Sarah Platt, Historical Anthropology, Syracuse University

A City in Transition: Colonialism, Displacement, and Community Archaeology in Banjul, The Gambia

In preparation for the 200th anniversary of the city of Banjul, The Gambia, in 2016, the Banjul Heritage Project seeks to highlight the unique character of the city’s neighborhoods and the contributions of different residents from its founding to the present through community-engaged and -directed research. A planned urban center, the city developed around a series of neighborhoods designated as colonial, merchant, and African laborer spaces as part of 19th century British efforts to block the slave trade in West Africa. This presentation will recount how a series of contemporary development efforts within Banjul has recently transformed the city, rendering the intersection of the Banjul Heritage Project’s archaeological practice, heritage production, and current politics problematic.

Open to the public. 

Sponsored by the Maxwell African Scholars Union at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs