Int J Histor Archaeol (2013) 17:351–375 DOI 10.1007/s10761-013-0220-7
The Archaeology of German and British Colonial Entanglements in Kpando-Ghana Wazi Apoh
Published online: 23 April 2013 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract In talking about the cultural diversity of Africa’s past, the archaeological assessment of West African sites with mangled tangible and intangible fragments of German and British and/or French colonial encounters should not be ignored but rather discussed. This research explores how specific daily material cultural practices of German and British colonizers and Kpando indigenes in the Volta Region of Ghana were enmeshed in a medley of geopolitical, ideological and exchange connections. Through the use of archaeological, archival and ethnographic sources, this paper examines how daily practices of the people of Kpando were impacted by pre-colonial and dual colonial political economic pressures from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. This paper archaeologically explores how colonial officials maintained and renegotiated the norms of domesticity/gentility/Europeaness in their encounter with Akpini domestic technology, foodways and cultural practices. Keywords German and British colonialism . Entangled archaeology . Kpando-Ghana
Introduction The socioeconomic changes introduced by capitalist penetration of peripheral economies and their intended and unintended consequences in the global system (Wallerstein 1974, 1980; Wolf 1982) have left abundant tangible and intangible fragments waiting to be accessed and assessed in the archaeological record. Historical archaeology and anthropological understanding of how sociopolitical, economic, and cultural patterns of small scale societies were relationally shaped in hinterland frontier societies where dual or triple colonial rules coalesced with indigenous cultural nuances (Amselle 1998; Kopytoff 1987) is the goal of my research. This paper explores how German/British colonial political economic entanglements W. Apoh (*) Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Ghana, P. O. Box L.G. 3, Legon, Ghana e-mail:
[email protected]
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(e.g., Lightfoot et al. 1998; Stahl 2001; Thomas 1991) beyond the Gold Coast and Togoland coastal frontier affected the practices of the Akpini society located in the hinterlands of the Volta Region of Ghana and vice versa. The growing interest in the processes of colonialism in West Africa has led a number of scholars to engage in long term projects to study these experiences. The findings from these studies are nuanced but they provide case studies that are comparable. Extensive archaeological research undertaken at the Gold Coast settlement of Elmina (DeCorse 1992, 2001) has revealed that Europeans at Elmina exercised a degree of control over their trade fort and immediate environs. Similarly, archaeological investigations in coastal Benin (Ouidah and Savi; Kelly 1997) revealed that from the seventeenth century the local elite of first Hueda and later Dahomey monitored the position of European settlements to guarantee a strategic observation of their operations. The distribution of excavated imports also reveals the local elites’ management of foreign influence (Kelly 2001). This contrasts with the direct exertion of European authority on the Elmina surroundings from the confines of their fortification from the early 1500s (DeCorse 2001). Work in the Banda area of west-central Ghana has revealed the distinctive features of settlement complexes shaped by changing trade relations and the dynamic impacts of historic forces and colonialism on material culture and daily practices (Stahl 2001). Banda project results show that locally made ceramics and subsistence patterns are sensitive to economic and social changes as well as to changes in taste. These studies have shown that even though there are commonalities, every colonial situation has a distinctive character hence the need to study each situation so as to generate comparable data (Apoh 2008). The Kpando archaeological project presented here, examines how specific daily social, political, economic, and material cultural practices of German and British colonizers and Kpando indigenes were enmeshed in a medley of geopolitical, ideological and exchange connections in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through the use of multiple sources—archaeological, oral accounts, archival, and ethnographic—this paper examines how daily practices of the people of the Kpando traditional area (Akpini people) were impacted by pre-colonial and colonial political economic pressures from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. It also explores how German and British colonial officials established their colonial regimes and practiced their daily living arrangements in district centers far from their colonial capitals. This was done by assessing fragments of nineteenth/twentieth-century archaeological material culture. Notably, fragments of domestic technology and foodways at the Kpando Todzi site were examined to understand how colonial officials maintained and renegotiated the preconceived notions of colonial rule, nature of colonial subjects and “norms of domesticity/gentility/Europeaness” (Saunders 2001) in the midst of Akpini cultural practices. This pioneering archaeological research is meant to draw attention to a new or renewed discourse on the archaeology of dual or triple colonial heritage sites in Africa.
Background Information on Kpando Kpando is a historically important and predominantly Ewe speaking town located on the eastern bank of the Volta Lake in the central highlands of the Volta Region of Ghana (Fig. 1; Agbodeka 2000, p. 3).
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Fig. 1 Map of study area showing locations mentioned
The praxis of history making (oral and documented) comes about as a result of historical experiences and contingencies. Encounters with new discourses or contingencies motivate indigenous people to revamp, accept or reject aspects of their histories. The origin, migration and settlement histories of the people of Kpando are no exceptions. Two traditions—the Abanu tradition and the Notsie tradition—documented in the course of this research reveals two varied settlement histories of Kpando (Apoh 2008). The Abanu tradition, narrated by chiefs and elders of Abanu, a current suburb of Kpando, claims that “Abanu” was the earliest community founded on “Kpando soil.” Two immigrant Akan-speaking groups founded this community. The first group, led by a warrior/hunter called Kwan, was believed to have migrated from Adjaade (a town located on the bank of the Volta River) in about the seventeenth century with his band of hunters/warriors. They moved and first settled in an area called Kwankro or Kwandu (meaning Kwan village). The account claims that another Akan-speaking group from Agona Swedru in the Central Region of Ghana, led by a man called Asamany later joined this first group. The two groups co-existed in “Kwankro” or “Kwandu” until the coming of the Akpini people from Notsie. The Akpini tradition, narrated by the chies and elders of Kpando, reveals that the Akpini people migrated into this area in the seventeenth century after fleeing from Notsie in south-central Togo (Aguigah 1986; Quarcoopome 1993). The narrative claims that the Akpinis came by the name Akpini after three migrating Ewespeaking groups from Notsie came together. The groups were led by Togbe Asianu, Togbe Adeje, and Togbe Eko (Dzablu-Kumah, Dzewoe Notes on The Akpinis of
