Research

My research examines the effects of local tastes on broader-scale economic and social relationships during the period of ‘legitimate’ trade in Amedeka, southeastern Ghana. Africanist historians have described ‘legitimate’ trade as the socio-economic activities that developed after the British abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1807. Post-1807, a decline in the exportation of enslaved Africans caused an economic vacuum. To replace the vacuum, the British pushed for the exploitation of so-called legitimate tropical trade goods such as palm oil, groundnuts, rubber, and timber. However, the demand for labor within West Africa to produce these legitimate goods led to an increase in internal slavery and a prolonged abolition of slavery in West Africa.
My work contributes to the methodology of alternative histories of global entanglement. This methodology considers the interests of historically underrepresented groups by bringing together archaeological methods, anthropological theories, and historical data in conversation with deeply layered indigenous knowledge and memories in the making of the Atlantic world.
Through ongoing analyses of archaeological materials excavated from three sites in southeastern Ghana, combined with multidisciplinary analytic approaches, I highlight the transformations in local consumption practices by tracking and following the movement of commodities and how people incorporate different artifact classes into different social contexts. Contrary to common accounts about Africans as passive and indiscriminate consumers of imported goods, archaeological data from the southeastern region of Ghana suggest that local consumers were highly discriminative consumers of imported and regionally produced commodities. My work tacks back and forth between the archaeological data and multidisciplinary approaches to centralize local consumers in the narratives of global encounters. In sum, I ask questions that highlight the different historical conditions that continue to affect Africa’s representation in the world economies.
Generous fellowships from Northwestern University, the Social Science Research Council’s Mellon International Dissertation Research Fellowship, and the University of Missouri Research Reactor Center Pre-Doctoral Award support my research. I have presented my work at the African Seminar Annual Conference (2018), the Society of American Archaeology Conference (2018), the congress Pan African Archaeological Association for Prehistory and Related Studies (2018), and the Society of Africanist Archaeologists Conference (2018; 2020-canceled due to COVID-19).
Research Skills
ARCHAEOBOTANY

ARCHAEOMETRY

CERAMIC ANALYSIS

Interdisciplinary Research
HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
AFRICAN STUDIES
ETHNO -
ARCHAEOLOGY
BLACK STUDIES
Papers Presented

Negotiating shifts in local productions and social life during ‘legitimate’ trade in Amedeka, Ghana (AD 1807-1900)

The Relationship between Land use Dynamics and Foodways in Amedeka, Eastern-Ghana

Foodscapes as Gendered Taskscapes in West Africa

Foodways in Atlantic Era West Africa – Ghana: Towards an Archaeology of Daily Life

Nkudzedze: Africanizing Tastes & Consumer Power during 'Legitimate' Trade in Ghana, Amedeka

Engendering Food Acquisition Practices: Rethinking Everyday Life in Ghana - An Ethnographic Case of Amedeka

Foodways in Ghana-Amedeka

Research Awards
Papers Presented

2020
The Black Trowel Collective Microgrants
2019
Program of African Studies Morris Goodman Award
2018
Buffett Institute Graduate Students Conference Travel Award
2017
Program of African Studies Panofsky Research Grant
2017
Buffet Institute Graduate Students Dissertation Research Award
2020
SSRC Mellon International Dissertation Research Fellowship
2018
Program of African Studies Morris Goodman Award
2018
Program of African Studies Conference Travel Award
2017
Program of African Studies Morris Goodman Award
2016-2022
The Graduate School Fellowship
2020-2021
University of Missouri Research Reactor Center NSF Pre-Doctoral Internship Award
2018
Program of African Studies Panofsky Research Grant
2018
Department of Anthropology, Graduate Conference Travel Award
2017
LeCron Foster and Friends of Anthropology Research Grant
2014-2016
Erasmus Mundus Master EACEA Fellowship