descendants of

[Maybo]

I have a question about the article "the".
Why does sentence #4 use "the" for "descendants...", but no "the" is used before "victims' descendants" or "descendants of..." in the other sentences?

1. In Namibia, descendants of both victims and colonisers are arguing fiercely about the talks.
2. Some of the people living there, they are descendants of the victims of the concentration camps.
3. But it's not just victims' descendants who are sceptical about the talks. So too are some of Namibia's remaining 30,000 or so German speakers, descendants of the colonists.
4.But in the squalid slums outside Swakopmund, where some Herero work today on minimum wages for the descendants of Germans who used their great-grandparents as slaves, there's not the same understanding.
5. Descendants of West African slaves in South Carolina are fighting to prevent their land from being confiscated and auctioned.

(Germany and Namibia: What's the right price to pay for genocide? by Tim Whewell)

 

[jutfrank]

There's too much for me to deal with here, and this is a very hard thing to explain, so I'll focus only on 1 and 2, in the hope that you can apply what I say to the other cases.

1. In Namibia, descendants of both victims and colonisers are arguing fiercely about the talks.

All bold nouns above have a 'zero' article. That means that the writer is thinking of these as general groups, each of which has a kind of 'role' to play in the story.

2. Some of the people living there, they are descendants of the victims of the concentration camps.

Notice here that the first noun has a zero article and the second and third each has a definite article. This is because the first noun expresses only a general kind of relationship (which is a kind of role) whereas the second noun is a reference to a specific group of individual men and women, and the third is a reference to a specific group of individual camps.

In order to understand what I'm saying, you have to understand what I mean by a 'role'. To help illustrate this, look at the following example:

I am father to four children.

I've used a zero article here to show that I am using the noun father to describe a kind of relationship. In other words, I'm talking about a role that I play in my family.

 

[Alexey86]

I am father to four children.

Does to also suggest a role? There is a difference between be father to and be a father of.

 

[jutfrank]

Does to also suggest a role?

Not a role but a relation. There is a relation of father to sons.

 

[Alexey86]

Not a role but a relation. There is a relation of father to sons.

By role I mean be father to doesn't necessarily suggest a biological relationship as it does in your example. It can be used figuratively, meaning a father figure.

 

[jutfrank]

Oh, I see. Yes, exactly right. You might also imagine a young child organising a role-play game with her friend:

I'll play mother and you play father.