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Kpando (1935–80), unpublished). The Akpini then traveled westward for about 40 years and eventually settled in the Kpando area. The narrative claims that an Akpini delegation to Kwankro in the seventeenth century announced their presence with the chant of “agoo” (knock, knock), to which Kwan’s elders responded “bremu” meaning “come in” in the Akan language. Kwan’s people were subsequently referred to as the “Bremu” people by the Akpini. This label was later corrupted to become Abanu (Apoh 2008). The narrative confirmed that the Abanu people warmly received the Akpinis. Other subvillages of Kpando were later founded after various clans moved from the main Akpini group in the Atongbomey and Kpando Gabi areas. Over time, the Abanu-Akan speakers intermarried and were assimilated into the Akpini ways of life. They lost their Akan language but still maintained some Akan titles and ritual practices. The Akpini Duko or state had to contend with slave raiding and destabilizing wars brought upon them by the Asante and their Akwamu allies from the late eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Under the rule of Togbega AdjaGa in the 1830s, the Akpini joined the Krepe confederacy and fought on multiple occasions against the Asante forces until hostilities ceased in 1874 (Mamattah 1979; Manoukian 1952). The oral histories of Kpando revealed that aside from the leadership by elders (e.g., Togbe or Togbega or Nunorla; before the Dagadu Dynasty was established in 1850s) and priests/priestesses of the African Indigenous Religion and their deities, there was no apparent formal social stratification in these early family/clan-based societies. Economic life in the pre-colonial period included potting, subsistence raising of livestock, fishing, and hunting. The communities also engaged in the farming of indigenous grains (rice, millet) and root crops (yam) bolstered by crops (cassava and maize) domesticated in the western hemisphere. These helped in feeding the population to replenish the loss of labor caused by the slave trade and wars. The economy was based on the exchange of services and goods. Most of the food crops and basic necessities were traded using cowries/gold dust and through the barter system (Baku 1998, p. 22; Gavua 2000). Items such as rubber, palm oil, ivory carvings and iron ore, were traded at big cities like Lome in Togo, Keta, Accra, and Kumasi in the Gold Coast. The traders brought back gold from the Gold Coast to make jewelry. The Kpando traders also brought back manufactured goods—gunpowder, alcohol, and textiles—and other European goods to sell at Kpando markets (Dzide and Benuyena 2000). The ethnohistorical findings reveal that Kpando, by virtue of its strategic location, became a market center that linked commercial centers such as KeteKratchi, Salaga, and Yendi, which were entrepôts of the northern trade system, with coastal cities like Lome, Accra, and Keta.
The Colonization of Togoland and Kpando The hegemonic processes and impacts of colonialism in West Africa did not happen overnight; they started forming from the mid-fifteenth century until the 1880s when colonialism became more concretized. The early 1880s marked the actualization of the formal agreement on territorial boundaries and legitimization of the partitioning of the globe by the major colonial states (Forster et al. 1989; Griffiths 1986). Representatives of leading states—Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Russia, United States, Portugal, Denmark, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, and Turkey—met in
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Berlin from November 15, 1884, until February 26, 1885, and allotted African territories to themselves resulting in the Berlin Act of 1885 (British Parliamentary Papers 1904, 62, Cd. 1933). This Act set in motion a scramble for territories in Africa to satisfy the economic, political, religious and civilizing ambitions of these states (Grifiths 1986; Porter 1985). Otto von Bismarck, the Imperial Chancellor of the then-newly founded German state ruled by Kaiser Wilhelm II, viewed the conference as a way to “secure equal commercial opportunities for German Traders” (Louis 1967, p.10; also see Rich 1991). As a result he pushed for the principle of free trade which the British supported. This Anglo-German cooperation on colonial questions was fostered by the understanding that the Germans would not threaten British strategic interests. An agreement brokered between Bismarck and Lord Salisbury’s emissary, Philip Currie in Friedrichsruhe in September 1885 was a strategic “collaboration policy” meant to quell colonial rivalry between the two countries (Forster et al. 1989; Louis 1967, p. 11). This bilateral goodwill, however, was shattered during the onset of the First World War in 1914. One important item (Point Three) on the Berlin Conference agenda was to establish rules for “effective occupation.” This meant that in promoting the acquisition of territories and principle of freedom of trade, the contending states could not lay claim to a spot without providing an “effective means of control” (Crowe 1942, pp. 116–118; Griffiths 1986). Every state was mandated by the Berlin Act to inform other contending powers immediately after establishing their presence and treaties in those areas (Knoll 1964, p. 29). Thus, this conference was based on the ideologies of power and European supremacy undergirded by the capitalist drive for resource exploitation and profit maximization (Knoll 1978). The lack of involvement and input of the indigenes during this partitioning process revealed the gross disrespect for local sensibilities and cultural boundaries. In pursuing the “Policy of Effective Occupation,” the Germans pushed inland to establish strategic trade and scientific enclaves/stations which enabled them to declare occupation rights even before they totally overwhelmed the indigenes with guns, treachery, blackmail, decapitation, and replacement of local leaders (Knoll 1964). Ultimately, this process resulted in the division of the land inhabited by the Ewes among the British, French and the Germans. These colonized territories became known as the British Gold Coast Colony (which includes most of southern Eweland), the French Dahomey (present day Benin) and German Protectorate of Togoland (Togo after 1905; Fig. 2). Most of the northern Ewe country including Kpando lay in Togo. The outcome of this conference still has a long-lasting effect on the human rights, social justice, politics, economics and the geopolitical manifestations in the area today. Archival data, corroborated by Akpini oral history revealed how the German (1889–1914) colonial regimes established a colonial station at Kpando-Todzi and how the British took colonial control over this area from 1914 to1957. Kpando people and their Ewe neighbors begun to experience the impacts of indirect European political economic encounters from the 1870s onwards. Akpini oral histories recount that before German colonial agents raided Kpando in 1889, British Commissioner Ribby Williams had already been to the Peki and Kpando areas in 1887 to sign treaties and distribute British flags to chiefs. This became possible because the British
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Fig. 2 Maps showing the boundaries of German Togoland, British Togoland, and French Togoland (Knoll 1967, p. 425; Amenumey 1986, p. 6)
took advantage of their alliance with these Ewe groups (i.e., Krepe Confederacy) during the fight against the Asante in the 1869–74 wars. Symbolically, the distribution of the flags meant that these areas had become the jurisdiction of the British. However, in actual fact the British did not establish a colonial presence in the form of settlements or administrations in the Kpando area before the arrival of German colonial forces. The Germans established colonial rule in Kpando and its environs with force. German officials, with the support of colonial troops (Schutztruppe), demanded and replaced the British flags with theirs and made the Kpando area a German protectorate in 1889 (Sebald 1988, p. 90). The British informed the Akpini people to cooperate with the Germans after they protested to the British colonial officers. Notably, a privately signed treaty—the Heligoland treaty—between the British and Germans ceded Kpando and other Ewe states (dukowu) to the Germans in 1890. The locals felt betrayed by Britain because they were not involved in the negotiations. The indigenes voiced this deep-seated sentiment to the British officials during the pacification of the British Togoland areas after the First World War (see Furley Report 1915). Initially, the Togoland colony was ruled from German Cameroun until 1891 when it became a fully-fledged colony. The scientific stations, initially established for crop research and weather reporting, later developed into administrative stations (Stationbezirke; see Fig. 2). The stations were headed by the Stationsleiter/Bezirksleiter or their assistants and included Basaari, Yendi, Tsevie, Tokpli, Nuatja, Palime, Kpando, Ho and Bismarckburg (Knoll 1978, p. 43; Sebald 1972). Thus, stations like Kpando became the microcosmic colonial theatres where administrators experimented with metropolitan-constructed colonial policies. In championing German colonial policies, the Kpando Station Officer administered and implemented German colonial policies in its environs. Before the German colonial officials came to Kpando, the local chieftaincy institution had been established. In
