BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY: Decolonising the Missionary Road? An Archaeology of Heritage at t
 he Kuruman Moffat Mission\, South Africa - Dr Chris Wingfield\, UEA
DTSTART:20191104T170000Z
DTEND:20191104T180000Z
UID:TALK134329@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Victoria Jones
DESCRIPTION:The London Missionary Society station established at Kuruman i
 n 1824 became a key node in Britain's developing engagements with the Afri
 can interior\, to the extent that by the last quarter of the nineteenth ce
 ntury Cecil John Rhodes identified 'the Missionary Road' as a key strategi
 c locus of British influence. This paper will reflect on initial work with
  colleagues at Sol Plaatje University in South Africa to develop Re-collec
 ting the Missionary Road as a collaborative research project\, involving a
  joint field school supported by the Cambridge-Africa Alborada Fund in 201
 7. Using archaeology as a tool to explore the development of Kuruman as a 
 heritage site has been a fruitful way of bringing together multiple perspe
 ctives to interrogate the ways in which Africa's past\, and Britain's role
  within it has been framed. However\, the nature of the historic encounter
 s that unfolded in and around the Missionary Road have led to the dispersa
 l of relevant material to archives and museums across the globe\, necessit
 ating a methodological approach that has attempted to re-collect historic 
 artefacts so that their value as heritage can be re-assessed in alternativ
 e spaces. The paper will attempt to ask what it would mean for such a proj
 ect to successfully operate in a decolonial mode\, and will attempt to arg
 ue that projects of decolonisation necessarily involve an equal focus on m
 etropole and colony\, Europe and Africa\, as well as the mutual constructi
 on of 'whiteness' and 'blackness' and their reciprocal reshaping through c
 olonial histories\, in order to begin to engage with the distinctively Afr
 ican precolonial past.
LOCATION:Seminar Room S1 Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambridge
  CB3 9DT
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR