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“Why Can't People Feed Themselves?”: Archaeology as Alternative Archive of

Food Security in Banda, Ghana

Article in American Anthropologist · July 2016

DOI: 10.1111/aman.12603

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 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST

“Why Can’t People Feed Themselves?”: Archaeology as

Alternative Archive of Food Security in Banda, Ghana
Amanda L. Logan

ABSTRACT Today, food insecurity is associated with both severe climatic shifts and pervasive poverty. What is less
well understood is how the problem of hunger came to take its present-day form, especially in the African continent,
where the highest prevalence of undernourishment is found. In this article, I propose that archaeology can be used
as an alternative archive of food security. Material remains provide a from-the-hearth-up view of changing foodways
and political economy and can be used to trace the shape of processes that led to modern-day patterns of food
insecurity. Combining archaeobotanical, ethnoarchaeological, and environmental data, I provide a case study that
shows how food insecurity was avoided during a centuries-long drought in Banda, Ghana, and emerged only much
later, in the 19th and 20th centuries, as market economies and colonial rule took hold. I suggest that archaeology is
essential for making such processes of “slow violence” visible, particularly in areas that lack rich historical archives.
[Africa, food security, Ghana, archaeobotany, slow violence]

RESUMEN Hoy, la inseguridad alimentaria está asociada tanto con cambios climáticos severos como con pobreza
extrema. Lo que es menos entendido es cómo el problema del hambre llegó a tomar su forma presente, espe-
cialmente en el continente africano, donde se encuentra la prevalencia más alta de desnutrición. En este artı́culo
propongo que la arqueologı́a puede ser usada como un archivo alternativo de la seguridad alimentaria. Restos ma-
teriales proveen una vista desde el foso del fuego de las formas de alimentarse cambiantes y la economı́a polı́tica, y
pueden ser usados para rastrear el tipo de procesos que llevaron a los patrones de hoy de la inseguridad alimentaria.
Combinando datos arqueo-botánicos, etno-arqueológicos, y ambientales, presento un estudio de caso que muestra
cómo se evitó la inseguridad alimentaria durante una sequı́a de siglos en Banda, Ghana, y emergió sólo mucho más
tarde, en los siglos XIX y XX, en la medida que las economı́as de mercado y el régimen colonial se establecieron.
Sugiero que la arqueologı́a es esencial para hacer visibles tales procesos de “violencia lenta”, particularmente en
áreas en las que faltan archivos históricos valiosos. [África, seguridad alimentaria, Ghana, arqueo-botánica, violencia
lenta]

R ÉSUM É Aujourd’hui, l’insécurité alimentaire est associée et aux changements climatiques sévères et à la pauvreté
invasive. Ce qui est moins bien compris est la manière dont le problème de la faim en est arrivé à sa forme actuelle,
surtout sur le continent africain, où se trouve la plus grande concentration de sous-alimentation. Dans cet article, je
propose qu’on aborde l’archéologie en tant qu’archive alternative de la sécurité alimentaire. Les vestiges matériels
fournissent une vue générale des processus alimentaires et de l’économie-politique de la perspective du foyer de
la cheminée. Ils nous permettent de retracer les processus qui ont mené aux modèles modernes de l’insécurité
alimentaire. En combinant les données archéo-botaniques, éthno-archéologiques, et de l’environnent, je fournis une

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Vol. 118, No. 3, pp. 508–524, ISSN 0002-7294, online ISSN 1548-1433. 
C 2016 by the American Anthropological

Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/aman.12603

 Logan • Archaeology as Alternative Archive of Food Security 509

étude de cas qui révèle les manières dont on a évité l’insécurité alimentaire pendant une sécheresse qui a duré
plusieurs siècles à Banda, Ghana. Et qui montre qu’en fait, l’insécurité alimentaire n’a émergé que beaucoup plus
tard, pendant les 19e et 20e siècles, au moment où les économies de marché et le colonialisme se sont installés.
Je suggère que l’archéologie est essentielle pour rendre visible ces processus de « la violence lente », surtout dans
les régions qui manquent d’archives historiques riches. [Afrique, sécurité alimentaire, Ghana, archéo-botanie, la
violence lente]