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addition, Kpando had vassal states paying tribute to it. The impact of direct colonial political economic rule on the indigenous lifeways is evidenced in how the Germans easily manipulated the chieftaincy institution within their territorial control. To a large extent chiefs became intermediaries in the bureaucratic hierarchy and, in the words of Dr. Gruner, a German political officer, “useful aids to the government.” Both the German and British Colonialists used chiefs as key agents in their indirect rule system to cut costs and to maintain the image of the colonizers. This was because the understaffed officials were thin on the ground and they did not want to belittle their image as unpopular tax collectors (Knoll 1967, p. 422). The Germans introduced formal and vocational education, Christianity, health services, and colonial bureaucracy in this colony. The modernization of communication lines and the opening up of the Kpando station in the palm and cotton belts of the interior also reconfigured Togoland societies and changed the conditions of trade (Knoll 1978). The Germans introduced the deutschmark and systematically built a number of railway lines with metropolitan subsidies and charged fares. The 44 km Coconut rail line (Kustenbahn, completed in 1905) linked Anecho to Lome wharf, the 119 km Cocoa Line (KaKaoeisenbahn, completed in 1907) linked Palime and Agome to Lome, and the 167 km Cotton line (Baumwollbahn, completed in 1911) linked Atakpame to Lome Wharf. The Germans proposed to extend the tracks to Kpando and the Northern Anecho districts but this did not materialize before the First World War took its toll (Darkoh 1966, p. 95; Sull 1935 p. 198). Furthermore, the Germans constructed a number of roads in Togoland to ease the flow of goods, people and trade in the colony. In all, about 1,146 km of roads designed to carry cars and trucks were developed by 1913. Roads linking LomeKpalime-Kpando-Kete Kratchi were completed in 1912. The Ho-Kpando road was also completed in 1911 (Cornevin 1962, p. 190). Towns along the north–south roadways like Ho and Kpando became major trading and distributing centers (Darkoh 1966, p. 100). This development enabled firms to relocate their stores and raw material purchasing points into the Kpando areas to effectively curtail the middlemen’s channel of collection and distribution of goods (Knoll 1978). The first battle of World War I was fought in German Togoland. When the war started in 1914, German Togoland under Governor Herzog Adolf Friedrich zu Mecklenburg declared neutrality, but this was not heeded by the allied forces. The allied British infantry (West African Frontier Force: Gold Coast, Nigeria, Gambia, Sierra Leone) and French forces (Dahomey, Sierra Leone, Black infantry; Moberly 1931), marched on Togoland and clashed with the German forces in Lome, Togo. The German officers and indigenous Askaris retreated inland to defend one of the most important German telegraph stations at Kamina after destroying communication lines in the south of Togoland (Stoecker 1986). After a series of clashes, the allied forces overrun the Germans. The defeated Germans retreated to Kamina and blew up the radio station after which they surrendered on August 26, 1914. Thereafter, the western allied forces rounded up the Germans (officials, soldiers, missionaries) as prisoners of war. During the war, many of the indigenes in the German Togoland colony were aware of the war but were mostly unconcerned. Kpando oral accounts revealed that some Togoland chiefs and people, who the Germans armed to fight on behalf of Germany, buried their guns and turned them over to the British afterwards. This attitude showed
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that they did not go along with the cause for which they were expected to fight. It also revealed that the locals were tired of the German colonial high-handedness and thus welcomed a change. Thus multiple colonial powers opened the possibility for locals to resist one hegemonic colonialist by cooperating with or yearning for the other. The end of German colonialism in Togoland did not translate into independence for the various states within the colony. The British and the French allied forces provisionally administered Togoland under martial law until a peace settlement was negotiated (Louis 1967, p. 42; Newbury 1967, p. 474). After the war, the Treaty of Versailles required Germany to relinquish all of its colonies to the western allies in addition to paying reparations. As a result, the Supreme Allied Council asked the French and the British to decide on the future of Togo. In July 1919, the signing of the Simon–Milner Agreement led to the partitioning of German Togoland into British Togoland and French Togoland (Amenumey 1986, p. 13). Though the Ewe Unification Movement protested this move, the League of Nations later endorsed it (Amenumey 1986, p. 20). The French ended up getting about two-thirds of the former German colony after ceding other territories and the rest of Togoland to Britain (Louis 1967, p. 42). Once again such a hegemonic partitioning of Togoland, which was devoid of local input, led to the division of towns, villages, ethnic groups, families, and polities along boundary lines. This is still having geopolitical ramifications and conflict over land ownership in these affected polities today (Lawrance 2003, 2005). In order to legitimize their imperial hold, the French and the British agreed and placed the annexed German territories under the “mandates system” which was enshrined in Article 22 of the League of Nations Covenant of 1919. These mandated territories, mostly ex-German colonies, became subjected to the control of the League of Nations (Anghie 2002). From their administrative capital at Cape Coast in the Gold Coast, and later Accra, the British oversaw the integration of British Togoland, and for that matter Kpando, into the Gold Coast Colony. The oral historical accounts revealed that after the end of the First World War, the British colonial officials came to Kpando to pacify and to notify the Akpinis of the change in colonial regimes. The Akpini people received this news with mixed feelings. Under this British mandate, Kpando was made a district under the southern section of the Eastern Province of the Gold Coast Colony. This district and that of Ho were put under the supervision of a District Commissioner who lived at Kpando (ADM 11/1281). The British encouraged the extraction of indigenous resources and diverted local production towards export commodities such as palm products, rubber, maize, and cotton. By so doing they imposed new labor demands, with “knock-on” effects on household labor allocation (Boahen 1987). The British colonial bureaucratic system required British trained or English speaking clerks to manage its administrative set up. This eventually led to the loss of jobs and disorientation of the German-trained and German-speaking Togoland and Kpando clerks. Under duress, most of them had to learn English and retrain in the British colonial ways of life in order to earn a living in the new colonial dispensation. The regime also worked to develop new markets for their products and encouraged importation and local consumption of British goods in the Kpando economy. The British enforced the use of the British West African pound sterling as the legal currency for Kpando and the other mandated territories in its environs. In this regard, they encouraged monetization (Guyer 1995) and likely increased socioeconomic differentiation and unequal access to wealth.
