Postcolonial or Not?
West Africa in the Pre-Atlantic and Atlantic Worlds
What do the labels “Historic period,” “historical archaeology,” and “Colonial” imply about the source materials drawn on, the time periods covered, and the conceptual vantages taken in interpreting the West African past? The historiographies presented are equally relevant to the understanding of the past—that is, the impacts of European contact, the Atlantic slave trade, and colo- nization—as they are to the present; the social, economic, and cultural landscapes of modernity, and how our views ...
Note de l’éditeur
This keynote address was delivered during the opening session of the International Conference on Patrimony and Identity in West Africa, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, from July 2-4, 2012.
Éditeur : IFRA-Nigeria
Lieu d’édition : Ibadan
Publication sur OpenEdition Books : 6 mai 2019
ISBN numérique : 979-10-92312-51-5
DOI : 10.4000/books.ifra.1517
Collection : Transnational Africa
Année d’édition : 2013
ISBN (Édition imprimée) : 979-10-92312-25-6
Nombre de pages : 54
What do the labels “Historic period,” “historical archaeology,” and “Colonial” imply about the source materials drawn on, the time periods covered, and the conceptual vantages taken in interpreting the West African past? The historiographies presented are equally relevant to the understanding of the past—that is, the impacts of European contact, the Atlantic slave trade, and colo- nization—as they are to the present; the social, economic, and cultural landscapes of modernity, and how our views of the past shape these landscapes. This essay considers the varied epistemological threads represented and their interpretive implications. Although the hegemonic and transformative nature of Africa's intersection with the Atlantic World is underscored, the need to situate these developments within the wider scope and temporal depth of the African past is also emphasized. Archaeology's central role in providing a holistic understanding of the temporal depth and complexity of African history, as well as archaeology's unique contribution to the understanding of the Atlantic world, is underscored.
Christopher R. DeCorse is a Professor of Anthropology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. His research interests include African archaeology and history, culture contact, general anthropology, and popular culture in archaeology. He is currently directing research projects in coastal Ghana, particularly at the African settlement at Elmina, and at Bunce Island, Sierra Leone a major English trade post during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
DeCorse’s books on African archaeology include: An Archaeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast, 1400-1900 (Smithsonian Press, 2001, now available from Eliot Werner Publications) and West Africa during the Atlantic Slave Trade (Leicester University Press, 2001). DeCorse’s 2008 book with John Walton and James Brooks, brings together the work of twelve scholars from diverse disciplines to explore theoretical vantage and method in the interpretation of the past through the lense of microhistory. DeCorse’s textbooks include the four-field book Anthropology: A Global Perspective (Pearson, 2012, coauthored with Raymond Scupin); In the Beginning: An Introduction to Archaeology, 12th Edition (Prentice Hall, 2005, with Brian Fagan) and; The Record of the Past: An Introduction to Archaeology and Physical Anthropology (Prentice Hall, 2000). DeCorse has also authored more than 40 book chapters, journal articles, and reviews.
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