Archives, Objects, Places and Landscapes

Multidisciplinary approaches to Decolonised Zimbabwean Pasts

edited by Munyaradzi Manyanga, Shadreck Chirikure

Dissatisfaction has matured in Africa and elsewhere around the
fact that often, the dominant frameworks for interpreting the
continent’s past are not rooted on the continent’s value system and
philosophy. This creates knowledge that does not make sense especially
to local communities. The big question therefore is can Africans develop
theories that can contribute towards the interpretation of the African
past, using their own experiences? Framed within a concept revision
substrate, the collection of papers in this thought provoking volume
argues for concept revision as a step towards decolonizing knowledge in
the post-colony. The various papers powerfully expose that ‘cleansed’
knowledge is not only locally relevant: it is also locally accessible
and globally understandable.

£49.00

Format

Paperback

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About the editors

Munyaradzi Manyanga

Munyaradzi Manyanga is a senior lecturer in archaeology and heritage
management at the University of Zimbabwe. He holds a licentiate and PhD
from Uppsala University, Sweden.

Shadreck Chirikure

Shadreck Chirikure is an associate professor in the Department of
Archaeology, University of Cape Town. He has an MA in artefact studies
and a PhD in archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology, University
College London.

Review

“The author combines his skills in political science theory and anthropological methodology to argue that the long term historical legacies of ethnic regionalism in Cameroon requires the researcher to move back and forth between a top down perspective on elites and a bottom up understanding of the worlds of ordinary lives and conditions of existence. The result is an exemplary study that has far reaching comparative lessons for African studies.”

Michael Rowlands, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, University College London