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In 1946, the British and French Togoland were placed under United Nations trusteeship. Following agitations for self-rule by nationalist movements in the Gold Coast in the 1940s and early 1950s, the British colonial regime tried to consolidate their hegemonic regime to no avail. Sustained anti-colonial strategic political maneuvers by the Convention People’s Party led by Dr. K. Nkrumah posed a difficult challenge for the British. Ultimately Nkrumah and his party triumphed. On the eve of independence for the Gold Coast, the status of the British trust territory of Togoland came up for debate. The consensus was to put the question to a vote on whether it should continue as a trust territory or it should become part of the independent Gold Coast. The result of this May 9, 1956, Plebiscite held under the auspices of the United Nations, led to the integration of the British trust territory of Togoland into the Gold Coast economy which then gained independence in 1957 and was renamed Ghana. Villages, towns, and cities like Ho and Kpando, who voted massively to continue under British trusteeship, became bounded in a region referred to as the Volta Region of Ghana.
Archaeological Entanglements of Dual Colonialism at Kpando-Todzi German colonialism affected the Akpini people and vice-versa throughout the period of German colonial rule. Similarly, British colonial rule in the British Togoland did have a large impact on the people and their sociocultural institutions. Kpando oral accounts reveal that after the German colonial administration had subdued the Kpando people in 1889, they ruled Kpando as one of the important administrative stations, cotton producing, and purchasing markets and religious centers (Apoh 1997; see also Darkoh 1966). In 1889 thereabout, they scouted the environs and located their settlement on the Kpando-Todzi (hilltop) site (Fig. 3). The hill is about 750 m above sea level and has a spacious plateau suitable for a settlement. This site, which overlooks the Kpando townships and the surroundings of the River Volta, was previously a grove containing the shrine of a deity called Fiadjei. The erection of the German Station desecrated the spiritual significance of the site. This act caused the Germans to lose popularity among its priests and clientele. The Germans built stone and brick residential houses and administrative offices at the hill top settlement and staffed the station with a few colonial officials, writers, interpreters, cooks, local support staff, and the colonial Askari police force (Sebald 1988, p. 91). One of the houses was also used as a cell/prison, where jailed indigenes were confined. The colonial style of building at Todzi was new to Kpando at this time. In addition, the Germans placed the houses and streets on a grid plan with rightangled roads which were most times lined with trees (e.g., mango trees) on both sides (Furley Report 1915). All the German period buildings have peculiar characteristics. The German architects with the help of local masons and carpenters filled stone foundations to create platforms upon which they used standard sized rocks, bricks, and adobe materials to build the superstructure of the houses (Fig. 4). They also used clay to build the superstructure on the rocky foundation and platforms. These houses were often roofed with slate, galvanized steel, and zinc sheets or thatch. Though the local wattle/daub and adobe thatched-roofed house style of building continued, the European styles of building with European-type doors and windows became the preferred choice of Kpando elites in the beginning of the twentieth century.
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Fig. 3 Map showing the Kpando Todzi colonial settlement site
The Germans were dispossessed of the Todzi settlement by the British after they lost the First World War in 1914. The British colonial officials reused the abandoned German facilities at Kpando-Todzi for about forty years before losing their colonial hegemony. The British maintained the structure of some of the German buildings while some of the units were destroyed and replaced with new structures. For instance, the British enlarged the small German prison cell on the site into a larger building to contain convicted criminals which they labeled “Her Majesty’s Prison.”
Fig. 4 The main building or Locus A building (left) and a colonial house with rocky walls (right) which once housed the German Station Master, the British District Commissioner, and Ghana postcolonial district officers at Kpando-Todzi
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Successive Ghana Government officials continuously used the Todzi structures for residential and administrative duties into current times. Today, there are six German colonial-styled houses made of rocks, adobe and cement foundation and superstructures with galvanized steel and zinc roofing materials on the Kpando-Todzi site. There is also a British-period courthouse. In the 1960s, the Ghana government expanded and changed the name of the Todzi prison from “Her Majesty’s Prison” to the “Kpando Prison.” Colonialism as a process was characterized by quotidian practices that generated tangible and intangible fragments in colonized areas. The excavation and analysis of such remains and their contexts provide insights into the nature of the object classes and how they were used and discarded. The implications of this analysis for understanding daily life as well as the processes through which domination and boundaries were produced and blurred cannot be underestimated (Hall 1996). The systematic archaeological excavation and research on Kpando explored here is the first of its kind in Kpando. Based on judgmental sampling, four loci at the Kpando Todzi settlement were selected for archaeological test excavation (Fig. 5). Locus A was the courtyard of the main building; Locus B, the space in front of the main building; Locus C, the rubbish mound associated with the local support staff quarters; and Locus D, the rubbish mound site associated with the main building. The selection of loci was done to elicit data that would inform on the lifeways of German and British colonial administrators and the post-colonial administrators who inhabited the site. Overall, the test excavations yielded a variety of assemblages of material culture. The Locus A (Fig. 6) trenches yielded a range of artifact classes. Local pottery dominated the finds even though they were mostly body sherds. Metal objects, glass, faunal remains, imported ceramics, pipe fragments, cowries, buttons, beads, and quantities of mortar and bricks were unearthed. Rocks and pieces of mortar were encountered in the course of excavating the southern end of a 2×7 m trench (Trench 1). The irregular appearance of the rocks convinced my crew and me to broaden the
