Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann
Biographic Data
| ID | 150339 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rachel Ama Asaa |
| FAMILY NAME | Engmann |
| SIGNATURE | ENGMANN R A A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hampshire College |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1984-7864 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Timbuktu Unbound: Islamic Texts, Textual Traditions and Heritage in West Africa
Timbuktu Unbound: Islamic Texts, Textual Traditions and Heritage in West Africa
Efficacious Texts: Unraveling Nineteenth-Century Islamic Talismans in Asante (Ghana)
The Fake: Tales from the Field
Inspired by a conversation with Doran Ross (1947–2020), a leading African art scholar and curator who revolutionized the field of African art, this article discusses the adventures of fieldwork – in particular, its unpredictable nature. More specifically, it presents my experiences conducting an archaeological ethnography of nineteenth-century Islamic talismans in Asante (Ghana), and the matter of the “fake”. Islamic talismans comprise inscriptio…
Slaving and Slave Trading in Africa
Slavery in Africa dates to antiquity. Slave trading networks in Africa transported people across the Sahara and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, with significant numbers of people sent to the Middle East, India, central Asia, and South and Southeast Asia. Africa, however, was not only a source of export of people; enslaved persons were also imported into the continent. This article reviews scholarly research into the capture, trade, and use of ens…
Contested heritage and absent objects: Archaeological representation at Ghana’s forts and castles
This chapter examines archaeological representation at Ghana’s coastal forts and castles. During the transatlantic slave trade, such sites were places of captive Africans’ incarceration, as well as the final point of deportation from Africa, prior to the Middle Passage and enslavement in the Americas. Today, African descendants in the diaspora, as heritage tourists and/or pilgrims, journey to visit them, but as contested heritage sites they embod…
Coups, castles, and cultural heritage: Conversations with Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, former President of Ghana
Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings is one of the most popular and provocative leaders in African history. A former President of the Republic of Ghana (1992–2000), Rawlings came to power through a military uprising in 1979 and 1981. In 1992 and 1996, he won multiparty elections to become the leader of Ghana for a third and fourth time. To date, Rawlings is Ghana’s youngest and longest-serving leader. Renowned throughout the African continent an…
Name, Shame, and Jail: An Interview with Anas Aremeyaw Anas
Anas Aremeyaw Anas has been called Africa’s “most notorious” journalist. 1 He has produced documentaries extensively about human rights and corruption in Africa. As an undercover investigator, he is infamous for working in disguise. Operating under the mantra, “name, shame, and jail,” Anas describes himself as a “modern day crime fighter.” Anas has won numerous accolades, in Ghana and internationally, for work exploring illegal mining, sex work, …
Archaeo, That Useless Subject”: Excavating the Past through Autoarchaeology and Community Outreach Education
This paper is a response to James Anquandah’s call to make archaeological praxis relevant to national development agendas and to public and local communities. More specifically, it addresses how archaeology can contribute toward the advancement of community needs and interests, integrate the politics of recognition and inclusion, and also take into account community heritage values that necessitate active engagement with the past, particularly in…
Preliminary report on locally manufactured pottery at Christiansborg Castle in Osu, Accra, Ghana
Autoarchaeology at Christiansborg Castle (Ghana): Decolonizing knowledge, pedagogy, and practice
In the African postcolony, archaeological research and fieldwork engage with a variety of communities of connection. Therefore, a decolonizing archaeological heritage inquiry seeks a deeper engagement with an archaeological site's living direct descendant constituencies. Privileging Danish-Ga direct descendant communities in a collaborative archaeological heritage project at Christiansborg Castle in Osu, Accra, Ghana, this essay introduces the ex…
Mysticism, Enchantment and Charisma Reincarnated: Nineteenth-Century Islamic Talismans, Vernacularization and Heritage Values in Contemporary Asante
Condensed, concealed, inconspicuous material embodiments of mysticism, enchantment, and charisma, nineteenth-century Islamic talismans traveled the trans-Saharan caravan trade routes, circulating widely among the non-Muslim Asante, reflecting a tradition illustrative of the movement of people, objects, texts, ideas, and imaginations. Produced by migrant Muslim merchant-clerics and consumed by non-Muslim Asantes, they demonstrate the ways in which…
Heritage Itineraries
Heritage, Islam, and the Vernacular
This special issue examines the mobilization of heritage preservation concerns as part of different processes of construction of tradition in Muslim contexts. Through contributions from archaeological, ethnographic, historical, archival, visual, and discursive analysis in Afghanistan, Ghana, Mali, Bahrain, as well as in museum institutions elsewhere, the discussions in this issue consider where and how heritage value is created, located, and mobi…
Owning Slavery: An Interview with Katrina Browne