best means of accessing everyday life over the longue durée

To answer the question of “why hunger?” it is counterproductive
to simply describe the conditions in an underdeveloped country
(Robin 2013). Ultimately, archaeology’s focus on process
today . . . they are not “givens.” They are rather the results of enables us to unveil the forces of slow violence responsible
an ongoing historical process. . . . It is the force creating the for modern-day insecurities.
condition, not the condition itself, that must be the target of In this article, I trace changing levels of food secu-
change. [Lappé and Collins 1978:39] rity in Banda, Ghana, over the last five centuries, a time
frame that encompasses life prior to, during, and after
I n her first major speech in 1972, food activist Frances
Lappé argued that the world’s poor could not feed them-
selves due to a long history of economic disenfranchisement
European interventions into the African continent. These
centuries are among the most tumultuous in Africa’s his-
that began with colonial rule. Her thinking arose at a time tory, as people struggled to contend with rapidly changing
when one of the most serious famines of the modern era global economies, severe drought, and the imposition of
threatened millions in sub-Saharan Africa, a continent that colonial rule. Using archaeobotanical, environmental, and
had been full of hope with the end of colonial rule only a ethnoarchaeological data, I show how Banda’s inhabitants
decade earlier. Although her main arguments lacked empir- managed to weather a severe, centuries-long drought just as
ical substantiation, Michael Watts’s seminal Silent Violence Europeans arrived on the coast. A major decline in food
(2012 [originally published in 1983]) carefully documented security occurred only recently, in association with increas-
how colonial economic policies eroded the subsistence ethic ingly globalized economies and colonial rule. Conjuring
of precolonial moral economies, leading to increases in the work of Walter Rodney (1972), Mike Davis (2001),
chronic hunger in northeastern Nigeria. Yet the idea that and Watts (2012), I suggest that the primary reason for
food security was higher in precolonial times and was eroded the loss of Banda’s food security potential was the replace-
under colonial rule is not the story that gets told in popular ment of African economic systems with colonial and globally
or even most scientific venues (e.g., Godfray et al. 2010; oriented market economies.
Thurow 2013). Instead, blame for modern insecurity tends
to be directed at nonhuman actors like drought, a sleight WHY WE NEED TO HISTORICIZE FOOD
of hand that both depoliticizes and dehistoricizes food crises INSECURITY
(Escobar 2012[1995]; Farmer 2004; Ferguson 1990; Watts Our understanding of what causes food insecurity is funda-
2012). mentally linked to the theoretical frames and archives that
The highest prevalence of food insecurity in the world is we use to document hunger. The bulk of research focuses ex-
to be found in the African continent, where one in five people clusively on food security in recent times, limiting our gaze
are undernourished (FAO, IFAD, and WFP 2015:8). The to proximate causes of food crises like drought, whereas
diversity of environmental conditions throughout Africa ar- a historical lens can reveal the political-economic roots of
gues against the notion that climate change alone is to blame hunger (Farmer 2004; Ribot 2014). By way of illustration,
for food insecurity. Instead, what unites many across eco- I return to the famine that devastated the African Sahel in
logical zones is persistent poverty, an outcome that Lappé the early 1970s. Neo-Malthusian understandings of the rela-
attributed to shared histories of turmoil and exploitation. tionship between people and resources informed reactions
Evaluating these propositions is limited by the lack of sub- to the catastrophe. Several years of severe drought led to
stantial written archives on the continent prior to colonial repeated poor harvests that resulted in decreased food sup-
rule. This constraint makes it difficult to assess levels of food plies. Consequently, the international response focused on
security prior to colonial interventions as well as the sub- increasing global food supply to prevent future famines. By
sequent influence of colonial policies. Africanist historians focusing on food supply, the Sahelian famine was concep-
and anthropologists have long made creative use of “alterna- tualized as an environmental rather than political problem
tive archives” like oral histories to help fill in, and at times (Maxwell 2001), a view enabled by a lack of historical un-
challenge, written histories (Comaroff and Comaroff 1992). derstanding about the wider region. The direct causal link
Here, I make the case that archaeology can be used as an al- between drought and famine was challenged by Amartya
ternative archive of food security, because it provides our Sen (1981), whose analysis of historical famines in India
510 American Anthropologist • Vol. 118, No. 3 • September 2016

showed that farmers usually do produce enough food to The key is whether or not a person is prevented from
feed a given region’s population during droughts, but that realizing their “potential,” which can be biologically or
these food supplies are not accessible to the poorer sectors contextually defined (Galtung 1969:168–170; see also
of society who suffer disproportionately during food crises. “capabilities” literature, e.g., Drèze and Sen 1989).
Sen shifted attention away from the environmental as the Biologically, severe events like famine clearly have negative
primary causal factor toward political-economic drivers in consequences on human health and may ultimately lead to
the form of inadequate distribution. Poor people lacked the death. But even the low- to moderate-level food insecurity
necessary entitlements—ability to access food through as- that Watts documented results in undernutrition, which
sets or services—that ensured rights to food supplies (Sen can have lifelong affects on physical health and mental
1981). development (e.g., Prado and Dewey 2014).
Returning to West Africa, Watts’s (2012 [1983]) sem- Watts illustrated that a historical perspective is neces-
inal study provided a historical examination of food security sary to trace the processes that created modern structural
in Kano, northeastern Nigeria, an area that had suffered inequalities, including food insecurity. While a historical fo-
during the Sahel famine. His historical research documented cus remained important for early work on vulnerabilities
the erosion of social mechanisms that had once enabled a (e.g., Watts and Bohle 1993), in recent decades analyses of
degree of subsistence security under the precolonial Sokoto food security have become more presentist in their foci on
Caliphate. Citizens were insured access to food through their household-level vulnerabilities and capabilities. Jesse Ribot
socioeconomic networks, which resembled a “moral econ- (2014) has suggested that this trend results in part from the
omy” (Thompson 1971), a precapitalist form wherein com- fact that outcomes, like body mass index or stunting, are
munity mechanisms such as sharing and redistribution en- more easily measured than the structural factors that permit
sured household reproduction for the majority. Sociopoliti- large-scale insecurities. While studies rooted in the present
cal structures encouraged a “subsistence ethic” that provided day are essential for understanding the proximate causes of
welfare and insurance (i.e., entitlements) against shortfalls insecurity, they need to be ensconced within larger historical
in foodstuffs in times of need (Scott 1976:40), such as dur- contexts to disentangle ultimate, structural causes. Expand-
ing drought. British colonial economic policies attempted to ing our temporal scope has the potential to render causes
reconfigure these moral economies into market economies visible in ways that are unavailable to studies focusing on
through the intensification of commoditized agricultural pro- only a snapshot in time.
duction. Instead of generalized, risk-averse producers, peas- Most scholars shy away from historical investigations
ants became specialist commodity producers, individuating into food security for good reason: for many places, we
production and severing the reciprocal ties of earlier eras. simply lack an appropriate archive. Historical explorations
The risk that had previously been mediated by village- and are often restricted to locations and periods with a high
state-level mechanisms was now born by individual house- density of written sources. In much of the African continent,
holds. Peasant producers became beholden to global com- written documents existed only after the arrival of European
modity markets without the benefit of transformed methods explorers and colonizers from the 15th century C.E. on; for
of production (Watts 2012:188–189). In Kano, household some parts of the Sahel, we have (limited) documentation
production barely met the needs of household consumption, soon after the arrival of Arab merchants in the ninth
making accumulation nearly impossible; rigid colonial tax- century C.E. Unfortunately, these limitations leave out
ation policies only aggravated this balance by requiring the large swaths of the African continent. Africanist historical
selling of crop produce to access cash. The resulting failure to anthropologists and linguists have long argued for the
accumulate grain reserves to last until the next harvest meant inclusion of nontraditional data sources such as oral histories
people had to buy high priced grain at the height of demand, and archaeology in historical examinations of the continent
incurring a cycle of indebtedness (Watts 2012:266–267). (Comaroff and Comaroff 1992; Stahl 2001; Vansina
What has resulted, according to Watts, is a kind of 1990). Attention to these “alternative archives” extends
“silent violence,” whereby chronic hunger is a permanent and our temporal and spatial reach but also has the potential
normal condition for much of the African peasantry (Watts to expose the power/knowledge structures that created
2012:xliii). Experienced by a majority of poor Africans dur- traditional archives to begin with (Comaroff and Comaroff
ing the hungry season, chronic food insecurity makes people 1992:34). Archaeology’s archive elongates the temporal
more vulnerable to catastrophe. Acknowledging food axis in particular, providing a “sideways glance” (Žižek
insecurity as violence calls attention to the political nature 2008) at slow processes not visible through other means.
of food access rather than focusing on environmental prime Archaeological data are particularly well suited to inves-
movers alone (Watts 2012). Violence in this sense is not tigations of food security because of the spatial and temporal
necessarily direct violence, whereby one individual inflicts scales at which we operate. Spatially, much archaeologi-
harm on another, but invokes Johan Galtung’s (1969) more cal data consist of the material fragments created by peo-
diffuse concept of structural violence. He defines violence ple’s everyday lives, providing a from-the-hearth-up view of
as existing when people are being influenced to achieve less, economic, political, and social life. Unlike written or oral
mentally or physically, than that of which they are capable. archives, archaeology is not limited in its temporal space but,
 Logan • Archaeology as Alternative Archive of Food Security 511

