The Yin and the Yang of Wilhelm Solf: Reconstructing Colonial Superman

Abstract

Abstract Wilhelm Solf is one of the ‘heroes’ of liberal historians’ representations of colonial rule in the Pacific Islands. A long line of historiography presents him as a sensitive interpreter and manipulator of Samoan culture and a skilled administrator whose reputation outlasts that of his New Zealand successors. This essay attempts a revisionist biographical analysis of his multiple identities via a critical re‐reading of Solfs relations with the white settler community of German Samoa 1900–10, It uses ideas drawn from biographical theory about personality and from discussions of Taoism in Asian thought. The encounter is shown to be more ambiguous and Solf more organically connected to the community he criticises than he was ever prepared to admit.