The transatlantic slave trade and heritage lie at the center of Katrina Browne’s work as a filmmaker, writer and activist. Her film, Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North (2008), which was received to critical acclaim, depicts the story of her family’s attempt to come to terms with their role in the history and legacies of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery. Since the film, she co-founded the Tracing Center on Histories and Lega…
An Interview with James Kwesi Anquandah
(En)countering Orientalist Islamic Cultural Heritage Traditions: Theory, Discourse, and Praxis
West African Islamic cultural heritage is recurrently overlooked or marginalized in scholarly, museological, and popular imaginaries, despite contemporary burgeoning Western attentiveness to Islam. Historically, Orientalists and/or Islamicists exclude West Africa, and anthropologists study West African Islam due to its alleged lack of written Arabic and Ajami texts (Loimeier 2013; Saul 2006), despite textual and material evidence to the contrary.…
Under Imperial Eyes, Black Bodies, Buttocks, and Breasts: "British Colonial Photography and Asante "Fetish Girls
June 01 2012 Under Imperial Eyes, Black Bodies, Buttocks, and Breasts: British Colonial Photography and Asante "Fetish Girls" Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann PhD candidate in the Anthropology Department and Archaeology Center at Stanford University. She received her Master's degree in Museum Anthropology and Bachelor's degree in Anthropology, both from Columbia University. Her dissertation research focuses on nineteenth century Is…
Under Imperial Eyes, Black Bodies, Buttocks, and Breasts: "British Colonial Photography and Asante "Fetish Girls
June 01 2012 Under Imperial Eyes, Black Bodies, Buttocks, and Breasts: British Colonial Photography and Asante "Fetish Girls" Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann PhD candidate in the Anthropology Department and Archaeology Center at Stanford University. She received her Master's degree in Museum Anthropology and Bachelor's degree in Anthropology, both from Columbia University. Her dissertation research focuses on nineteenth century Is…
Autoarchaeology at Christiansborg Castle (Ghana): Decolonizing knowledge, pedagogy, and practice
In the African postcolony, archaeological research and fieldwork engage with a variety of communities of connection. Therefore, a decolonizing archaeological heritage inquiry seeks a deeper engagement with an archaeological site's living direct descendant constituencies. Privileging Danish-Ga direct descendant communities in a collaborative archaeological heritage project at Christiansborg Castle in Osu, Accra, Ghana, this essay introduces the ex…
Coups, castles, and cultural heritage: Conversations with Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, former President of Ghana
Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings is one of the most popular and provocative leaders in African history. A former President of the Republic of Ghana (1992–2000), Rawlings came to power through a military uprising in 1979 and 1981. In 1992 and 1996, he won multiparty elections to become the leader of Ghana for a third and fourth time. To date, Rawlings is Ghana’s youngest and longest-serving leader. Renowned throughout the African continent an…
Slaving and Slave Trading in Africa
Slavery in Africa dates to antiquity. Slave trading networks in Africa transported people across the Sahara and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, with significant numbers of people sent to the Middle East, India, central Asia, and South and Southeast Asia. Africa, however, was not only a source of export of people; enslaved persons were also imported into the continent. This article reviews scholarly research into the capture, trade, and use of ens…
Mysticism, Enchantment and Charisma Reincarnated: Nineteenth-Century Islamic Talismans, Vernacularization and Heritage Values in Contemporary Asante
Condensed, concealed, inconspicuous material embodiments of mysticism, enchantment, and charisma, nineteenth-century Islamic talismans traveled the trans-Saharan caravan trade routes, circulating widely among the non-Muslim Asante, reflecting a tradition illustrative of the movement of people, objects, texts, ideas, and imaginations. Produced by migrant Muslim merchant-clerics and consumed by non-Muslim Asantes, they demonstrate the ways in which…
An Interview with James Kwesi Anquandah
Under Imperial Eyes, Black Bodies, Buttocks, and Breasts: "British Colonial Photography and Asante "Fetish Girls
June 01 2012 Under Imperial Eyes, Black Bodies, Buttocks, and Breasts: British Colonial Photography and Asante "Fetish Girls" Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann PhD candidate in the Anthropology Department and Archaeology Center at Stanford University. She received her Master's degree in Museum Anthropology and Bachelor's degree in Anthropology, both from Columbia University. Her dissertation research focuses on nineteenth century Is…
(En)countering Orientalist Islamic Cultural Heritage Traditions: Theory, Discourse, and Praxis
West African Islamic cultural heritage is recurrently overlooked or marginalized in scholarly, museological, and popular imaginaries, despite contemporary burgeoning Western attentiveness to Islam. Historically, Orientalists and/or Islamicists exclude West Africa, and anthropologists study West African Islam due to its alleged lack of written Arabic and Ajami texts (Loimeier 2013; Saul 2006), despite textual and material evidence to the contrary.…
Owning Slavery: An Interview with Katrina Browne
The transatlantic slave trade and heritage lie at the center of Katrina Browne’s work as a filmmaker, writer and activist. Her film, Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North (2008), which was received to critical acclaim, depicts the story of her family’s attempt to come to terms with their role in the history and legacies of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery. Since the film, she co-founded the Tracing Center on Histories and Lega…
