Frobenius Discovered Before Crossing Limpopo Ruins, Ancient Fortificated Settlements, Beautiful Pottery Mountains Stop

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe “discovery” by the scientific community of the iconic archaeological site of Mapungubwe Hill (thirteenth century AD, South Africa) is said to have taken place in 1933. Early that year, the son of a local farmer, having visited the site for the first time in the final hours of 1932, brought its existence to the attention of Leo Fouché, professor of history at the University of Pretoria. There were, however, indications of an earlier visit by a group of German ethnographers who travelled across southern Africa over a period of some 20 months between 1928 and 1930, led by Leo Frobenius. I present the archive that was produced by the Frobenius expedition in 1928 of the place they called “Manopie” (“Ruinenhügel von Manopie”, “Manopietöpferei”), reconfigured by means of the method of repeat photography. The article also makes a case for the creative possibilities of revisiting the archive, and suggests that the archive is formed through encounters with other ways of being the world, rather than simply being a product of Western epistemologies.