The Struggle to Protect and Decolonize Mozambican Underwater Heritage of Global Interaction: Swahili, Slave Trade, and Indian Ocean

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Maritime Archeology of the Slave Trade: Past and Present Work, and Future Prospects", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Here we document the last quarter century struggle to protect and study Mozambique Island’s Underwater Cultural Heritage --by mobilizing a coalition of Mozambican archeologists and international collaborators and fostering local community involvement--to confront the formidable challenges and mitigate damage caused by international salvage companies; and develop alternatives based on best-practice standards in archeology and that are decolonizing heritage, history, and archeology itself. As part of the Slave Wrecks Project network, Mozambican researchers have developed new national research capacity, are contributing to regional and international capacity building, and pursuing collaborations on specific underwater and maritime landscape sites that investigate a millennium of Mozambique island’s involvement in multiple strands of transoceanic exchange—including the Swahili coast's precolonial and colonial era history, Mozambique’s growing importance during final decades of the TransAtlantic slave trade, and in complex Indian Ocean trading systems with global links, including during European expansion.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Maritime Archeology of the Slave Trade: Past and Present Work, and Future Prospects   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow