeri n the construction of the socialist society and state.⁴³ Thisimagemotif and the creation of the "New Man"-the development of an ew socialist personality-were also being used for the development work in African countries.Within these representations,t he East German worker was seen as as ymbol for the successful  Hubertus Büschel, "In Afrikah elfen: Akteurew estdeutscher 'Entwicklungshilfe' und ostdeutscher 'Solidarität' 1955-1975," in Dekolonisation: Prozesse und Verflechtungen 1945  implementation of socialism, whose role now wast op ass on the achievements to Africans. Mozambique'sfirst president SamoraMachel was eager to adapt this model since he himself believed thatthe country needed afresh start by shaking off the shackles of colonialism and focusing on the future and the community to rebuild the country.The internationallyd eployedf riendship brigades-who exported the GDR'ss ocialist worker-weret hereforeafavored imagem otif in the representation of the personified developmentw ork; theirw ork was not expressed as acontribution of the individual, but as arepresentation of the collective.⁴⁴ Images of men at work served not onlya sastatement of productivity,b ut also as ar epresentation of international solidarity.The East German specialists depicted in official photographs embodied this international solidarity and assistance themselvesand served as apersonification of development cooperation in away that GDR citizens "back home," who donated money for the cause,could identify with. Personal stories and experiencesw erer arelyr eported in the East German press,a nd if so, onlyi ns maller local newspapers.⁴⁵ The photographs in newspapers and journals usuallys erved as the visual background to report on the merits of the GDR in the development of cooperation.⁴⁶ It was important to show the East Germand onors that GDR specialists utilized theirm oney in a useful and monitored way.⁴⁷ Authenticity also became an indicatorf or the definition and representation of the "other".Asalreadymentioned, in addition to the motif of the work, which shows the achievements of the GDR,i mages of the local population also appeared in these newspapers and magazines. The camerac aptured everything that might be of interestt ot hose at home who supported the solidarity efforts. Those photographs depict the local population in their everydayactivities, sometimes staged with people standing in front of their huts, children presentingselfmade toys,orchildren sitting around at able playing with donated toys they receivedf rom the Solidarity Committee. Fort he most part,t he photographs also meant to show the culturaldifferences, for instance children dancing in their traditional costumes.Itwas the GDR thatdefined how Mozambique and its citizens would be represented and, moreover,what needed to be seen. The cultural dif- ferences as presented in those photographs continued to createapicture of colonizer and colonized.⁴⁸

The Powero fI mages:E veryday LifeA broad
Most of the official state photographs were taken by professionals who weresent to Mozambique by the ADNtodocument the GDR'sprojects abroad.Their job assignments werep reciselyd efined, with usually one place and one project to be visited duringt hat time. In contrast,p rivatep hotographs took on ac ompletely new meaning,a st hey not onlya llowed amateur photographers to be their own narrators,but also illustrated how thoseamateur photographers positioned themselvesa nd others in the context of the political,s ocial,a nd cultural environment in Mozambique. This "other view" moveda wayf rom the state propaganda imaget owards the portrayal of the everydayl ife of the individual. In this context,t he presented themes, the origin of the photograph, the time when the photograph was taken, and the historical background playedd ecisive roles in narrating these photographs.
Based on the owners of the photographs Ireceivedand the subjects depicted in these photographs,one can assume that it was usuallythe East German men who had their cameras with them at work or when traveling through the country. The main reason for this was the numberofEast German mendeployed abroad, which exceeded the number of women working.⁴⁹ However,aninteresting question that deservesf urther research is the question of the male and femaleg aze and if there was ad ifferencei nt he pictures taken by women compared with those taken by men. Most of these privatep hotographs weret aken as souvenirs to document the workplace and surroundings in Mozambique, and later shared with friends, familyo rr elativesi nt he GDR.S omeo ft he photographers also showed their picturesi np resentations at school or at work after they had re- turned. Forthis purpose, the photos wereusually developed as slides to facilitate projection.⁵⁰ Although color films weree xpensive,m ost of the photos displayed appeared in color.Usually, the film rolls were broughthome undevelopedduring vacation in the GDR or weregiven to other East Germans who went home for vacation or whose time abroad had come to an end. Thisp rocedureb ypassed the formal requirement of the state to have all correspondence (for security reasons) sent through the dispatch of the embassy,aswellasrandom checks for material that the GDR state might find inappropriate and counterproductive for its display of solidarity.⁵¹ The photographs Ia nalyze span over ap eriod of teny ears and show recurring similarities in themes that reflect everydayl ife of East Germans in Mozambique. Based on thoses imilarities, photographs can be roughlydivided into the following categories: familyl ife, work and labor,l eisure activities, work collective,n ature, and representation of the local population. Fort his contribution, If ocus on the themes of familyl ife, work and labor,l eisure activities, and representation of the local population. Ia rgue that these photographs must be viewed in the context of the place and time of the deployment,t he profession of the East Germans, and abovea ll, the interest behind the motifs. Due to their work assignments, some East Germans traveled more frequentlyt hano thers throughout the country,a nd thus had more opportunities to capture their varyingi mpressions with the camera. As the internationallys upported civil war in Mozambique spread in the mid-1980s, excursions into the countryside consequentlyd iminished. Theset rips came to ac ompleteh alt with the vicious attack on nine GDR agriculture specialists on December 6, 1984,i nw hich eight of them died.⁵² They had worked at one of the state farms in Lichinga and werea mbushedw hile leaving their homes to drive to the nearby farm they worked at.A fter this event,t he fear for the safety of the East Germans increased. As ar esult, the photographs that depicted travels of East Germans in the country decreased and photographs of the privates phere came more to the fore. What the photographs also show in thatrespect is how the safety mea- All of the photographs Ir eceivedf romm yi nterview partners came as slides.  Interview with former specialist B. about the mailingoffilm material back to the GDR,conducted on June 2, 2016 in Berlin.  MonikaSmardz, "Bis zu jenem TagimDezember  sures⁵³ of the GDR impacted the everydayl ife of East Germans, especiallyw hen traveling or exploring the city.The photographs provethat East Germans always had to travel in groups,never alone. The existing tensepolitical situation prohibited individual explorations. Therefore, East Germans not onlyp hotographed their workplaces,t heirh omes or luxury goods-which they could purchase at the Intershop, as tate-run retail storeo ffering high-quality products made in GDR and western goods-but also the attacks or assaults on their workplaces. Forexample, there are numerous photographs of the Beira-Machipanda railway line, where the tracks and ab ridgew erec onstantlyb eing destroyed. They also photographed gatheringsa nd privatep artiesw ith Mozambicans, contacts that they were not officiallya llowed to have.⁵⁴

The Photographer: The Moving Self
While official state photographs provide avery clear and defined portrayal of development work by depicting projects on sitea nd their impact on the Mozambican society,privatephotographs offer personal insights into the livesofEast German specialistsa nd their relationships with their Mozambican colleagues. In some of these photographs,t he viewers are presented with group shots in which they can learn about the workinge nvironment and which encourage them to reflect on stories of collaboration and friendship. Figure 1shows agroup shot of 14 Mozambican students with their East German teacherRainer Grajek posing in front of the Centro de Formação dos Instrutores,the Trainee Center for Teachers in Maputo. Grajek wassenttotrain the students to become teachers in history and Marxism-Leninism.⁵⁵ After as uccessful completion of the course, the students weret hen sent out to the countrysidet o teach their own classes. It is noticeable to the observer that most of the students are men. The photograph also shows two younger children, ababy restingonthe  Mitteilung der Abteilung Auslandsdienstreisen Nr.0 2/1988, Schulungsmaterial zu den "Grundsätzen und Hinweisen für die Vorbereitungd ienstlicher Reisen und für das Verhalten vond ienstlich im Ausland weilenden Bürgern der DDR," SAPMO-BArch,D C2 0/11976.  Mitteilung der Abteilung Auslandsdienstreisen Nr 02/1988, SAPMO-BArch, DC 20/11976.  When Grajek first met the national directorfor the cadretrainingprogram in the Ministry of Education, the director explained to him that the country was in need of teachers.O ne of the requirements to train good teachers is the availability of qualified instructors. It was for this very reason that Grajek was sent to help train those cadres; Rainer Grajek, Berichte aus dem Morgengrauen: AlsEntwicklungshelfer der DDR in Mosambik (Großbothen: Bücherwerkstadt&Verlag UteV allentin, 2005), 64.For further details on Grajek'sdeployment in Mozambique see also Piepiorkaa nd Buanaissa in this volume. arm of the East German instructor and ayounggirl standing in front of her mother.The woman is also the mother of the baby as can be inferred from the fact that she looks to the sidet ocheck on her child. She smiles comfortablyasshe looks at the East German holding her baby.I nh is memoir Berichte aus dem Morgengrauen,w el earn about the special relationship between Grajek and that woman, Madalena Lhomulo. Growing up in the countryside, Lhomulo decided to attend missionary school in Lourenço Marques (todayMaputo) whereshe finished the fourth grade in 1972. Due to racialdiscrimination, she onlyfinishedthe introductory course in the secondary school she attended. She soon gotmarried and gave birth to her first child. In 1976,s he decided to go back to school while pregnant with her second child. After the birth of her third daughter in the 1980s, her husband decided to separate since she had not born him as on. While they werestill living together,she gave birth to another child in 1982, this time aboy. However,the husband abandoned the familyshortlyafter which left her alone to take care of their children. To make ends meet,s he picked up evening courses and taught in several schools in Maputo. It was also in 1982 when she decided to join at raining program to become an official teacher.D uring this time, she also gave birth to the baby featured in the photograph. Grajek and Lhomulo be- came very close duringt he time of the training.B oth had children of the same age-acommonality that served as astarting point beyond the regular conversation of homework and work material. She started to take her newborn with her to classes, sometimes accompanied by her younger daughter who looked after her son while she was in class. Grajek and his wife visited Lhomulo several times at the boardings chool wheres he stayeds ince she wasn ot able to go back to her house in the Maputo suburbsd ue to war conflict.Grajek was impressed by her energy to juggle the many responsibilities she had to endure, which might have been the reason that he reached out to her.H ew as aware of her struggle and described it as such in his memoir: "It seemed likeshe was carrying an invisible weight on her slender,a lways bent,s houlders.
[…]W hen she spoke one recognized optimism and confidence. When youl ooked into her eyes, youc ould also see fear."⁵⁶ Because women weree xpectedt of ulfill the traditional role of caretakers, it is not surprising to see so few women participating in such courses.
Grajek wanted her to be successful because he sawher potential. Thegroup pictures,h owever,a llow us to reflect on another aspect of representation; they are never meant to be for the Mozambicans, but rather for the East Germanstodraw attention to their studentsand apprentices.Those photographs not onlyvalidated theirwork abroad but also depicted the "other" again in the binariesofteacher and student,and thereforeplayedanimportant role in the portrayal of the relationships between the subjects.
Occasionally, the East Germans also had portraits taken of themselves. For the majority of the East Germans, the impressions and experiencesthey captured in photographs contrastedw ith theirl ives in the GDR.B eing aware that their work and travel abroad was ao ne-time opportunity from which most East Germans wereexcluded, the urge to document life abroad in all its details is understandable. With photographs,every important moment was captured as evidence and memory for laterwhen they would have alreadyr eturned home. Other photographs document the East Germans individuallyorw ith their families in their homes. While most of the East German specialists-who were deployed up to three years-werea ccompanied by their spouses with or without children, it also happened that the husband left for Mozambique first,followed by his family soon after.I twas sometimes alsothe case that his wife and children had to stay behindduringthe time of his employment.Inthis situation, photographs added avisual elementtothe letters that weresent home. However,inthe next photo- "Sie schien eine unsichtbareL ast aufi hrens chmalen, stetse twas gebeugtenS chultern zu tragen. […]. Wenn sie sprach, erkanntem an ihreZ uversicht.W er in ihre Augen blickte, sah, dass in ihnen auch Angst wohnte." Grajek, Berichte aus dem Morgengrauen,7 6. graph, the East German who worked for the CFM (Caminhosd eF erro)i nB eira, the Mozambican Ports and Railways authority,had to travel occasionallytovarious places in the hinterland to help with the installation of railroad tracks.