FIGURE 1. Map of study region.

rather, can access most time periods on earth. We can also have transformed Banda from a place once central to long-
focus on change and continuity over the long term, allowing distance trade and export production to a modern-world
us to trace how political-economic structures were formed, periphery (Stahl 2001, 2007; Stahl and Logan 2014). Such
unraveled, and reconstituted over the longue durée. Finally, transformations may have had significant impacts on food
archaeology’s rootedness in place enables deep comparative distribution and entitlements and, thus, on peoples’ ability
study of a particular region over time, allowing us to make to feed themselves. In this section, I consider Banda’s history
visible the “potentials” of any given area, whether measured in regional context to better situate a specific evaluation of
through agricultural production, economic growth, or social changing levels of food security in the sections that follow.
equity. The last six centuries are considered among the most
tumultuous in African history, as major transitions in eco-
BANDA’S POLITICAL ECONOMIC HISTORY nomic and political organization fundamentally transformed
For the remainder of this article, I will examine the his- how people made a living and related to one another
torical development of food insecurity in a small region in (DeCorse 1992, 2001a, 2001b, 2005; Kea 1982; Kelly
west-central Ghana known as Banda (Figure 1). Located in 1997; MacEachern 2012; Monroe and Ogundiran 2012;
the interior of Ghana some 400 kilometers from the coast, Richard 2010; Stahl 2001). The 15th century marks the
Banda was considered a backwater for most of the 20th cen- start of direct encounters between western Europeans and
tury. Until the construction of a hydroelectric dam from the well-organized trade networks that connected the West
2007 on, a flooding-prone, single-car-width dirt track was African interior to goods from other ecological zones. The
the only way in and out of the area. Banda was only electrified basic dynamic of this trade system was to be found in the
in the early to mid-2000s, and there is still no running water. circumscribed distribution of desirable products in different
While giving the appearance of being stuck in times past, ecological zones; gold, for example, was only to be found in
Banda’s situation is instead indicative of a long history of the southern, forested belt, and copper sources were con-
political and economic marginalization. Under the direction fined to the Sahara. Other major trade goods included ivory
of Ann Stahl, three decades of archaeological and histori- from wetter regions (Stahl and Stahl 2004); human captives
cal research have documented how political-economic shifts (Lovejoy 2012); and beads from Arab and European sources
512 American Anthropologist • Vol. 118, No. 3 • September 2016

