Encounters in the East African Bush: Game Trophies, African Hunting and the (Neo)Colonial Appropriation of Heritage

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Itinerant Bureaucrats and Empire" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This paper traces growing colonial anxiety surrounding the management of East Africa’s natural heritage through sporadic encounters between white and indigenous hunters, distraught villagers, colonial officials, smugglers and safari tourists. Concerns about the availability of game for sport hunting, the supposed "cruelty" of indigenous hunting practices, government ivory, and colonial profits proliferate in the archives of British East Africa. These concerns play out alongside indigenous unease about shamba-raiding elephants, the restriction of traditional hunting areas and practices, as well as access to bush meat and other wildlife resources. Through these encounters, and as part of a larger project exploring the commodity chain of colonial ivory, this paper tracks the emergence of a conservation ethos that continues to appropriate East African resources, rights and desires within global heritage frameworks. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Itinerant Bureaucrats and Empire   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 202