Archaeology of Historic Kormantse and the Colonial Trans-Atlantic Encounter

Abstract

ABSTRACT Today, the name “Kormantse” (alternately Coromantee) continues to evoke significant pride in numerous African diaspora societies who claim descent. Scholars have sometimes cast such heritage claims as based on an “imaginary” reference population. However, Kormantse was a real place populated by real people. This paper reviews an archaeological research project at Historic Kormantse located in coastal Ghana (Gold Coast); the project’s main objective was to examine residents’ cultural responses to the trans-Atlantic colonial encounter. We sought to explain the processes by which settlement populations negotiated their survival since European contact in the sixteenth century. Archaeological traces reflecting exchanges, trade, occupations, burial practices, resistance, and technology are examined here as indices of the community’s identity and responses to changing conditions. The challenge of fully explaining Kormantse’s role in African diaspora cultures is also discussed. While Kormantse diaspora cultural signatures are real, not imagined, our understanding of them remains elusive.