Community Archaeology and Heritage in Africa

This volume provides new insights into the distinctive contributions that community archaeology and heritage make to the decolonization of archaeological practice. Using innovative approaches, the contributors explore important initiatives which have protected and revitalized local heritage, initiatives that involved archaeologists as co-producers rather than leaders. These case studies underline the need completely reshape archaeological practice, engaging local and indigenous communities in regular dialogue and recognizing their distinctive needs, in order to break away from the top-down power relationships that have previously characterized archaeology in Africa.Community Archaeology and Heritage in Africa reflects a determined effort to change how archaeology is taught to future generations. Through community-based participatory approaches, archaeologists and heritage professionals can benefit from shared resources and local knowledge; and by sharing decision-making with members of local communities, archaeological inquiry can enhance their way of life, ameliorate their human rights concerns, and meet their daily needs to build better futures. Exchanging traditional power structures for research design and implementation, the examples outlined in this volume demonstrate the discipline’s exciting capacity to move forward to achieve its potential as a broader, more accessible, and more inclusive field.

"This important text on community involvement with archaeology in Africa constitutes the most extensive examination to date of the roles that African communities can and should play in engaging with archaeologists and cultural heritage management practitioners... An absolutely indispensable text for anyone doing archaeology or heritage management, in Africa or elsewhere. Summing Up: Essential."— S. MacEachern, Bowdoin College, CHOICE Reviews"Schmidt and Pikirayi’s edited volume is an important contribution... Archaeologists and heritage practitioners working in Africa may respond defensively to the content of this volume, believing that their practice is not colonial and thus not in need of decolonising. However, it is only through critical reflection and new research approaches, as promoted in this volume, that as archaeologists we can expose to ourselves the underlying colonial biases that the various communities that witness, and are impacted by, our work so often perceive."— John Giblin, Azania: Archarological Research in Africa

Peter R. Schmidt is Professor of Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Florida, USA, as well as Extraordinary Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.Innocent Pikirayi is currently Professor and Head of the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.