The Shadows of Empire: a Study of European Colonial Forts and Castles

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The Shadows of Empire: a Study of European Colonial Forts and Castles

Veranstalter
John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu (Norwegian University of Science and Technology); Kofi Baku (University of Ghana)
Veranstaltungsort
University of Ghana, Accra/Legon, African Studies, Yiri Lodge
Ort
Accra
Land
Ghana
Vom - Bis
01.08.2012 - 02.08.2012
Website
Von
Roberto Zaugg

What do buildings mean? What did/do the fortifications that European
built in their imperial outposts in Africa and other parts of the world mean in local and global contexts? Today, the fortifications in Ghana and other parts of Africa, which are enduring material legacies of European expansion (in all its forms) and Afro-European entanglement, have become objects of curiosity to some and for others they are objects that invoke memories of a sordid past. This conference seeks to go beyond the overwhelming association in the literature (and rightly so)
of the fortifications with the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It seeks new
understandings from a variety of disciplines and perspectives (history,
architecture and architectural history, demography,archaeology, geography, anthropology, and cultural memory studies, etc) that use the fortifications as a starting point to explore how the Afro-European interactions and exchanges brokered within, around and from these fortifications affected and transformed individual lives, as well as the social, political cultural, and economic fabric of peoples far and near.

Programm

DAY 1: WEDNESDAY, 1. AUGUST 2012

08:30-09:00 Registration and Familiarization/Practical Information

09:00-09:10: Welcome from Head of History Department (University of Ghana): Dr. Kofi Baku

09:10-09.30: Self presentation (participants)

09:30-09:40: Introduction of Project and Conference: “Beyond Borders: transnational movements through history” project by Dr. John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

09:40-10:00: Short break/Refreshments

Morning Session

10:00-11:00: “Entangled histories: applying the transnational perspectives to studies of colonial fortifications” by John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu

11:00-12:00: “Grossfriedrichsburg: A Site of African-European Interaction and of German Memory” by Roberto Zaugg (University of Basel)

Lunch: 12:00-13:00

Afternoon session

13:00-14:00: “William Smith’s views of English fortifications in Africa” by Emily Mann (Courtauld Institute of Art, London)

14:00-15:00: “Architecture of oppression: the use of the dungeons in the forts and castles in Ghana” by Rexford Assasie Oppong and Henry Nii Adziri Wellington (University of Ghana)

15:00-15:20: Short break/Refreshments

15:20-16:20: Louis Nelson: "Coffle, Castle, Deck, Block" (University of Virginia)

16:20-17:20: "Territoriality, Boundaries and Filters - the Power of architectural deisgn in Christiansborg, Osu" by Professor Henry Nii Adziri Wellington (University of Ghana)

DAY 2: THURSDAY, 2 AUGUST

Morning Session

08:30-09:30: “Colonial Spaces, Postcolonial Memories: A Critical Analysis of Museums Inside the Slave Castles” by Neelima Jeychandran (UCLA)

09:30-10:30: "Fort Prindzenstein: A Monument in the Identity of Keta-Someawo" by Philip Afeadie (University of Ghana)

10:30-10:45 Short Break/Refreshment

11.45-12:45: “Culture contact and space – archaeology of trade and cultural entanglement at Dixcove, Ghana” Fritz Beveridge & Professor Henry Nii Adziri Wellington (University of Ghana)

Lunch: 12:45-13:30

Afternoon Session
13:35-14:35: “Female Agency in a Cultural Confluence: Women, Trade and Politics in 17th and 18th-Century Gold Coast” by K Adu-Boahen (University of Cape Coast)

14:35-15:35: “Obama at the Cape Coast Castle (Ghana): meaning and appropriation of ‘Gate of no Return’” by Ebenezer Ayesu (University of Ghana)

15:35-15:50: Short Break/Refreshment

15:50-16:50: “China, architecture and Ghana’s spaces: Concrete Signs of a soft Chinese imperium?” by Lloyd G.Adu Amoah (Ashesi University)

16:50-17:40: Kofi Baku (topic to be decided)

17:40-18:15: Brainstorming and evaluation: problems and possibilities of studying colonial forts and castles

Kontakt

John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu

john.kwadwo.osei-tutu@ntnu.no