In Figure 2wesee the man sitting at the table and eating.The table is set for onlyone person. He is cautiouslys miling into the camera, readyt od ig into his food thatwas prepared for him by aMozambican cook. The picture was taken in one of the housesinIfloma, awoodwork factory in the small town of Messica in central Mozambique, which was turned into aguesthouseafter the Swedish specialists-who had built thosehouses-unexpectedlyleft.I tisaprivatemoment, aportrait photograph, meant to serveasevidence that everything was going well abroad and that wife and familyathome did not have to worry about their husband and father.A lthough thosep ictures mainlyserved ap rivatep urpose, they also show that the local supplyi nt he northern and central region of Mozambique was more thansufficient with enough meat,f ruits, and vegetables at hand. It was the coastal region neighboring Beirat hatd id not receive supplies due to the destruction of the Moatize-Beirar ailroad and thereforef ailed to delivert he basic necessities.⁵⁷ While the East Germans wanted to support as manyp rojects as possible, the attacks of the resistant movement Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (RENAMO), and the small number of specialists workinga ti nstitutions like the CFM, rendered them unable to sufficientlyf ulfill the needsf or help and assistance. In fact,t he coal production in Moatizes tarted to decrease in 1982, and the installation of the textile factory in Mocuba,aswellasthe railroad corridor Beira-Moatize, weren ever fullyc ompleted.⁵⁸

WhereA re the Women? Between Absence and Presence
So far,studies of East Germans abroad have mainlybeen devoted to the labor of male specialists.⁵⁹ Even though women worked as doctors,n urses, and teachers in Africa, their voices remain silent in the portrayal of mostlymale specialists in official state photographs.⁶⁰ This one-sided view of the male specialists in the workplace is challenged by privatep hotographs.A lthough the photographers werep rimarilym en, they made East German women in Mozambique visiblein their workplace, domestic environment,a nd with friends or at outings. One of the main privileges enjoyed by long-term East German specialists was the opportunity to bring their families with them. The prerequisitew as that they met certain conditions,such as that they onlybrought children under or aboveacertain age, werel oyal to the party and in good health. Women who accompanied their husbands on their work assignments were labeled as "accompanying spouses" (mitreisende Ehepartner). Although this term was theoreticallyf or both men and women, it became apparent over the years that thoseco-travelling  Heide Künanz, "Das Steinkohleprojekt Moatize zwischen solidarischer Hilfeleistungu nd kommerziellem Anspruch," in Die DDR und Afrika:zwischen Klassenkampf und neuem Denken, ed. Ulrich van der Heyden, Ilona Schleicher,a nd Hans-GeorgS chleicher (Münster:L it,1 993), 174 -191;M atthes, "Die Beziehungend er DDR zur Volksrepublik Mosambik in der Afrikapolitik der DDR," 39 -52.  Although material on women'swork as specialists abroad is rare,the women'smagazine Für Dich published on womenworking within the FDJfriendshipbrigades, for example aportrait of FDJbrigadier Margitta Bernstein whoworked as anurse in Angola, Für Dich 30/84, "VomGlück helfen zu können," 27-29.  In her 2014 book Mocambique -Marcou-Nos Para AVida. Grupo de Mulheres Internationalistas 1980 -1984,E lisa Fuchs interviewed 15 women whow orkedi nM ozambique as doctors, teachers,u rban planners,l awyers,r esearchers, economists,a nd as professionals in ministries and public services. Not one of these women was from the former GDR.F uchs is, however,s o far,the onlyone writingabout the deployment of women and their accomplishments in Mozambique. familym embers remained mostlyw omen. The photographs show that the accompanying wivess haped how East German men understood theire xperience in Mozambique. Photographs outside the homew ereu sually connected to the work environments of the husbands.I nc ontrast,p hotographs inside the home werelimited to women and their roles as housewivesand mothers. These photographs typicallyf ocused on raising children, cooking, or meeting with other women. Photographs of women taking care of their children at home or during outdoor activities are as ymbol of all-round childcare, ad istraction for women duringt he dayw hile theirh usbands werea tw ork. It was ar are occasion that women also worked as specialists if therew erec hildren in the household. This housewife existence( Hausfrauendasein)c ontrasteds harplyw ith the situation in the GDR,wheret he state expected women to work, and wherec hildren attended public kindergartens.⁶¹ The photographs also created an imageo fa n GDR idyll abroad includingt ypical East German activities, customs,a nd traditions, with children playing with an imported toy shop (Kaufmannsladen), the documentation of the first daya ts chool with as ugar cone (Zuckertüte)i n hand, or an Eastere gg hunt (Ostereiersuche) in springtime. They show the clear assignment of genderr oles within the marriagea nd seemingly fail to show the wayi nw hich women also contributed to the success or preservation of the projects in place. Instead, the viewer gets the impression of ap rotective and patronizinge nvironment,which is reinforced by the man as photographer and decision-maker of the imagem otifs. The photographs show how men wanted to document women in this way, not how women experienced theirl ives in Mozambique.
