Usable Pasts Forum: Critically Engaging Food Security
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FORUM: USABLE PASTS
Usable Pasts Forum: Critically Engaging Food Security Amanda L. Logan & Daryl Stump & Steven T. Goldstein & Emuobosa Akpo Orijemie & M. H. Schoeman
# The Author(s) 2019
Critically Engaging African Food Security and Usable Pasts Through Archaeology Amanda L. Logan In this inaugural Usable Pasts Forum, we make the case that archaeology has a critical role to play in reframing approaches to food security in the African continent. Readers who are unfamiliar with archaeology may find
A. L. Logan (*) Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA e-mail: [email protected] D. Stump Department of Archaeology and Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK e-mail: [email protected] S. T. Goldstein Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany e-mail: [email protected] E. A. Orijemie Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria e-mail: [email protected] M. H. Schoeman Archaeology, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa e-mail: [email protected]
this an odd pairing, since the field is more often associated with characters like Indiana Jones than with anything “useful” in our modern world. After all, Dr. Jones’ missions involved capturing ancient objects of great beauty and were largely irrelevant to the practical concerns of modern populations (besides, of course, the destruction he wrought in securing those antiquities!). Yet, this view of archaeology is an outdated, colonial one in which exotic objects were mined by outsiders to fill the curiosity cabinets of Europe (Andah 1995a). In post-colonial settings, archaeologists have responded to this troubled history and changed their goals and approaches to incorporate the concerns of local stakeholders, especially in Africa (Lane 2011). “Usable pasts” is an approach that explores how the past can be made relevant for the present. Bassey Andah, one of the first Africanist archaeologists to use the term, defined usable past as “a past that does not merely instill pride but also helps Africans build sociopolitical units equipped to fight ‘cultural poverty’ and negotiate justice at both national and international levels...” (Andah 1995b, p.151). In Andah’s formulation, usable pasts were explicitly political, in the sense that pursuing more “authentic” African histories meant modern-day Africans could be equipped with historical knowledge helpful to their own positions. This formulation of usable pasts has often been used in nationalist discourses that appeal to unique and impressive African capabilities, as is the case with the monumental remains of Great Zimbabwe and Mapungubwe (Pirikayi 2009). Usable pasts have also been construed more broadly, as those pasts “which can be exploited by all interested parties, be they
Afr Archaeol Rev
developers, local communities, and, of co
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