(Insoll 2003). Ghanaian sites in Banda and Begho (Posnan- during the Kuulo Phase (cal. 1450–1650 C.E.). Evidence of
sky 1973, 1987), a major trade center some 40 kilometers large-scale iron working was found at both sites, along with
distant, had connected with these long-distance networks by the production of copper alloys and ivory goods. Pottery
the 13th century, as evidenced by the presence of copper al- was exchanged over wide regional networks, and sourcing
loys in Banda (Stahl 2013). In Banda, this period is known as data suggest a considerable degree of craft specialization
the Ngre phase (cal. C.E. 1250–1450), for which substantial (Stahl 2001, 2007; Stahl and Stahl 2004; Stahl et al. 2008).
evidence exists for copper and iron metallurgy, including the Cumulatively, these data suggest a strong, diverse local
crafting of ritually potent objects and shrines (Stahl 2015a). economy oriented toward regional and northward-directed
These data demonstrate that, prior to European arrival, trade networks. The variety of crafts produced indicates that
central Ghana was connected into long-distance trade net- the composition of skills was high in the region at this time,
works and, moreover, had the capability to acquire valued a characteristic Jane Guyer and Samuel Belinga (1995) argue
goods like copper from Saharan sources. Minimally, the exis- was central to precolonial African notions of wealth in people
tence of iron working throughout the wider region intimates (as opposed to capitalist valuation of material accumulation).
that agricultural productivity was sufficient to support craft Adequate production and distribution of foodstuffs may well
specialists. have been an important strategy for retaining such skilled
In the 16th and 17th centuries, a rapid reorganization populations and the wealth that came with them. Even
of settlements along the Ghanaian coast was matched by an more so than the previous Ngre Phase, the existence of craft
increase in craft production, both of which took advantage specialists may indicate sufficient food to feed nonfarming
of new trading opportunities (DeCorse 2001b; Kea 1982). citizens.
African structures of craft production and political organi- The 18th century saw the consolidation of political con-
zation appear to have persisted through this period of early trol by the Asante state (Arhin 1967a; Wilks 1975). Based
European contact (DeCorse 2005). From the 17th century in the forest zone to the south, the Asante achieved con-
onward, European imports increased significantly. Ray Kea trol over much of modern-day Ghana through a series of
(1982) suggests that this was a time of gradual wealth ac- military campaigns, including capture of Bono Manso and
cumulation and increasing social stratification. Compared to possibly Begho in 1722–1723 (Wilks 2005:18), and Banda
coastal regions, European influence appears less strong in in 1773–1774 (Stahl 2001:181). The Asante sent Banda war
Ghana’s interior in the 16th and 17th centuries. Inland sites captives to be traded as human cargo in the Atlantic slave
including Begho, Bono Manso, and Kuulo Kataa in Banda trade (Stahl 2015b), and, notably, the export of enslaved
continued to engage in northward-directed long-distance people from Ghana reached its apogee in the 18th century
trade networks that were at times under the control of a suc- (Lovejoy 2012:48). Banda was later considered an inner
cession of states along the Niger River (Insoll 2003). Begho province of Asante, which required them to supply men to
is described in historical documents as a major stop along fight in Asante wars. Significant Asante influence is evident in
north–south trade networks (Wilks 1982), and archaeolog- the organization of the Banda chieftaincy (Stahl 1991, 2001).
ical remains suggest a massive settlement (Posnansky 1973, From the early 19th century on, the Asante established a vir-
1987). Begho appears to have been divided into quarters that tual monopoly on northern-focused trade (Arhin 1990:528;
may have corresponded to different ethnic populations, but Boaten 1970:37, 40), which would have had major conse-
Merrick Posnansky (1987) does not go so far as to claim that quences for places like Banda, which were heavily involved
the town had political dominion over its hinterlands. Kwaku in trade in the century previous. During the Early Makala
Effah-Gyamfi (1985) argued for state-level organization at Phase (c. 1770s–1820s), this shift is reflected in a decrease
Bono Manso, though new studies in nearby villages find little in long-distance trade items like ivory in Banda, although
evidence for direct control (Compton 2014). regional markets flourished, as did production of pottery
While the nature of political organization is far from and cloth (Stahl 2001). The narrowing of the kinds of crafts
clear, central Ghana was a hub of diverse populations of produced implies that Asante control may have siphoned off
craft specialists, traders, and farmers and probably hosted some of the area’s wealth. Compared to the previous Kuulo
considerable regional and extraregional markets (Posnansky phase, these economic indicators may well signal a decline
1973, 1987). The large array of specialists in the wider in entitlements.
region included copper and iron metallurgists, potters, ivory Increasing tensions between European and African pow-
workers, spinners and weavers of cloth, and probably gold ers characterized the 19th century. In Ghana, repeated con-
miners. For some crafts, the scale of production was consid- flicts between the British and the Asante along the coast
erable; iron working was practiced on a large enough scale culminated in the British seizure of Kumasi, the Asante cap-
to suggest potential degradation of nearby forests (Goucher ital, in 1874, though it took two more decades for formal
1981). With the exception of tobacco pipes, European trade surrender (Gocking 2005:37–47). In areas to the north,
goods appear only rarely at all of these sites (Stahl 1994). widespread violence erupted and led to considerable dis-
Banda was no exception; although smaller than neighboring location as different groups vied for power. This was re-
Begho or Bono Manso, several large villages, including lated in part to the instability of states like Asante, which
Kuulo Kataa and Ngre Kataa, dominated the landscape faced increasing military and economic pressure from the
 Logan • Archaeology as Alternative Archive of Food Security 513

British beginning in the 1820s, diverting attention away adoption of such currencies, as well as their accumulations,
from their northern borders (Arhin and Ki-Zerbo 1989). was slow and uneven across the territory, monetization had
A major source of unrest in the north was slave raiding major affects on socioeconomic organization and agricultural
for the internal market, which continued despite the British production (Guyer 2004; Stahl 2001:99–101). In addition to
abolition of the Atlantic slave trade in 1807. The internal labor migration, rural people gained access to cash through
slave trade was related to the strong domestic demand for the sale of local products such as pottery (Stahl and Cruz
slaves as tribute payments or as laborers, in part to fuel the 1998) but most especially through the sale of “surplus” agri-
increasing production of cash crops and gold mines, and as cultural goods including cash crops, a dynamic that continues
payment for firearms (Arhin 1967b:76; Arhin and KiZerbo today.
1989:686; Austin 1995). One of the most notorious slave These colonial-period economic shifts had the dual ef-
raiders was Imam Samori, a native of Guinea who sought to fect of eroding self-sufficiency of subsistence farmers and
build a territorially expansive empire in the interior of the making it necessary to earn wages through migrant labor to
subcontinent. He reached Banda in 1895 and stripped the support their families in the north. The rise of this migrant
area of food supplies to feed his armies. By 1898, the British labor force also helped facilitate penetration of the Northern
had ousted Samori from the Banda area (Stahl 2001:97–98). Territories with goods from the metropole. The import of
Oral histories tell of significant upheaval in Banda at this British manufactured goods led to the collapse of many na-
time, with people scattering to new villages and frequently tive industries, such as iron, ceramic, and cloth production
finding themselves on the move. Colonial agents report ru- (Grier 1981:24, 37–38). These policies resulted in an un-
ined Banda villages in the 1880s and 1890s (Stahl 2001:192). equal economic topography, with the north as undeveloped
A dearth of archaeological remains confirms these accounts, and south as developed divide persisting to the present day.
suggesting a landscape largely abandoned (Stahl 2001:200). Decades of dislocation and new colonial economic policies
Migration is often a last-resort coping strategy, as it means clearly had an effect on Banda. By the Late Makala phase
a near-complete severing of entitlements (de Waal 2005), (c. 1890s–1920s), people had resettled in their villages, but
suggesting severe food insecurity. there was a new normal. Houses were built using less durable
The British extended formal rule to the Gold Coast materials (Stahl 2001:209); pottery displayed simpler décor
Colony in 1897 and quickly set out to develop the eco- and greater homogeneity (Cruz 2003); iron, copper, and
nomic resources of their acquisition. They expanded trade ivory items were no longer produced locally (Stahl 2007);
in commodities like gold and promoted the production of and trade networks contracted considerably (Stahl 2001;
profitable export crops to fuel the machines and tastes of Stahl et al. 2008). These material indicators hint at the loss
Europe. Cocoa, which can be produced only in the forested of local industry and an overall decline in quality of life. By
southern half of the country, became the dominant export the 1930s, Banda had literally fallen off the map, with no
crop in the early 20th century, and by 1919 the Gold Coast major roads leading in or out of the area.
had become the world’s largest producer (Gocking 2005:47;
Grier 1981:32). The push for cocoa production led many TRACING FOOD SECURITY IN BANDA, GHANA,
farmers to reduce or abandon the cultivation of food crops 1450–2009 C.E.
in southern Ghana, such that they came to rely on imported How did these political-economic shifts affect foodways in
European foods in the early 20th century. This had major im- Banda? In this section, I explain my approach to tracing food
plications when cocoa prices declined, leaving smallholder security in the archaeological record and examine how food
farmers open to considerable risk (Grier 1981:32–34), as security levels changed in Banda over the last five centuries.
Watts has noted for Nigeria. In northern Ghana, where nei- Archaeologists have only recently devoted serious attention
ther cocoa nor oil palm grows, the British could not find to tracking food security, with a focus on comparing vulner-
cash crops worth the cost of transportation south. For ex- abilities between regions (Nelson et al. 2015); instead, my
ample, a visit by the director of Agriculture to the Northern approach relies on thick description of the local in order to
Territories in 1912 recorded local production of cotton and assess the effects of political-economic shifts.
determined that the price growers obtained locally could not Food security exists “when all people, at all times, have
be matched if cotton was to be exported to London, due to physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutri-
undeveloped transportation networks within the colony it- tious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences
self (Tudhope 1912). The lack of low-bulk, high-value goods for an active and healthy life” (WHO 1996). Using three key
in the north effectively prevented export of high-bulk goods components of this definition—food availability, access, and
because effective means of transport were lacking (Plange preference—we can track changing levels of food security
1979; Sutton 1989). over time using a wide variety of archaeological data (Table 1;
Access to cash became a major problem for villagers see Logan in press a). Food availability is defined as the quan-
as colonial officers sought to monetize their colony under tity of food produced and therefore available to populations.
a uniform currency instead of local cowrie shells. One way Archaeologists have long been interested in the relationship
in which this was accomplished was the requirement that between agricultural production and population, but this
taxes, fees, and fines be paid in British currency. While the relationship alone is not sufficient to assess food security, as
514 American Anthropologist • Vol. 118, No. 3 • September 2016

TABLE 1. Summary of Pillars of Food Security in Banda, 1450–2009 C.E

Availability Access Choice/preference

Archaeological Precipitation FAD?* General Between Coping strategy? Preferred Food

phase economy houses? foods? security

Kuulo Major drying Likely Craft specialists; Differential Possibly; Yes; pearl millet,
cal. 1450–1650 C.E. trend surplus; wild/weedy sorghum,
regional and taxa present; tobacco
long- distance little maize
trade
Early Makala Wet No Fewer crafts; Unknown Possibly; Yes; pearl millet,
c. 1773–1820s C.E. regional trade wild/weedy sorghum
taxa present;
little maize
Late Makala Wet No Subsistence; Unknown Yes; wild/weedy No; pearl millet,
c. 1890s–1920s C.E. local crafting; taxa present; sorghum
limited maize minimal
imports dominates;
cassava present
Modern Minor Yes Subsistence and Differential Yes; wild/weedy On a limited,
2009 drying cash-crop taxa present; seasonal basis
trend market cassava
economy; dominates
significant
imports