Despite the male gaze of the privatephotographs that presented women in a domestic role, afew photographs showed East German women'sa ctivism in the premise of solidarity.F igure 3i sacollection from ap hoto album with various photographs stacked together on one page. Adetailed look reveals thatthis collection did not depict one event but rather shots taken at various solidarity bazaars and events organized by these women. The solidarity events werecelebrations in which so-called "solidarity packages" sent by the DFD,the Democratic Women'sLeagueofthe GDR,wereofficiallyhanded over to the OMM, the Organization of Mozambican Women in the presenceo fm embers of the nationals ec- While it is difficulttoget an exact number of how manymen and women worked in Mozambique, archival material from the Federal Archive in Berlin such as Kaderakten and minutes of party meetings show ap redominantlym ale presence. Most of the specialists in consulting positions werem en while women filled the jobs of secretaries,t eachers, doctors,a nd nurses. retariat of the OMM in Maputoa nd the FRELIMOp arty.⁶² Other events, such as those seen in Figure 3, wereo rganized by East German women who had accompanied theirh usbands to Mozambique.
The abovep hotograph depicts ag roup of East German women standing in front of the East German flag.They are participating in the annual solidarity bazaar at Maputo'sm ain exhibition site. Every embassy had set up abooth to collect money.E ast Germanwomen sold clothing that they had broughtb ack from the GDR while on vacation.⁶³ The women stand in what seems to be their booth, proudlypeering into the camera. Another photograph, which was usedasapostcard, givesf urther information about what these women did: "This was your mom in action at the solidarity bazaar of socialist and sympathizingc ountries while decoratingand setting up the booth. The otherperson here is the director of Intercoop,who coordinated the whole thing as the advertising expert.Wewere sweating which, fortunately, youcan'tsee. But what youc an see is your mother  Zusammenarbeit des DFD mit der Organisation der Mocambiquanischen Frau (OMM), Delegationsaustausch -Solidaritätssendungen, 1986-1988, SAPMO-BArch, DY 31/1461.  Interview with former accompanyingw ife L.,c onducted on April 27,2 016 in Petershagen. aging ( unfortunately)."⁶⁴ This postcardwas senttoone of the women'sc hildren who had stayedathome. Instead of sending aletter thatwould describethe day of the solidarity bazaar,s he decided to illustrate the event in form of ap hotograph as ad ocumentation of her being "in action." Informingt he children about their mothers' work abroad showed that the East Germanw omen in Mozambique understood themselvesaspart of the political project of promotingsocialism and did not see themselvesa sm ere domesticc aregivers.