Fig. 5 Plan of the Todzi site showing the locations of the excavated loci and units
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Fig. 6 The Locus A site showing the nature of the courtyard before excavation
trench. Hence, we excavated a 3×7 m trench. Eventually, the exposed outline of the rocks revealed the pattern of a house foundation. We left a 1×7 m baulk in between and excavated another 3×7 m trench (Trench 2) to the east of trench one to enable us trace the extent of the foundation. This trench also revealed the outline of the foundation rocks which appeared to be going eastward. We had to excavate another 3×3 m trench to expose the full extent of the foundation rocks. The baulks and trenches were dug down through compact gravel to a depth of 50 cm to expose the full extent of the rocky foundation (Fig 7). Two 1×2 m trenches (4 and 5) were also excavated behind the main Building. The sterile levels were reached at about 30 cm and mostly metals and few other artifacts were unearthed from these units. Locus B encompassed an area of about 50×120 m located at the western front yard of the main building; around the stairway leading into the building. The area was tested to locate middens and artifacts associated with the main building. Shovel test pits (STPs) were positioned on north–south and east–west transects on the site. In all, 100 STPs (each about 30 cm in diameter) were excavated at 5 m intervals. Mostly pieces of modern bricks, plastic, and charcoal debris were found here. As a result of this disturbed and mixed midden, material from this locus will not be analyzed in this paper. The Locus C site is a rubbish mound (Mound 1) located 60 m north of the local support staff quarters (see Fig. 5). The mound is about 36 m long, 20 m wide, and 1.2 m at the Fig. 7 Photo of excavated buried house foundation at the Locus A site
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highest midpoint and tapers down towards the edges. Two units (Mound 1, Unit 1 and 2) were dug on the mound. A number of artifacts (metals, ceramic, glass, faunal, floral) were unearthed at the Locus C site. In addition, large quantities of modern plastic bags of all sizes and in a variety of colors (e.g., red, black, white, polychrome) were excavated from all the levels except the sterile level. These means that the context had a mixed modern assemblage as a result materials from this locus will also not be analyzed in this paper. Mound 2 at Locus D is a rubbish mound located about 100 m south of the main building. It is about 16 m2 in area and the highest point on the mound is about 1.2 m above the surrounding surface after which it tapers down to the east. Two 1×2 m units were dug on the western and eastern ends of the mound. Several ashy levels and dark lenses, probably the result of burning or the dumping of burned material, were encountered in both units (Fig. 8). Table 1 provides a numerical summary of finds from Locus A and D. The general trend gleaned from these trenches and units shows that local pottery (73 %) and metals (12.4 %) were the most common category in Locus A; whereas metals (53.2 %) and bones (16.4 %) were more dominant in the locus D assemblages. Faunal remains (bones
Fig. 8 The profile of the west wall of Mound 2 Unit 1 at the Locus D site
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Table 1 Numerical summary of finds at Kpando Todzi Finds → units
Pottery Imported Mollusca Bones Beads Metal Glass ware Cowries Pipes Buttons ceramic
Locus A TR 1
1,471
12
11
78
2
108
175
1
3
2
TR 2
1,019
7
8
27
–
221
128
2
2
1
TR 3
472
1
7
9
1
134
51
2
–
–
TR 4
6
5
7
–
–
32
7
–
–
–
TR 5
2
7
6
–
–
11
32
–
–
–
Sub total 2,970
32
39
114
3
506
393
5
5
3
% Total
73
0.8
1.0
2.8
0.1
12.4
9.7
0.1
0.1
0.1
M2 U1
87
16
43
118
–
478
77
3
–
–
M2 U2
35
2
15
42
–
41
17
–
–
–
Sub total 122
18
58
160
–
519
94
3
–
–
% Total
1.9
6.0
16.4
–
53.2
9.7
0.3
Locus D
12.5
and mollusca) were indicative of subsistence practices at both loci. Glassware fragments were also attested at both loci. The remaining artifact categories (e.g., imported ceramics and cowries) were found in small quantities from some of the units in both loci.
Analysis and Discussion of Locus A & D Archaeological Finds Crossland’s (1989) analysis of pottery from Begho in Ghana reveals that the stimulus and reasons for pottery production by potters vary and that “too many variables are involved in the effects of contact or conquest on arts and crafts to allow for simple generalizations.” Yet detailed archaeological analysis can aid in reconstructing the daily lives, cultural patterns and concealed practices of men and women of the past (Orser 1996, p.10). The local pottery finds from locus A and D and associated faunal and botanical data were analyzed to assess the nature and distribution of pottery form and usage at the site. It was also done to assess whether the German and British colonial officials in Kpando maintained social boundaries by strictly consuming imports or they eroded such quotidian material boundaries by employing not only the services of indigenous cooks and their local domestic technology but also reprovisioning and appropriating indigenous food and other products. In most colonial situations, colonial officials often made efforts to provision themselves from abroad (e.g., relying on tinned foods and European wares) to maintain their European lifestyle and gentility. However, transportation difficulties in the hinterlands often meant that local provisioning was a necessity (Hall 2000; Stahl 2001). Thus, the pottery and associated cultural material analyses provided insights into how the use of domestic technology and foodways reinforced or blurred social distinctions among the dual colonizers and the colonized indigenes at the Kpando-Todzi site.
