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Review of 'Community Archaeology and Heritage in Africa: Decolonizing

Practice' edited by Peter R. Schmidt and Innocent Pikirayi

Article  in  American Anthropologist · December 2018

DOI: 10.1111/aman.13171

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 AMAN aman13171 Dispatch: November 21, 2018 CE: N/A
Journal MSP No. No. of pages: 2 PE: Haider Sahle

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BOOK REVIEW
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8 Community Archaeology and Heritage in Africa:
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Decolonizing Practice edited by Peter R. Schmidt
11 and Innocent Pikirayi
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13 London: Routledge, 2016. 324 pp.
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16 DOI: 10.1111/aman.13171 of major obstacles to productive interactions between local
17 communities and heritage-management stakeholders. These
Q1 Claire Smith hindrances include religious intolerance, looting, nonadher-
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Q2 19 Flinders University ence to traditional social factors, unethical archaeological

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20 practices, and the uncontrolled degradation of sacred forests
21 Produced by African and Africanist scholars, this book is that hitherto successfully preserved and protected heritage
22 important because it sheds light on archaeological practice materials. Related issues are addressed by George Abungu.
23 and heritage conservation issues on a continent for which Focusing on Eastern Africa, he contends that the tendency
24 little material is available. Its overarching concern is how toward a more pro-people, inclusive approach in the devel-
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community archaeology can engender more inclusive her-
itage protection in Africa. This book is likely to precipitate
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oped world has barely taken root in the developing world.
He attributes this to the ravages of colonialism, land and her-
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27 a turning point in archaeology in Africa. itage dispossession and appropriation, the denial of access to
28 One important theme is the role of archaeology (and ar- heritage and heritage rights, and, at times, the outright abuse
29 chaeologists) in sustainable development and capacity build- and desecration of heritage places.
30 ing in Africa. This issue is directly addressed in chapters A second theme concerns the politics of heritage and
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31 by Mehari and Ryano, Patrick Abungu, and Mayor and archaeological practice in Africa. This is explicitly addressed
32 Huysecom. Mehari and Ryano’s chapter provides fascinat- in chapters by Schmidt, Ndovu, David and Sterner, and
33 ing insights into past conflicts between local Maasai people McDavid, Rizvi, and Smith. Schmidt and Ndovu undertake
34 and researchers, including the work done by Lewis and independent reviews of archaeological practice in Africa.
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35 Mary Leakey at Olduvai Gorge. The authors argue that a Schmidt’s review of ethnoarchaeological work in Africa iden-
36 community-based transformation of archaeology in Africa is tifies significant variation in the degree of initiative taken by
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37 needed to advance the discipline at a global level and, more collaborators, control over research agendas, and benefits
38 importantly, to serve and benefit Africans at local, national, to communities. The work reviewed ranges from projects
39 and continental levels through incorporating their world- where archaeological objectives were opaque for local par-
40 views, interests, and needs in archaeological praxis. Mayor ticipants to those where community members were trained
41 and Huysecom focus on the need for greater efforts in ca- and became coproducers of knowledge. He concludes that
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42 pacity building and development aid, and on decolonizing “we are still struggling to develop healthy interchanges with
43 the museum. An intriguing innovation of their work in Mali community members as equals” and that “the greatest part
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44 is the establishment of a cultural bank, a village or municipal of archaeological practice in Africa has yet to address com-
45 institution that includes a museum, a microcredit bank, and munity needs and sensibilities.” Ndovu focuses on the ques-
46 a cultural center aimed at promoting sociocultural and eco- tion of equity and critically analyzes a dichotomy between
47 nomic development of a rural community through culture. “African spiritual and European physical approaches to her-
48 The authors argue that a critical view of these issues is needed itage management.” He emphasizes the historic protection
49 for the management of heritage projects that integrate lo- of heritage sites by African communities using traditional
50 cal communities. Other challenges to heritage protection approaches to safeguard them and calls for “the amendment
51 are addressed by Aleru and Adekola in their discussion of of colonially framed heritage legislation, which emphasizes
52 “rich and reciprocal” archaeological engagements with the the significance of the physical approach over the spiritual
53 Esie and Igbaja communities in northern Yorubaland. These significance of heritage.” The chapter by David and Sterner
54 positive developments are analyzed against a background focuses on the Mandara Archaeological Project in Cameroon
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57 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Vol. 000, No. 0, pp. 1–2, ISSN 0002-7294, online ISSN 1548-1433. 
C 2018 by the American Anthropological Association.

58 All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/aman.13171

1 2 American Anthropologist • Vol. 000, No. 0 • xxxx 2018
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3 and Nigeria, undertaken between 1984 and 2008, at a time
4 when community archaeology was more archaeology with
5 communities rather than for communities. They address the
6 questions: Were we taking part in a colonial enterprise? Or
7 were we engaged with host communities in ways that bene-
8 fited them and larger publics and the discipline of archaeol-
9 ogy? This paper highlights a generational transformation in
10 archaeological practice. Hard-hitting questions such as these
11 are explored further in a conversation among McDavid,
12 Rizvi, and Smith, which issues provocations and highlights
heritage conflicts among affected communities associated
with large-scale development projects in Ghana and else-
where in Africa. Related issues are addressed in Pikirayi’s
analysis of four case studies from Zimbabwe and South Africa
in which he highlights the capacity of social memory to chal-
lenge authoritative, dominant, and highly contested narra-
tives about African communities.
Finally, Schmidt and Pikirayi’s book is notable for the
interweaving of both eminent and early-career researchers,
and both African and Africanist scholars. This network of

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13 heterogeneity in approaches to community archaeology and key players tells us much about the process by which African
14 heritage in Africa. archaeology is undergoing transformation. The powerhouse

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15 A third theme concerns the importance of memory institutions stand out: the University of Pretoria, the Univer-
16 and oral histories to the preservation of heritage in Africa. sity of Ibadan, the University of Calgary, the University of
17 This is explicitly investigated in chapters by Patrick Abungu, Geneva, the University of Ghana, Newcastle University, the
18 Apoh and Gavua, and Pikirayi. Patrick Abungu speaks to University of Florida, and the National Museum of Kenya.
19 the economic value for local communities of opening up The majority of authors have some kind of affiliation, either

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20 the Shimoni Slaves Caves in southeastern coastal Kenya as past or present, with one or more of these institutions. In ad-
21 places of memory. Based on a case study of the construc- dition, many of the authors are current or former executive
22 tion of a proposed dam on the Black Volta River at Bui, or council members of the World Archaeological Congress.
23 in Ghana, the chapter by Apoh and Gavua demonstrates Written by leaders in their field, the chapters in this book
24 how archaeologists can intervene and successfully mediate in capture a transformation in the archaeology in Africa. This
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the negotiation and resolution of human rights and cultural
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book is integral to this transformation.
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