Unearthing presence in the artefacts of slavery at the Cape: the production of archaeological narratives in post-apartheid South Africa

Abstract

‘Unearthing presence in the artefacts of slavery at the Cape: The production of archaeological narratives in post-apartheid South Africa’ is concerned with analysing and reading the archaeological projects on slavery in what was known as the Cape since 1990. It focuses on how archaeologists articulate their work on slavery and how it is transcribed and memorialised at sites around the greater Cape Town area. These sites include the Iziko Slave Lodge, Prestwich Place Ossuary, the South African Sendinggestig Museum/Slave Church Museum and Leeuwenhof Slave Quarters, as well as wine estates such as Vergelegen and Solms Delta. It also draws on two key maritime archaeological projects namely the Meermin and São Josè ship wrecks and investigates the claims made, the practices of maritime archaeology and how these wrecks have been memorialized in exhibition at the Iziko Slave Lodge. All these sites and projects form part of the production of archaeological narratives and the archive of slavery at the Cape. Each of these sites seemingly contribute to the makings of archaeological knowledge as fact and indicate the powers involved in the memorialization of slavery in the Cape by showcasing archaeology as the dominant voice in these narratives. This study reads these sites in terms of the concepts of absence and presence as well as missingness which underpins the process of becoming lost and invisible and analyses how archaeologists through their findings have tried to produce and inscribe slave lifeways at these sites. It investigates what happens to the enslaved bodies and narratives in each of these cases and discusses these in terms of agency and the attachment of personhood to the slave remains by the various stakeholders involved in the processes of memorialization at certain sites.