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The form and shape of vessels sometimes reflect their function (Joukowsky 1980). The analysis of the vessel forms was done by reconstructing and classifying the parts and morphology of a total of 3,097 pottery sherds (Table 2). Their spatial distribution at the loci was also factored in the analysis to inform on their usage by the Todzi inhabitants. Body sherds (e.g., neck, carination, body, colander, lid and handle sherds) dominated the pottery assemblage from both loci (Fig. 9). Based on analysis of rim morphology (i.e., vertical, in-turned or out-turned rim shapes, lip treatment) and the estimated diameter of the vessel openings, the varieties of form were classified into two main categories: “jars” (known in Kpando as ze); and “bowls” (locally known as kole (Amevor 1993). Notably, ze made up the largest number of vessel forms in the Todzi pottery assemblage compared to the kole and the indeterminate forms. Two varieties; everted rim ze form (Fig. 10; examples include Nudaze, Tzifoze, Tomedeze and Tsinoze) and globular ze form were recognized from visual identification of the ze rim sherds and neck sherds. The general pottery pattern shows that the everted rim form abound in the Locus D assemblage. Notably, various forms of kole (Fig. 11; for example, Kolegatre, Kolezokpoe,and Kolezone) were also identified in the ceramic assemblage and they occured in the deposits at both loci. Based on oral account and archaeological information, pottery usage and discard at the Todzi site began in the 1880s; this was when the colonial settlement was first built over the ruins of the Fiadjei shrine. The deposition of local pottery in the context of Locus A and its associated midden at Locus D reveals that the colonial officials and local assistants may have used the vessels on the site for cooking and serving purposes. Furthermore, there are no clear temporal breaks in the limited archaeological pottery record; especially between the phases of occupation of the two colonial regimes. This is gleaned from the lack of drastic (or subtle) stylistic changes in the morphology of the excavated finds. It is envisaged that detailed spatio-temporal
Table 2 Spatial distribution of pottery/vessel parts Loci/Units
Jar (rim)
Bowl (rim)
Ind (rim)
Neck
Carination
Body
Base
Colander
Total
TR 1
34
18
35
31
14
1,324
11
4
1,471
TR 2
12
10
32
16
7
929
7
6
1,019
TR 3
17
16
25
16
1
370
10
7
472
TR 4
–
–
2
2
–
2
–
–
6
TR 5
–
–
–
–
–
2
–
–
2
Total
63
44
94
65
22
2,627
28
17
2,974
% Total
2.2
1.6
3.3
2.3
0.8
88.0
0.9
0.6
100 %
M2 U1
13
9
11
4
3
41
4
3
88
M2 U2
7
6
4
1
1
12
3
1
35
Total
20
15
15
5
4
53
7
4
123
% Total
16.2
12.2
12.2
4.0
3.3
43.1
5.7
3.3
100 %
Locus A
Locus D
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Fig 9 Graphical representation of spatial distribution of pottery parts in Locus A and D respectively
analysis of the morphology, surface treatment and stylistic elements of the Todzi pottery assemblage will be compared with ethnographic Kpando pottery and the pottery data accrued from on-going excavation at the early Abanu and Akpini sites in Kpando. These analytical findings will be featured in a future publication on Kpando pottery which will evaluate the continuity and change in pottery morphology/styles/function and associated factors from pre-colonial to contemporary periods. Some historical documents on German and British colonialism at Kpando and Togoland have provided insight into European imports that were traded with the indigenes of Togoland (Darkoh 1966; Knoll 1964; Stoecker 1986). These included: European domestic/kitchen wares, cotton-textiles, glass pearls, Nuremberg toys/wares, spiritual objects, tobacco, alcohol, tools, iron and brassware, ceramic, gun powder, rifles, and luxury goods (furniture, mirrors, lamps, clocks; Stoecker 1986). On the question of imported ceramic usage at the sites, I examined the nature and quantity of finds, the contexts in which they were found and who used them in order to understand the importance of their usage at the sites and effects on the production and maintenance of social boundaries. Fifty imported ceramic sherds were recovered, including one complete bone china earthenware plate was unearthed at the two loci (see Table 1). These finds have been categorized into porcelain (n=11), earthenware (n=25) and stoneware (n=14) to facilitate the determination of source and date of manufacture (Fig. 12). Even though Fig. 10 Examples of jar/Ze rim forms for the Kpando-Todzi site
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Fig. 11 Examples of bowl/kole forms from the Kpando-Todzi site
an attempt was made to determine the vessel forms from the sherds, only five rims and a complete plate provided indication of the forms (i.e., plates = 3, bowl = 2, cup = 1) available. The majority of the sherds were undiagnostic body fragments. However, a number of decorations were noted on some of the ceramic finds. The complete English bone china plate (bearing the mark “Asprey London” and crown “AYNSLEY ENGLAND, EST 1877”) was excavated at a depth of 30 cm in the locus D site. This midden is associated with the main building at Locus A suggesting that the plate could have been used in the Locus A building by government officials and discarded. The plate has a gold band and guilt on the rim as well as an embossed Ghana Coat of Arms close to the edge of the plate. This embossment obviously dates the plate to the post-colonial era and commemorates the change from the “Gold Coast” to the “Republic of Ghana” following her independence from the British in 1957. Underglaze annular designs in single and multiple bands and colors were also found on the excavated porcelain and earthenware pieces. Underglaze and overglaze transferprinted floral and geometric prints were executed on some porcelain, earthenware, and stoneware sherds. These imported ceramics date to the nineteenth/twentieth centuries and are possibly of British, German, and other European origins (DeCorse 2001; Noël Hume 1970; Rice 1987; South 1977). The analysis and implication of the contexts and quantities of imported ceramics found in the Kpando Todzi site is necessary for understanding how imported ceramics featured in trade, daily practices, and foodways at the site. However, a limited number of ceramic finds were recovered. This suggests that this item was not traded on a large scale. On the other hand, the owners of such imported vessels may have taken special care of them to forestall breakage and Fig. 12 Examples of imported ceramics from the KpandoTodzi site