Mozambiquea nd Mozambicans
As mentioned previously, official photographs taken by photo agencies played into the GDR'sc oncept of solidarity and willingness to donate to legitimize its expatriates' work abroad.Representations of Africa and Africans in photographs and texts gave the GDR an opportunity to have their citizens reflectu pon their own privileged living conditions,e speciallyi nt imes of crises, when East Germans would disapprovet he state'sp olicies or travel restrictions. The interplay of inferiority and superiority became particularlyi mportant through the representation of the "Other."⁶⁵ Like the Soviet Union, the GDR struggled with its presence in Africa and the complex entanglements of race, exoticization, otherness, and stereotyping when the ideology-internationalism, solidarity,and humanist communism-clashed with realities on the ground.⁶⁶ So, how do the privatep hotographs fit into the concept of "othering"?A nd how were Mozambique and Mozambicans portrayed in the photographs?I nh is 2011 book Unter Moçambicanern: Arbeit -Leben -Abenteuer,1 979 -1985,U do Heiland, an East Germans pecialist who worked for the planning commission in Maputo, describes one of his encounters with Mozambican women as follows: "As Istarted to take picturesofthem, they gotcranky and Istopped. There would  "Das war EureM utter in Aktion beim Solibasar der sozialistischen und sympathisierenden Länder beim Ausgestaltenu nd Aufbaud es Standes.D er andereA kteur ist der Leiter Intercoop, der als Werbefachmannn atürlich den Huta ufhatte. Wiewir dabei geschwitzt haben, sieht man leider nicht,a ber wie EureM uttere ben auch älter wird( leider)." Postcardf romL .t oh er children, dateu nknown, privatea rchive.A uthor'so wn translation.  Stuart Hall, "Die zweiParadigmen der Cultural Studies," in WiderspenstigeKulturen: Cultural Studies als Herausforderung,e d. Karl H. Hönring and Rainer Winter (Frankfurt/M.:S uhrkamp, 1999), 13 -42.  Quinn Slobodian, "Introduction," in Comrades of Color: East Germany in the Cold WarWorld, ed. Quinn Slobodian (New York: Berghahn Books,2 015), 3. be another opportunitylater.Some black people at the beach seemed to be more open-minded. They sat in the wateruptotheirbellyand chuckled like children. (…)O ne of those beauties even spokeafew words of German."⁶⁷ As Heiland'so bservation shows, there was no need for avisual representation to imagine the described scene. Abovea ll, this statement clearlyi llustrates how manyE ast Germanm en chose their photo subjects and how they captured them. In that context,t he photographs support Susan Sontag'sa rgument that the camerai saweapon that can "intrude, trespass,d istort,a nd exploit."⁶⁸ The East Germans' photographs illustrate thatt aking pictures is more than just an innocent encounter.I nstead, the encounter between the photographer -the GDR specialist on the one side and the Mozambican being photographed on the other-resembles ap hotographic assault,a ni nvasion, in which the Mozambican women and men are at the photographer'smercy. The general interest of getting to know the "Other" has not remained merelyinsilent observation, on walks, shopping in the city,orwriting about what those specialists experienced. Instead, everything is documented in photographs.They show what the feminist and film scholar Ann Kaplan meant in distinguishing between twoc oncepts of observing someoneo rs omething:t he "look" and the "gaze".While the former can be attributedt oaprocess of seeing and observing in aw ay to understand one'sown surroundings and relations to people, the latter receivesspecial attention in ap ostcolonial discourse. The gaze here describes a "one-ways ubjective vision."⁶⁹ As an active process, the gaze consumes the subject'so wn anxiety, whereby the object becomes at hreat.⁷⁰ In particular,t raveling promotes an awareness of one'so wn national identity: "People'si dentities when they are traveling are often more self-consciouslyn ational than when they stayh ome. In addition, travel provokes conscious attention to gender and racial difference."⁷¹ In their travels and excursions to the countryside, East Germans participated in this kind of gaze.
