The Archaeology and (shared) heritage of German colonialism

Within the project “Archaeology and (shared) heritage of German colonialism: Materialities of colonisation, resistance and cultural entanglement on the African continent”, which Cornelia Kleinitz and Jörg Linstädter have been establishing since late 2020 at the Commission for Archaeology of Non-European Cultures (KAAK) at the German Archaeological Institute (DAI), a research network is being built with partners in Ghana.

Before, during and after the 8^th meeting of the DAI’s Trans Area Network Africa (TANA) at the end of February 2022 at the University of Ghana, Accra/Legon, discussions have been taking place on how to develop joint projects in the fields of the archaeology of (German) colonisation and the preservation and presentation of the ‘shared’ heritage of German colonialism in former Togoland.

As a Corresponding Member of the DAI, Prof. Wazi Apoh is our main partner at the University of Ghana. Prof. Apoh has published extensively on the archaeology and heritage of German colonialism, such as his most recent book ‘Revelations of Domination and Resilience: Unearthing the Buried Past of the Akpini, Akan, German and British at Kpando, Ghana’. The presentations by Prof. Apoh and his colleagues as well as graduate and PhD students from the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies during the TANA meeting gave a good overview of the impressive range of research on the archaeologies of slavery and colonization that is being undertaken at the University of Ghana. Research on these topics is usually flanked by preservation measures at the ‘shared’ heritage sites as well as community involvement and public presentation measures, some of these supported by public funding from Germany.

During a number of site visits to coastal slavery forts as well as to the Volta region in eastern Ghana, once part of the German Togoland colony, a good overview could have been achieved of the characteristics of colonial period heritage sites. Their state of preservation and role in local communities as sites of memory and memorialization were recognized and their potentials as educational resources for national and international tourists as well as the local population accentuated. The new research network will initially focus on raising the visibility and awareness of these sites by developing an off-site web-resource as well as an on-site system of signposting and information boards. Further projects are envisaged to involve participation in architectural conservation (planning) as well as (university) collections management.