Mapunda Bertram
Technol Cult. 2023;64(3):665-676. doi: 10.1353/tech.2023.a903968.
The worthiness (or worthlessness) of Africa's precolonial history has been a much debated theme since the colonial period. Diverse paradigms, historiographies, and schools of thought have emerged. Judging by the conference "Technology and Material Culture in African History: Challenges and Potentials for Research and Teaching" in the context of the above debates, we see indications of acknowledging precolonial Africa's potential to the present world. Accordingly, this article highlights the worthiness of Africa's past in two major areas: first, in reviving Africans' sense of pride and confidence erased by colonialists and colonial historians; second, in demonstrating the potential epistemological and paradigmatic benefits of African history for researching and teaching about technology and material culture within the continent and beyond. Finally, it advocates for historical archaeology as a means of retrieving information on Africa's past technologies and their resultant material culture.
自殖民时期以来，非洲前殖民历史的价值（或无价值）一直是一个备受争议的主题。出现了多种范式、史学和思想流派。从上述辩论背景下的“非洲历史中的技术与物质文化：研究与教学的挑战和潜力”会议来看，我们看到了承认前殖民时期非洲对当今世界的潜力的迹象。因此，本文在两个主要领域强调了非洲过去的价值：首先，在恢复非洲人被殖民者和殖民历史学家抹去的自豪感和自信心；其次，展示非洲历史在研究和教学技术和物质文化方面的潜在认识论和范式益处，无论是在非洲大陆内部还是外部。最后，它提倡历史考古学作为获取有关非洲过去技术及其产生的物质文化信息的手段。