 "Als ich sie fotografieren wollte, hatten sie sich zickig,und ich ließ es sein. Es würde sich später noch Gelegenheit finden. Aufgeschlossenerw aren einigeS chwarze am Strand. Sie saßen bis zum Bauch im Wasser und freutens ich wie Kinder,a ls wir ein Gespräch mit ihnen begannen. Eine der Schönen sprach sogar einige Brocken Deutsch." Udo Heiland, Unter Moçambicanern: Arbeit -Leben Most of the photographs reveal the surprise or discomfort of Mozambicans. They are photographed from close up or far away,and it seems that most of the shots weret aken without asking for permission. In his 2013 travel memoir Als Auslandskader in Mosambik,t he East Germans pecialist Günter Mosler,w ho worked in the coalmine in Moatize duringthe 1980s, includes aseries of photographs portraying his Mozambican colleagues.⁷² Those workers are seemingly placed in front of huts, be it in front of their own homes or local shops. All of them are depicted in the narrative of a "simple lifestyle".While Mosler refers to the house of one of his colleagues as Hütte (hut), another photograph showing Mosler'swife, their poodle Buffy,and his friends in front of their house which he captions as casa (house). We then observeh ow their privileged lifestyle is interrupted by begging children. To visually underpin the situation, Mosler introduces us to a1 4-year-old boy namedB oa Tard[e], Portuguesef or "Good Afternoon". However,i ti sn ot onlyB oa Tard[e] begging for food, but he and his team, as Mosler captioned the picture he took of the group. The team refers to asituation that Mosler'swife experienced when she gave two begging children some bread, onlytoreturn latertoagroup of 20 children screaming and asking for food.This seemingly terrifying moment is then reinforced through the detailed description of BoaT ard[e] dressed in rags, smelling miserablyw ith his feet and hands covered in wounds.⁷³ Another method of taking authentic snapshots with the locals was to make use of one'so wn children. The natural urge of children to playw ith other children, who, in contrast to their parents, did not have to worry about ac ommunication ban with the Mozambican population, served as aperfect basis for snapshots of everydayl ife. While some East Germans had no problems with their children playing with Mozambican children, there weres ome incidents in which women complained about the lack of hygiene of Mozambican children and theirf ear of diseases.⁷⁴ However,t he photographs thats how East German children togetherw ith Mozambican children suggest that the separate housing arrangementso ft he East Germans in Mozambique did not impact the everyday relationships and contacts,a tl east when it came to children. Often, the locals thatw erep hotographed wereu nknown to the photographer.⁷⁵ Instead, they served as ageneral representation of the country and its people. In Figure 4, two East German children seem to be looking confidentlyinto the camera; in contrast, the Mozambican adolescent looks into the camerar eluctantly and his bodyl anguages eems to be more defensivea nd insecure. This appearance of reluctance and discomfort can be seen in many other pictures as well. Although colonialism had in practice vanished, the memoriesa nd the various practices of how colonialism was implemented werestill very present-especially in Mozambique. Thistraumaisdescribed by Frantz Fanon as aconstant state of anxiety in which the colonized looks for signs thatp lace him in the racially divided world.⁷⁶ In this vein, Mozambicans' encounters and interactions with whiteE uropeans werestillaffected by the colonial past.While the GDR proudly looked upon its rhetoric of anti-colonialism and anti-racism, the East Germans' awareness of theirp lace in the history of colonialism wasl argely ignored. For this very reason, the colonial gaze continued.⁷⁷ Compared to the photographs depicting labor,inwhich East Germans pose with theircolleagues and apprentices, the abovep hotograph appears staged because there is no apparent relationship  My interview partners confirmed that photographs with Mozambican children takena tt he beach or in the countryside wereu suallyw ithout anyp ersonal connection.  Bhabha, "Framing Fanon," ix.  Zeller and Weiss,Weisse Blicke,schwarze Körper,7 . between the people being photographed.With staging attempts that imitated an anchoring in local life, the East Germanst ried to show thatt hey had found entries and mooringsi nM ozambican society.
The boy in Figure 5had just arrivedinMozambique to visit his parents.This is one of the cases in which children weren ot allowed to accompanyt heir parents because they weret oo old. The composition of this shot is ar eminder of the established binaries of colonial representation. The boy is placed in the center of the frame with ag roup of young children and young adults in the background. It seems that children playeda tt his spot-an opportunity that the East Germanphotographer seized upon by placing his child in front.The photograph suggests that there is no relation between the photographer and the children in the background. Most of the children payl ittle attention to the photographic setup and seem to be more interested in something going on in the distance.T he photograph looks like ac ollage of two photographs,w hich is due to the fact that the East German boy is so far away from the group of Mozambican children. Sontag describes such as ituation as ad uel moment,which "of- fers […]both participation and alienation in our own livesand those of othersallowing us to participate, while confirming alienation.⁷⁸ Compared to the young woman'sc onfidencea nd the otherc hildren'si ndifferenceinthe background of the picture, the East German boy seems to feeluncomfortable, posing with one hand in his pocket.H is eyes are focused on the camera, behind which we can imagine the photographer asking him to smile. Although some of the children looki ntrigued with one youngw oman posing for the camera, the overall impression is thatsuch encounters with whiteEuropeans weren ot ar are incident but rather part of their everydayl ife.⁷⁹ Under colonial rule, Mozambicans were consistentlyo bjectified duet ot heir racials ignifiers. The whitegaze,anindicator for power,hegemony, and privilege, is what philosopher GeorgeY ancy calls a "historical achievement-as pecific historical practice, sociallyc ollective and intersubjective,aprocess that is dutifullym aintained."⁸⁰ Within this whitep ower,o bjectification of the black bodyw as normalized. Especiallyi nb iggerc ities such as Maputoo rBeira, or in joint projects such as the coalmine in Moatize the number of international specialistswas higher thaninthe more remote areas in the hinterlands.Assumingthat otherinternational specialists took similar photographs,the children werenot onlyused to being photographed but alsoe xposed to the camera'si ntrusion.

