Abstract
ABSTRACTIn the African postcolony, archaeological research and fieldwork engage with a variety of communities of connection. Therefore, a decolonizing archaeological heritage inquiry seeks a deeper engagement with an archaeological site’s living direct descendant constituencies. Privileging Danish-Ga direct descendant communities in a collaborative archaeological heritage project at Christiansborg Castle in Osu, Accra, Ghana, this essay introduces the experimental, work-in-progress approach I term ‘autoarchaeology’. This is an analytical approach whereby the roles and subject positions of researcher, practitioner, and descendant are held by the same person, and foreground the Self. Autoarchaeology excavates multiple layers, namely: the politics of knowledge production, historiographical traditions, historical inquiry, colonial realities, and postcolonial legacies. Autoarchaeology at the castle attempts to challenge current dominant Western archaeological heritage orthodoxy concerning the study, use, and management of the past, and in so doing, offer possibilities for a decolonizing practice.
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