Re-Representing African Pasts through Historical Archaeology

Abstract

Historical archaeology in Africa has long privileged issues framed in terms of European sources and the impact of imperialism and colonialism on African peoples. With its emphasis on modernity, historical archaeology of this persuasion overlooks historical archaeologies concerned with revising metanarratives that misrepresent African pasts. We argue that historical archaeologists need to listen to local histories, often held in oral form, and that the appropriate task of historical archaeology is making histories that include, not exclude, local historicities. A critical historical archaeology in Africa is illustrated by cases in which oral traditions play a central role in unveiling the historical significance of archaeological remains as well as circumstances in which careful readings of archaeology and local histories subvert standard histories based on outsiders' interpretations and observations. We draw case studies from the Swahili Coast, Great Zimbabwe, the Kalahari, and the Cwezi period of the Great Lakes. Our approach accepts that if archaeologists employ materiality—regardless of its chronological age—to transform historical representation, then such historical revision creates a more comprehensive practice for historical archaeology, a matter of vital interest for both history and anthropology.