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subsequent deposition in the archaeological record. An analysis of the context of deposition shows that the ceramic remains were recovered from both loci (but not from all levels) at the Todzi site. The relative homogeneity in the distribution of imported ceramic across the Todzi site bolsters the case that the creation of boundary and status distinctions among the users in the colonial contexts was not occurring through the use of imported ceramic technology and foodways. The implication of site formation processes needs to be put in context as well. In this respect, it is plausible that Akpini children may have been drawn to and collected these discarded broken ceramics—due to their difference—from the locus D midden or so-called “Obroni or Yevu bola” (white people’s garbage). These items may have been reused for making toys or as play things. This plausible assertion is based on ethnographic evidence at Kpando. Children and itinerant bottle and scrap collectors usually rummage through rubbish dumps to look for recyclable materials. In terms of the assessment of foodways in the archaeology of the Kpando-Todzi site, small quantities of botanical remains were recovered from the screens and sorted from flotation samples from the loci. Through specialist analysis a number of relevant economic plants were identified in the process. Notably, maize kernels (Zea mays) were recovered in the flotation samples. The Akpini narratives and ethnographic evidence reveal that maize has been a staple food source in Akpini cuisine since the formation of the Kpando settlements. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) was also unearthed. The float samples produced more of the charred and uncharred endocarp or oil palm shell material than kernel. Pawpaw (Carica papaya) seeds were also identified in the sample. All the seeds were uncharred, suggesting that their preservation is very good. Oil palm is utilized widely throughout West Africa; from prehistoric times to the present (D’Andrea et al. 2006). They are very good in making palm soup and palm oil. It is worth noting that palm products were major export items during the colonial periods. Both papaya and maize are not indigenous to West Africa and were likely brought in as a consequence of historic trade networks. Ninety-seven aquatic and terrestrial molluscan remains were excavated from the Kpando Todzi site. They provide insight into the kind of fauna exploited in the dietary foodways of the inhabitants and the implication of this practice for social distinction. Overall, Archatina achatina shells (giant land snail; Edmunds 1978) formed the majority of finds. Though they were recovered from both loci most of them were found in the Locus D midden. The other molluscan varieties which are mostly found in marine, lagoon, and estuarine environments were also among the faunal remains. Apart from the Achachatina (small snail) variety, almost all the molluscan remains excavated at the site are locally eaten and may have been collected primarily for use as food by the Todzi inhabitants (colonial and local). Vertebrate fauna was also recovered from the archaeological excavations. Fish remains constitute the majority of vertebrate finds. These were found in both loci. Preliminary analysis reveals that the species of fish (e.g., Tilapia spp., catfishCorydoras spp., mudfish-Neochanna spp. etc.,) represented in the assemblage were from riverine sources. These fishes are all edible and are usually fished from the River Volta and other rivers in the area (Holden and Reed 1972; Irvine 1947; LoweMcConnell 1972; Roberts 1967). Mammalian elements were also found in the assemblage. Some of the species identified from the elements include; cow (Bos
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spp.), sheep/goat (Ovicaprids), grass cutter (Thryonomys swinderianus), duiker (Cephalophus spp.), deer/bovid (Artiodactyls spp.), rat (Rattus spp.), giant rat (Criscetomys gambianus), dog (Canis familiaris), snake (Sepentes spp.), domestic pig (Sus scrofa), and domestic cat (Felis domesticus; Booth 1960; Happold 1973). Aside from the dog and snake remains, the indigenes exploit almost all of the mammals found in the assemblage for food. The dog elements (mostly articulated vertebral column and ribs) found in the Locus D site appeared to have been buried rather than butchered for food. Snakes on the other hand are not generally exploited for food in the Kpando area. The discovery of the almost intact spinal column and ribs of two snakes reveal that they were killed and buried at the site. The snake finds confirmed local rumor about the prevalence of snakes at the site. Avian elements were also part of the faunal assemblage. The species identified include turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), chicken (Gallus domestica), guinea fowl (Numida meleagris), and domestic duck (Anas domestica). Chicken appears to be well exploited at the site as the remains were identified in all the units. Fruit bat (Rousettus spp.) finds were also found in the assemblage (Serle et al. 1977). These bats abound in the Kpando area however they are not typically exploited for food. Thus it is difficult to conclude that the bat archaeological remains were part of food remains. They may have been from discarded dead bats. The remains of a monitor lizard (Varanus spp.) were also found in the assemblage. Monitor lizards are sometimes exploited for food even though this practice is not widespread. The analyses of the context of deposition of faunal residues reveal the kinds of fauna that members of each locus were eating. Notably, fish, turkey, sheep, goat, chicken, and some delicacies of mullusca (e.g., Arca senilis, Archatina archatina) were more available at the Locus A context. These might have been enjoyed by the colonial officials, Ghana government officials and or their guests. Residues of both domesticated animals and wild forms/bushmeat were found in the Locus A midden. This suggests that the Todzi inhabitants were exploiting different kinds of meat protein. The cut marks on the long bones of sheep/goat and the chewed epiphysis of some of the avian bones suggests that some of the Todzi inhabitants had a taste for bone marrow. The homogenous distribution of similar types (even though differing in quantity) of faunal remains in the loci at Todzi also bolsters the case that foodways (especially indigenous fauna) were not used as a marker of social distinction between the colonizer and the colonized. The colonizers may have equally enjoyed the local fishes and bush meat prepared by them or by local cooks using indigenous domestic technology. Glassware was identified in the excavated assemblage of finds. This comprised vessels (wine/soda bottles, drinking glass, plates, ink well, medicine bottles), window glass, and mirrors. These glass vessels were used in domestic contexts in both loci. A bushman survival booklet produced in the early 1920s spelled out the kit of supplies political officers needed to complete their tour of duty. This included “clothing, and household necessities, as well as a tinned store of the entire food one might require” (Kuklick 1979, p. 127). Complete and pieces of tin cans (n=240) also made up the metal assemblage. Such cans which once contained food and drinks were mostly found at the Locus D midden. The lack of labels and their highly corroded and fragile state made it difficult to determine what they once contained or their points of origin. But their presence in the Locus D site speaks to the fact that the content of these cans were mostly used by the occupants of the Locus A building.
