The Quest for ‘Decolonizing’ and ‘Democratizing’ the Archaeologies in Ethiopia

Abstract

The nature of the origin of Ethiopian archaeology1 (ies) is contestable on many grounds. It often overlaps with Pre/Aksumite archaeology. Ethiopian archaeology-so-called historic period, which in the main  concentrated on the northern Horn has suffered from spatial, temporal, and topical imbalances. However, few scholars have either considered it important or made attempts to redress it by broadening their field of vision. The misrepresentation in Ethiopian archaeology arises from the domination of expatriate scholars, who are of either Egyptology or Near Eastern training background. The absence of local training institutions that could produce capable and independent-minded indigenous archaeologists until very recently has also contributed to the problem. This paper argues that the only means of fair representations of regions  (democratization) in Ethiopian archaeology (ies) is by decolonizing it, which is the function of the production of capable and independent-minded indigenous archaeologists.

Key words: decolonization, democratization, Ethiopia, historical archaeology