* Food availability declines

Sen’s important work shows. For Banda, I rely on ethnoar- versus low-ranked staples, new luxury crops, and unique
chaeological observations that drought has led to significant wild foods. My approach provides a relative understanding
food availability declines (FAD), suggesting that a similar of food security in a given area over time, enabling
FAD may have occurred during past droughts. I am aided us to track declines in food security as well as periods
by high-resolution precipitation proxy records from Lake of high food security. Changing relative levels of food
Bosumtwi, some 200 kilometers from the study region, security in Banda are schematically illustrated in Figure 2.
which enable us to pinpoint major increases or decreases A local focus allows us to see at what points in the past
in precipitation (Figure 3). Food access refers to distribution an area achieved its highest food security “potential” and
of foodstuffs across social groups. Archaeologists can track under what political-economic conditions such potential
differences in access to food between household units, was realized or diminished.
sites, and over time. Below, I compare food remains from My data are derived from four months of ethnographic
different households when possible to coax out possible interviews in 2009 (Logan and Cruz 2014) and follow-up
variation in access. In this study, shifts in access to preferred visits in 2011 and 2014, as well as from analyses of archae-
foods over time are one of our strongest indicators of ological plant remains, which trace the major shifts in crops
changing food security. Food preference traces culturally over the last millennium. I begin with a brief description of
acceptable and valued foods. On the one hand, in instances food and farming today to situate present-day responses to
of high food security, we might see consumption of luxury environmental and economic shifts. I then work back in time
foods, a traditional focus of archaeology (e.g., Van der Veen to understand how responses to these shifts have changed
2003). On the other hand, we can track food stress through and to pinpoint when Banda achieved its food security po-
the presence of lower-ranked or hard-to-acquire foods, tential. Shifts in food availability, access, and preference are
including wild or “bush” species, as well as foods that carry a summarized in chronological order in Table 1.
social stigma of poverty (Dei 1988; Dirks 1980; Morell-Hart Today, the vast majority of families in Banda farm, but
2012). In Banda, I track changes in consumption of preferred most do not produce enough agricultural goods to adequately
 Logan • Archaeology as Alternative Archive of Food Security 515

FIGURE 2. Relative levels of food security over time in Banda, C.E. 1450–2009.

feed their families and acquire cash for household repro- that spurred the Sahel famine (above). Farmers complained
duction (e.g., building houses, school fees, etc.). Farmers that shifting rainfall patterns have significantly reduced
employ several strategies to increase their cash income from yields, particularly of the more profitable subsistence crops
farms and other sources. For example, farm income is sup- like yams and maize. Consequently, food practices have
plemented by wage labor from family members in urban shifted toward the consumption of greater quantities of less
centers, a dynamic that began in the colonial period (1890s– preferred but more reliable crops like cassava instead of
1957). Additional income is obtained through the production favored foods like yams, which demand more resources.
and sale of cash crops like peanuts, calabashes, and cashew Major economic differences between large-scale farmers,
trees. Well-off farmers can afford to purchase fertilizers and subsistence-level farmers, and migratory workers have
pesticides to increase yield and to hire migrant labor to do created an uneven topography of food access. In brief,
the hard work of raising mounds and weeding. The vast ma- as food availability has declined, people have employed a
jority of farmers try to make ends meet by producing a large common coping strategy: replacing preferred foods with
enough quantity of subsistence crops (yams, cassava, maize, those that are easier and cheaper to produce.
and sorghum) to eat and sell along with low-risk, fast-return Based on these dynamics, we might expect decreases or
cash crops like calabashes and peanuts. Plentiful harvests are shifts in rainfall patterns to have posed significant challenges
thus critical to the maintenance of both food security and to food production in the past. Specifically, we would
household finances. expect to see a food availability decline (FAD) and con-
Although farmers have developed numerous strategies sumption of less preferred or higher-yielding crops (Logan
for coping with bad harvests, they remain especially in press a). Figure 3 shows a high-resolution precipitation
vulnerable to shifts in rainfall. In 2009, all interviewed reconstruction for Bosumtwi over the last millennium,
farmers expressed concern over the changing seasonal based on δ 18 O, an oxygen isotope from authigenic lake
distribution of rainfall and its overall diminution. The carbonate that reflects lake levels and serves as a proxy for
climatic shift noted by Banda farmers is part of a 40-year rainfall quantity (Shanahan et al. 2009). While δ 18 O levels
trend of diminishing rainfall known as the Sahel drought do not allow for the reconstruction of actual precipitation
(Figure 3; Shanahan et al. 2009), the same development amounts (e.g., in millimeters per year), they do provide

FIGURE 3. Changing precipitation at Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana, over the last millennium according to oxygen 18 isotope records (redrawn from Shanahan
et al. 2009:379).
516 American Anthropologist • Vol. 118, No. 3 • September 2016

FIGURE 4. Grain crop ubiquity and frequency in Banda, C.E. 1000–1920s.

a relative measure of rainfall that can help us understand analyzed 327 of these samples. Multiple sites were sampled
the severity of droughts in the past as compared to today. per phase, and several of the larger sites often contained
What is particularly striking is a multi-century drought material from several occupation phases. Material from ten
observed during the archaeological Kuulo phase from about sites was analyzed, with a focus on four type sites that have
cal. C.E. 1450–1650, which is exponentially more severe seen extensive excavation (Banda 13, Ngre Kataa, Kuulo
and prolonged than the Sahel drought of recent decades. It Kataa, and Makala Kataa; see Stahl 2001, 2007; Stahl and
is highly probable that this drought had major consequences Logan 2014; see Logan 2012 for full contextual details). In
for food and farming during the Kuulo phase, something what follows, I focus on the results of ubiquity analysis, which
I set out to test by looking at shifts in the plant foods used reports the percentage of contexts in which a plant taxon
before, during, and after that period. The Kuulo phase also was present, providing a rough measure of how commonly
coincides with the arrival of Europeans on Ghana’s coastline. it was used. Figure 4 also includes relative frequency—how
Here I present the results from an archaeobotanical anal- the quantities of different grains compared to one another—
ysis of grain crops, because they are among the most reliably to estimate the quantity in which each grain was used.
recovered plant remains and can tell us much about shift- The main grain crops used over the last millennium in
ing food availability, access, and preference. Data on plant Banda were pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) and sorghum
use are primarily derived from charred seed remains, the (Sorghum bicolor) (Figure 4). While both are indigenous
most common way in which plant remains are preserved in African grains, pearl millet has a particularly long history
the archaeological record.1 Flotation samples of 5–10 liters in West Africa (D’Andrea and Casey 2002; Manning et al.
were taken from all contexts, totaling over 1,600 samples; I 2011) and is ubiquitous wherever archaeological sites are
 Logan • Archaeology as Alternative Archive of Food Security 517

