The Politics of Archaeology in Africa (original) (raw)
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Archaeology and International Development in Africa
2011
Integrating archaeology successfully within international development schemes in Africa for the betterment of society is challenging, important, and possible. This is the leading argument of this short incisive book written as part of the Duckworth Debates in Archaeology Series. It left me longing for more; not just because the authors only touch upon the tip of the iceberg of challenges, opportunities, and examples surrounding archaeological heritage research and management in Africa, but also because this tremendously important subject receives far too little attention in our discipline.
It has long been recognized that archaeology in sub-Saharan Africa, and its public manifestation through the medium of museums, emerged within the context of European colonial rule, and that legacies of colonialism continue to shape archaeological practice across the continent. Following independence there has been steady indigenization, initially in terms of personnel but subsequently also in terms of organizational structure and research agendas. Recent calls for a ‘post-colonial archaeology’ liberated from the constraints imposed by ‘the colonial archive’, have highlighted many of the challenges that remain. Nevertheless, indigenization has also resulted in the production of more nationalistic and/or Afrocentric perspectives. These echo some of the sentiments voiced by the first generation of African political leaders regarding the need to recover a truly ‘African past’, which have also been revived in more recent calls for an African Renaissance as articulated by NEPAD, among others. This paper explores these developments so as to highlight some of the inconsistencies and inherent contradictions of current conceptualizations of postcolonial archaeology in sub-Saharan African contexts.
Toward a politicised interpretation ethic in African archaeology
Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 2014
Following the Foucauldian, post-colonial and archaeological post-processual critiques of knowledge construction and more recent calls for a political ethic in archaeology, this paper furthers this discussion by advocating the introduction of a ‘politicised interpretation publication ethic’ in African archaeology. This is a response to a survey of recent African archaeology publications that suggests that ethics and politics continue to be removed from archaeological interpretation. The archaeology-as-science ethic is subsequently critiqued through a brief review of two famous African archaeology examples: the controversy over Great Zimbabwe and the practice of archaeology in apartheid period South Africa. Finally, the problematic archaeology-as-science ethic in pre-genocide Rwanda is outlined and the ethical creation of archaeology today in a post-genocide situation considered as the paper moves toward a discussion of what a ‘politicised interpretation publication ethic’ might look like in contemporary African archaeology.
COLOlIl'À^ rAtQLOG.IES Worldviews, Mind-Sets, and Trajectories in West African Archaeology
In Africa, archaeological research is without any doubt an offshoot of European colonization. Native African communities have developed différent ways to access and revive the past. Can thèse différent approaches be synthesized to generate a broader and richer understanding of past Africans' lives? This is precisely one of the cote éléments of the challenge of postcolonial perspectives on African archaeology. The development of archaeological research was the resuit of conflicts , tensions, and negotiations within the colonial technostructure. At the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, there was no cohérent and well-articulated archaeological curriculum anywhere. Archaeological research was conducted by daring and bright minds. Without standard methodology and précise goals, "prehistoric" archaeology was fueled by major controversies. The development of a more secular view of human history, the theory of natural sélection, the resilience o...
Currents in African Historical Archaeology at the Turn of a Millennium: A Review Essay
The South African Archaeological Bulletin, 2008
Archaeology and the Modern World: Colonial Transcripts in South Africa and the Chesapeake by Martin Hall; Cattle for Beads: The Archaeology of Historical Contact and Trade on the Namib Coast by Jill Kinahan; An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast, 1400-1900 by Christopher R. DeCorse; Making History in Banda: Anthropological Visions of Africa's past by Ann Stahl; African Historical Archaeologies by Andrew Reid; Paul Lane; Historical Archaeology in Africa: Representation, Social Memory and Oral Traditions by Peter Schmidt.