Learning, Teaching, Changing African Archaeologies

Spanish – Algerian teams surveying the area at the foot of the Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania (Photo Credits @ Javier Rodriguez Pandozi)

 

Our understanding of African archaeologies is often affected by Eurocentric, colonialist, and post-colonialist perspectives. These shape our perception of Africa as this singular monolith of backwardness, devastation, and poverty, fundamentally influencing our insight into local archaeologies and public cultural heritage alike. Despite the remarkable number of well-known archaeological sites in Africa, particularly relevant for e.g. paleoanthropology and human evolution, “African archaeology has tended to be a recipient rather than an initiator of archaeological theory” as well as management of archaeological resources, thus perpetuating a colonial paradigm as aptly put by Nick Shepherd already in the early 2000s (Shepherd 2002: 204). However, the growing body of contributions developed by local communities to research, preserve and engage with their cultural heritage – alongside the educational aspects – show otherwise. Yet African archaeologies remain largely overlooked within current scholarship in the so-called Global North. It is time to take stock of what happened over the last two decades and reassess how far we went from Shepherd statement.

The ninth issue of Ex Novo seeks to explore African Archaeologies especially from a specific point of view, namely the manifold educational perspectives that go along with archaeology as a scientific discipline. We seek to explore how these approaches are generating educational outcomes for both specialized and non-specialized public to their own past in different African countries. We welcome contributions exploring topics such as issues and opportunities in museum practices; UNESCO policies and their reception; public engagement with archaeological heritage; strategies of heritage preservation; shifting of theoretical approaches to the archaeological record. Furthermore, relevant to this issue would be the analysis of the increasing body of collaborations between different African and foreign institutions to train young scholars with a focus on theoretical and methodological approaches to archaeology developed in the Global North. Are such collaborations valuable for both local and international scientific communities focusing on the African continent? If so, is it possible to assess the impact of such collaborations? Did the relationship with archaeology change in recent years? If so how and why?

We welcome journal articles, short scientific essays, book reviews, interviews, and other genres of contributions including visual artworks, graphic novels, and photographic reports.

References

Shepherd N. The politics of Archaeology in Africa. Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2002. 31:189–209.

Submission Procedure

Perspective authors may submit their articles via the link below, where also the journal’s guidelines are available. To be inserted in the next issue, papers should be submitted at the latest by the 30 of April 2024.

Please note that articles that are submitted without following the style guidelines will not be considered. You will need to prepare two copies of the manuscript for submission. One file will need to have all your author details included, and one will need to be anonymized. Both versions should include the title, abstract, body, and references. For inquiries do not hesitate to contact our Editorial Board.

Submit your paper here:

http://archaeopresspublishing.com/ojs/index.php/EXNOVO/index