Conclusion: The Useo fP rivate Photographsi n the Context of GDR Memorya nd Beyond
Private photographs reveal what the official GDR rhetoric did not dare to sayand what did not fit into the socialist imageofthe GDR.Infact,privatephotographs taken by East Germans in Mozambique represent more than just atechnologyfor documenting life; like most technologies, they are themselvesp owerful agents. The socialist encounters of East Germans with Mozambicans show ad ifferent part of the everydayl ife in the East German society,n amelyt hat beyond the state apparatus and enactment.Today, these privatep hotographs are important documents for researchers and even more important for the biographical stories  Sontag,On Photography,167.  Thereare some studies that focus on bodylanguageand how the "look" can be identified as part of resistance.S ee Viktoria Schmidt-Linsenhoff, Ethnizitätu nd Geschlecht: (Post-)K oloniale Verhandlungen in Geschichte, Kunst und Medien (Koln: Boḧlau, 2005).  George Yancy, Black Bodies, White Gaze: TheContinuingSignificance of Race in America (Lanham: Rowman &L ittlefield, 2016), 243. of people whose livesh avec hanged significantlys ince reunification. The visual portrayals of the work of East Germans abroad have yett of ind accessi nto the collective memory of the GDR.⁸¹ They show how East Germanss aw themselves situated in the country among theirM ozambican and international colleagues and apprentices,sometimes contrary to what the GDR had tried to implement.⁸² Furthermore, the framework of postcolonial theory Ih aveu sed for analyzing some of the pictures reveals the enormousimportance of photographs for investigatingthe East German relationships with Mozambique and Mozambicans then and now under the premise of Germany'sc olonial history.
Incorporating privatep hotographyi nto scholarlyr esearch challenges four underlying assumptions and opens further fieldso fr esearch. Firstly, photographs facilitate the understanding of the work and life of East German citizens in the 1980s beyond the narrative of propaganda. Thisa lso includes different perspectives, such as thato fE ast German women and their active engagement. Secondly, photographs place the perspectiveso ff amily, work, and travel in dialogue with different deployment locations and times that the East Germans spent in Mozambique. Furthermore, they help identify differencesa nd similarities in studies of comparative systems such as those of the Federal Republic of Germany,t he former Soviet Union, or other socialist and non-socialist countries that deployed their citizens on the African continent.Finally, an examination of photographs raises the question of how privatepictures of East Germans fit into the representation of an "underdeveloped" Mozambique and how they contributed to-or challenged-that narrative.P rivatep hotographs can be interpreted as case studies into postcolonialism in their own right.L astly, the private photographs servea sd ocumentation of Mozambique'sc onstruction period as well as its wartime experiences duringt he 1980s. The photographs firmly place Mozambique within its ownc ontext of postcolonial history on the African continent.
 The same can be said about the memory of Mozambican contract workers(Vertragsarbeiter) whor eturned to Mozambique after the unification of the two Germanys.F or morei nformation see Fernando Agostinho Machava'sc hapteri nt his volume, and Ibraimo Albertoa nd Marcia C. Schenck'sc hapter in this volume.  Including, for instance, travelr estrictions,p rohibited contacts to international, especially non-socialists colleagues,a nd individual explorations of ac ity or countryside.