Histories and Material Manifestations of Slavery in the Upper Gambia River Region: Preliminary Results of the Bandafassi Regional Archaeological Project

ABSTRACT The Bandafassi Regional Archaeological Project (BRAP) explores a multiethnic landscape in the upper Gambia River region heavily impacted by slavery. The project assesses discourses of different stakeholders to see what is silenced, acknowledged, centered, and decentered in historical narratives. This article compares if and how slavery is invoked by narrators discussing the Atlantic era history of our study area, a region that today includes the UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape of Bassari Country. Narratives presented by local guides specializing in tours of specific, ethnic communities emphasize intercommunity or interethnic politics and militarism. Narratives used in applications for and recognition of World Heritage status focused on interethnic ecological complementarities. Archaeological evidence for changes in settlement patterns and defensive architecture highlight the local effects of Atlantic entanglements and slaving on the landscape. BRAP’s work complements other regional narratives by analyzing the politics of the historiography of Atlantic era West Africa.