sampled for plant remains. Such ubiquity is surprising in by the spread of smoking pipes (Stahl 1994, 1999). A small
more humid regions like Banda, because pearl millet is sen- number of tobacco seeds were also found in Kuulo phase
sitive to too much rainfall, suggesting that it was not necessar- contexts (n = 7). Further, grain of paradise (Afromamum
ily the most optimal or highest-yielding choice. Sorghum, melegueta), a valuable trade spice from coastal regions highly
however, occurs consistently but at much lower ubiqui- sought after in Europe, appears in two Kuulo phase middens.
ties, with higher ubiquities observed during wetter phases These exotic plants attest to involvement in north–south
(Figure 4). During wet periods, farmers likely capitalized on trade networks and are among the earliest material indica-
sorghum’s ability to withstand waterlogging, even if pearl tors of Atlantic connections in inland Ghana. The pattern
millet remained the dominant grain crop. of maize and tobacco adoption is reminiscent of how new
Of particular interest is the adoption of a third crops are adopted across many modern societies today—as
grain crop—maize—in the Banda area, because its arrival curiosities or luxuries accessed by only a few—rather than
coincides with the Kuulo phase drought. It has long been crops embraced out of need. The increased productive ca-
hypothesized that the introduction of maize from the Amer- pacity of maize, a fact that would not have been lost on
icas transformed African agriculture due to its increased Banda farmers, does not appear to have been the primary
yield potential compared to African grains (McCann 2005; motivation in its adoption.
Miracle 1965). Due to the short growing cycle of maize and Instead, pearl millet remained the staple grain during
the two-peak rainfall cycle that characterizes the Banda re- the Kuulo phase, as it had in previous centuries (Volta and
gion, two crops of maize can be grown per year, potentially Ngre Phases, c. 1000–1450; see Figure 4). Unlike maize,
producing double the yield of indigenous grains sorghum and pearl millet was common in Kuulo phase contexts (present
pearl millet. Today, the first maize is ready during the hungry in 43% of samples, compared to 6% for maize or 3% for
season gap, which falls in the early wet season as grains from sorghum), suggesting that its use was widespread. These
last year’s harvest run short and before the current season’s data suggest that the role of indigenous African grains during
crops are ready to harvest. Given maize’s important role the Columbian Exchange has been underplayed, in part
today, we would expect that, in times of food stress, people because they are not always decipherable in historical ac-
would rely more heavily on maize, because it can produce counts (Alpern 1992; Carney and Rosomoff 2009; La Fleur
more food in a shorter amount of time and it matures during 2012:91) but also because we have lacked archaeobotanical
a time of food scarcity (McCann 2005; Miracle 1965; Stahl data on the last five centuries. The adherence to pearl millet
1999, 2001). across periods and environmental zones, even in areas that
Our understanding of how and why maize spread in are ecologically unsuited to its production, like the tropical
West Africa has been limited to historical and linguistic forest (e.g., Kahlheber et al. 2009), suggests a strong
records, which are circumscribed to coastal areas that saw cultural preference for this grain. As a drought-tolerant crop
sustained contact with Europeans. These records indicate par excellence, pearl millet may also have been an advan-
that maize was present at Elmina, on the Ghanaian coast, tageous choice during the drought that spanned the Kuulo
by 1555 (Alpern 1992:25)—right in the middle of the phase.
Kuulo phase drought. Maize cupule and kernel fragments I also examined wild plant taxa for signs of food inse-
appear in the Banda archaeological record, some 400 kilo- curity, as they are commonly consumed as a coping strategy
meters inland, by 1484–1660 cal. C.E. (at 95% confidence; in Banda and elsewhere. Unfortunately, the taxa consumed
AA 94093), within a couple generations of its first men- today are also the most common weeds of disturbed areas
tion on the coast. This date is suggestive of a rapid spread and have multiple medicinal and fodder uses (Abbiw 1990),
northward or perhaps from the interior of the continent via so it is next to impossible to determine if they were for
Senegambia (La Fleur 2012:95). Despite this rapid spread, human consumption if recovered archaeologically. There is
maize appears to have been used very sparingly, with only an overall lack of patterning distinctive to the Kuulo phase
17 fragments found. Maize finds were confined to one house in regards to wild plants, suggesting that there were not any
(8 samples, Mound 118) and noticeably absent from the marked deviations in wild plant use or weed ecologies (see
three other houses and midden samples tested (130 sam- Logan in press a).
ples). The house that contained maize was the only one to Overall, the continued use of a preferred food (pearl
have evidence for in situ production of ivory objects, a lucra- millet) over a new crop like maize that could produce greater
tive trade good (Stahl and Stahl 2004:95). The Mound 118 yields, along with the adoption of luxury crops and lack
house contained little evidence for grain-processing debris, of other indicators of food stress, suggest that the Kuulo
suggesting that the inhabitants may have obtained grain in an phase drought had little adverse impact on food security.
already processed state. Cumulatively, these domestic data This interpretation is bolstered by evidence suggestive of a
suggest that only some families had access to maize, possibly strong regional economy during the Kuulo Phase, discussed
because of their status or their connections to long-distance above. Banda was actively involved in both regional and
trade networks. long-distance trade networks and produced a variety of crafts
Another American crop, tobacco, was also quickly beyond that needed for household use (Stahl 2007; Stahl and
adopted in Banda and elsewhere in the region, as evidenced Logan 2014). These data suggest a strong trade-oriented
518 American Anthropologist • Vol. 118, No. 3 • September 2016