An Interview with James Kwesi Anquandah
Archaeo, That Useless Subject”: Excavating the Past through Autoarchaeology and Community Outreach Education
This paper is a response to James Anquandah’s call to make archaeological praxis relevant to national development agendas and to public and local communities. More specifically, it addresses how archaeology can contribute toward the advancement of community needs and interests, integrate the politics of recognition and inclusion, and also take into account community heritage values that necessitate active engagement with the past, particularly in…
Preliminary report on locally manufactured pottery at Christiansborg Castle in Osu, Accra, Ghana
Autoarchaeology at Christiansborg Castle (Ghana): Decolonizing knowledge, pedagogy, and practice
In the African postcolony, archaeological research and fieldwork engage with a variety of communities of connection. Therefore, a decolonizing archaeological heritage inquiry seeks a deeper engagement with an archaeological site's living direct descendant constituencies. Privileging Danish-Ga direct descendant communities in a collaborative archaeological heritage project at Christiansborg Castle in Osu, Accra, Ghana, this essay introduces the ex…
Mysticism, Enchantment and Charisma Reincarnated: Nineteenth-Century Islamic Talismans, Vernacularization and Heritage Values in Contemporary Asante
Condensed, concealed, inconspicuous material embodiments of mysticism, enchantment, and charisma, nineteenth-century Islamic talismans traveled the trans-Saharan caravan trade routes, circulating widely among the non-Muslim Asante, reflecting a tradition illustrative of the movement of people, objects, texts, ideas, and imaginations. Produced by migrant Muslim merchant-clerics and consumed by non-Muslim Asantes, they demonstrate the ways in which…
Heritage Itineraries
Heritage, Islam, and the Vernacular
This special issue examines the mobilization of heritage preservation concerns as part of different processes of construction of tradition in Muslim contexts. Through contributions from archaeological, ethnographic, historical, archival, visual, and discursive analysis in Afghanistan, Ghana, Mali, Bahrain, as well as in museum institutions elsewhere, the discussions in this issue consider where and how heritage value is created, located, and mobi…
Coups, castles, and cultural heritage: Conversations with Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, former President of Ghana
Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings is one of the most popular and provocative leaders in African history. A former President of the Republic of Ghana (1992–2000), Rawlings came to power through a military uprising in 1979 and 1981. In 1992 and 1996, he won multiparty elections to become the leader of Ghana for a third and fourth time. To date, Rawlings is Ghana’s youngest and longest-serving leader. Renowned throughout the African continent an…
Name, Shame, and Jail: An Interview with Anas Aremeyaw Anas
Anas Aremeyaw Anas has been called Africa’s “most notorious” journalist. 1 He has produced documentaries extensively about human rights and corruption in Africa. As an undercover investigator, he is infamous for working in disguise. Operating under the mantra, “name, shame, and jail,” Anas describes himself as a “modern day crime fighter.” Anas has won numerous accolades, in Ghana and internationally, for work exploring illegal mining, sex work, …
Contested heritage and absent objects: Archaeological representation at Ghana’s forts and castles
This chapter examines archaeological representation at Ghana’s coastal forts and castles. During the transatlantic slave trade, such sites were places of captive Africans’ incarceration, as well as the final point of deportation from Africa, prior to the Middle Passage and enslavement in the Americas. Today, African descendants in the diaspora, as heritage tourists and/or pilgrims, journey to visit them, but as contested heritage sites they embod…
Timbuktu Unbound: Islamic Texts, Textual Traditions and Heritage in West Africa
Timbuktu Unbound: Islamic Texts, Textual Traditions and Heritage in West Africa
Efficacious Texts: Unraveling Nineteenth-Century Islamic Talismans in Asante (Ghana)
The Fake: Tales from the Field
Inspired by a conversation with Doran Ross (1947–2020), a leading African art scholar and curator who revolutionized the field of African art, this article discusses the adventures of fieldwork – in particular, its unpredictable nature. More specifically, it presents my experiences conducting an archaeological ethnography of nineteenth-century Islamic talismans in Asante (Ghana), and the matter of the “fake”. Islamic talismans comprise inscriptio…
Slaving and Slave Trading in Africa
Slavery in Africa dates to antiquity. Slave trading networks in Africa transported people across the Sahara and the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, with significant numbers of people sent to the Middle East, India, central Asia, and South and Southeast Asia. Africa, however, was not only a source of export of people; enslaved persons were also imported into the continent. This article reviews scholarly research into the capture, trade, and use of ens…
History (14 works) · Archaeology (12 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories (9 works) · History (8 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (7 works) · Anthropology (7 works) · Art (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Political science (7 works)