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Summary and Conclusion The systematic manifestation of the political economic strategies of the German and British metropoles following the partitioning of Africa during the 1884/85 Berlin Conference led to the colonization of the Kpando Landscape and its people. The periods of German and British colonial governmentality (Burchell et al. 1991; Scott 1999; Thomas 1994) were manifested in monolithic and subtle ways at KpandoTodzi. These hegemonic colonial control jostled Akpini bodies, indigenous cosmology and lifeways as well as its institutions and resources throughout these periods. The Germans cowed the indigenes into submission with military and deceptive force in order to establish colonial rule. They cleared the Todzi site of extant Akpini sacred practices i.e., shrines and built a new form of colonial architecture—rock and brick buildings—on this towering landscape. Though the choice of this site for the settlement might have been for security reasons, the underlying motivation was to reproduce the power-over phenomenon. This was to reinforce the colonial policy of spatial isolation of Europeans and surveillance over the practices of the Akpinis. The German and British structured the townships into grid patterns and enforced sanitation practices. These practices were in line with instilling European values of bodily practices on the locals as a way of enhancing colonial rule. The European architecture and enforcement of the policy of isolation by the colonizers also gave credence to the practice of social differentiation and boundary creation, whereby the segregated colonial residences portrayed its occupants as different and superior in the eyes of the local beholders. The extant Todzi rock and brick structures and the excavated rocky foundation walls all date to the German phase of the colonial administration (Fig. 13). The British and post-colonial governments later refurbished and expanded these buildings. The enhancement of the economic wherewithal of the local elites through trade in cash crops and working as colonial bureaucratic hands enabled them to adopt the new colonial building styles as a marker of social distinction. Nevertheless, the colonizers never viewed these elites as equals in any way imaginable. The colonizers often saw the Akpini people’s progress and taste for European material culture and mannerism as an affront to European “superior” values and a corrosion of their distinctive status and materiality (Hall 2000; Saunders 2001). Such distinctive Europeaness and gentility were often defined by European clothing—cloaks, hats, frocks, missionary cassocks, trousers—palanquins, languages, and automobiles. The
Fig. 13 An 1890 photo of the Locus A main building (after Dzide and Bonuyena 2000) juxtaposed with a recent photo of the site. The small building at the left end of the left image was the building that was perhaps destroyed; leaving its foundation buried in the courtyard
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practice of European domesticity in colonial households is often defined by proper table manners and the use of imported ceramics, chamber pots, cutlery sets, and tea accessories (Cheek 1999; Ferguson 1991). In addition, the remains of sawn bones (mostly pig) and remains of tinned food from locus D suggest that the colonial officials imported pork and used imported tinned foods to satisfy their taste for metropolitan diet and to distinguish themselves. The perceived boundaries and social distinction in the embodied spaces, appearances, speech and mannerisms of the German and British colonizers in the Kpando Todzi settlement were not monolithic. An analysis of archaeological residues—faunal, ceramic—from the excavated loci reveals that in the daily practices of foodways, use of domestic technology in the colonial kitchen and even in garbage disposal, the boundaries between the colonizers and the indigenes were blurred. According to oral accounts both the German and British colonial officers often employed local cooks who then used local food products and indigenous domestic technology to perform their services. Thus the colonialists were compelled by the difficulty in procuring these imports to adopt and adapt to local diets or foodways. On the issue of boundaries being blurred in kitchen residues and foodways, Dr. Jan-Bart Gewald of the African Studies Centre, Leiden, Netherlands, was of the view that such boundaries were surreptitiously transcended in the colonial bedroom as well (Gewald 2011). It is a well noted fact that the care and education of a host of half German and half Togoland children (molatoes or mestizos) became a major source of concern for the Catholic Convent in Lome following the defeat of the Germans (Lethbeidge 1921). This attests to the fact that the predominantly male colonial officials blurred their boundaries by having unequal sexual relations with some of the local females. Unequal? Yes, because the men were not very responsible for the upkeep of these children; hence the concern of the Lome Catholic Convent. The archaeological deposits at the loci depict a palimpsest entanglement of dual European and indigenous activities (Bailey 2006). In addition to the rocky foundation at the Locus A site being German, materials from the lower levels of the Locus D mounds could date to the German colonial period as well. The level where the complete plate with the embossed Ghana coat-of-arms was found in the Locus D do date to the post-colonial era (i.e., post 1957). The creation of the Locus D midden might have started from the late nineteenth century following the colonial occupation of the settlement. Yet again, the midden did not give a clear cut stratigraphic layering of German and British periods. However, the Locus D midden also revealed artifacts that provided insights into the lifeways of the Locus A occupants. There is also the possibility that the Locus D site might have been used as a refuse dump site by both locals and colonial officers alike during the colonial period. One peculiar aspect of this context is that almost all the levels were ashy which suggests that garbage was constantly burned to maintain sanitation. It is still being used as a dumping site by the settlement occupants today. These scenarios therefore precludes a firm distinction of colonizers’ remains from that of the indigenes, especially in the Locus A and D sites. The implication of this scenario is that the similarity in the distribution of the material remains (especially; faunal, local and imported ceramics) indicates that these items were used by both the colonizers and the colonized which therefore blurs the social boundaries that are purported to have existed in the policies of domesticity and gentility in the colonialists’ space.
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The implications of the site formation processes at the Locus A and D sites of Kpando-Todzi are worth analyzing. For instance, the colonial policy on sanitation and bodily practices could have precluded the discard of garbage around the Locus A household; being the main seat of colonial authority. On the other hand the site formation processes in the Locus D midden reveal a gradual buildup of this context through time. Therefore the pottery remains provide insight into the daily life of the inhabitants of the loci. The presence of everted rim vessels (e.g.; Nudaze, Tzifoze, Tomedeze, Tsinoze) and a number of kole vessels (e.g., Kolegatre, Kolezokpoe, Kolezone) identified in the Locus D midden attest to their use in daily domestic activities and foodways. The implication of this is that in terms of the use and discard of indigenous domestic technology there is no clear evidence of social distinction between the colonial officials and locals. The local cooks may have used the vessels in preparing dishes for the colonial officials or for themselves and discarded the broken pieces thereafter. Similarly, the colonial officials may have also used and discarded the local ceramics. One way to find out the specifics of the agency behind the daily practical use and discard of pottery in these contexts in the past is through a detailed research and analysis of the diaries and memoires of the German and British colonial officials, who were stationed at Kpando. This would, however, be the focus of future research on the site. The implication of this research echoes beyond the aims and objectives discussed above. The importance of conserving and rehabilitating the site for productive use cannot be belittled. Notably, many tour agencies in Ghana have listed the Todzi settlement site on their brochures as a tourist destination in the Volta Region. Besides the monuments which are in deplorable conditions, not much is on the site in terms of hospitality facilities to cater for potential visitors. The productive use of the site is also being compounded by the location of the Kpando Prison in some of the colonial structures and space. This extant prison is the transformed and renamed colonial prison developed on the site by the Germans and which was once known as Her Majesty Prison under the British. The roiling and mangled nature of this colonized context must be seen as a reflexive backdrop on which future partnerships or collaborations can be based in order to make the site productive in this millennium and beyond. In this regard, the author and other well-meaning intellectuals and community members are championing the rehabilitation of the monuments in partnership with the German embassy in Ghana and with a number of German ASA fellows. It is envisaged that a memory center will be established in the refurbished monuments to house some of the excavated artifacts, chieftaincy regalia, vestiges of slavery and warfare, ethnographic crafts, pictures and effigies of important personalities as well as notable intangible and tangible mangled remains of the dual colonizers in Kpando colonial history. While fostering the conservation of this monument and the memory of Kpando’s past, the results of this project can add value to the colonial built space and the cultural and environmental endowment of Kpando. The realization of these initiatives will also go a long way to promote Akpini, German and British colonial heritage education and tourism on the site. Acknowledgments I acknowledge the moral support of my family throughout the research and write-up phase of this project. I also acknowledge the support of the American Council of Learned Societies’ African
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Humanities Post-Doctoral (ACLS/AHP) Fellowship in this project. I extend my a warmest appreciation to the Chiefs and people of Kpando, the Kpando District Assembly, Dr. Gavua and colleagues in the Department of Archaeology, University of Ghana for their kind assistance and immeasurable support.
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