economy that may have increased the resilience of the Banda further delineates the structural conditions under which this
area to environmental shocks. potential diminished. During the Kuulo phase (1450–1650
A return to wetter conditions in the Early Makala cal. C.E.), archaeological data suggest that people were
phase (c. 1773–1820s) engendered an increased reliance better equipped to cope with the harshest drought observed
on sorghum alongside pearl millet, but, curiously, maize re- in the last millennium, providing a sharp contrast to recent
mained a minor component of the diet, even though climatic years, when much shorter and less pronounced droughts
conditions were optimal. This is notable, given that maize have had significant negative consequences for livelihoods.
is assumed to have underwritten the ascension of the Asante Historicizing responses to drought and its relation to food
state (McCann 2005:40–49; Wilks 2005), which had an in- security raises two further questions: How did people
creasingly powerful presence in Banda from the late 18th manage to cope with the Kuulo phase drought, and what
century onward. Although maize had been present in Banda happened in the intervening years that makes people today
for over a century, its high-yielding qualities do not seem less able to weather environmental shifts?
to have been needed during this phase, with people instead At present, the Banda project’s resolution on the strate-
choosing to consume indigenous grains. The Early Makala gies people used to cope with drought is not as fine-grained
phase is notable for the exceptional preservation of a kitchen as we would like, but our data are suggestive of three
area that was accidentally burned, yielding remains of two strategies distinctive from today’s practices. First, pearl
additional wild taxa, baobab and kapok, trees that are widely millet, a drought-resistant crop, seems to have formed the
used today (Logan and Cruz 2014). mainstay of people’s diets for much of the last millennium
There are no signals of food stress in Banda until the mid– and was likely a critical strategy in maintaining food security
to late 19th century, a time of considerable violence and during drought. In this situation, Kuulo phase farmers may
dislocation (Stahl 1999). Oral histories frequently mention have chosen to focus on risk-reducing crops like millet rather
the lack of food and access to crop plants. They suggest that, than the newly arrived, high-yielding maize. Today, people
to survive, people hunted animals and collected wild plants, have abandoned the cultivation of pearl millet in favor of
even trying new species one person at a time to test their higher-yielding crops like maize. This switch may partially
edibility. The only plant remains recovered were from a cave account for increasing crop failure due to drought, but this is
high in the Banda hills used as a refuge in times of trouble; not something easily remedied by the reintroduction of pearl
there, maize and millet are found, along with two new wild millet. Pearl millet is ill-suited to current market conditions
plant taxa not seen previously. because it fetches a lower price than crops like maize or
When people resettled in Banda once again in the 1890s, yams, yields less product, and is more time consuming to
daily activities, including food and farming practices, had process (Logan and Cruz 2014; Logan in press b).
changed. Botanical analysis detects a shift to maize, which Second, Malthusian logic might ask whether or not
predominated for the first time in the sequence. Maize’s abil- populations were significantly lower during the Kuulo phase
ity to produce a crop quickly would have been especially ad- and if that may account for their ability to endure such a
vantageous in the unsettled conditions Banda villagers faced severe drought. While precise population measurements
in the late 19th century. Historical records also indicate are not possible at present (and, indeed, this is a challenge
that cassava and yams were grown. Cassava is a low-labor for archaeology as a whole), our data suggest that Kuulo
crop that, combined with the presence of maize, suggests phase populations were higher than in the 19th to 20th
changes in labor availability (Logan and Cruz 2014; Stahl centuries, when the first indicators of food insecurity
1999:68). Cassava was considered “poor, coarse food” at the emerge. We know that the area was majorly depopulated
time in nearby Kintampo (Graham 1902) and along the coast in the 19th century due to increased raiding, as indicated in
(La Fleur 2012). Four new wild plant taxa not seen previ- oral histories as well as a hiatus in the archaeological record
ously appear in the archaeological record, corroborating oral (Stahl 2001). Colonial-period sources from the late 19th and
accounts that tell of experimentation with wild plants. An early 20th centuries suggest population density in the area
increased focus on opportunistic hunting is also found in was among the lowest in the country (Cardinall 1931:157);
Late Makala contexts, suggesting a diverse subsistence econ- even today, the legacies of this upheaval persist, with Banda
omy under stress (Stahl 1999:66–68). Finally, new work still having a low population density compared to other
on coastal foodways suggests that shortage associated with parts of the country (www.tain.ghanadistricts.gov.gh/).
violence and dislocation were not confined to Banda but Additionally, settlement pattern data indicate the presence
plagued large portions of the Gold Coast during the 19th of larger towns during the Kuulo phase as compared to
century, forcing people to resort to cassava (La Fleur 2012; preceding or following phases, for which small villages
see also Ohadike 1981; van Oppen 1999). and dispersed homesteads are the norm (Smith 2008:525).
In sum, while precise population numbers cannot be
DISCUSSION compared, available evidence suggests that populations
By digging deep into Banda’s past, archaeology reveals were likely higher and more aggregated in the Kuulo phase
the “potential” of the area to maintain a high level of than in the 18th through 20th centuries. Such settlement
food security even during severe, prolonged drought and aggregation may have formed an important coping strategy,
 Logan • Archaeology as Alternative Archive of Food Security 519

TABLE 2. Major Political-Economic Shifts in Banda, 1450s–1920s

Archaeological Scale of craft

phase Craft specialization production Long-distance trade Regional trade
Kuulo Yes; ivory, iron, Above household Northward and later Yes
cal.1450–1650 C.E. copper alloys, level southward
pottery directed
Early Makala Yes; textiles and ? Mostly household Controlled by Yes
c. 1773–1820s C.E. possibly pottery Asante
Late Makala Yes; textiles and Probably household Controlled by British Significantly reduced
c. 1890s–1920s C.E. pottery

as it was in the American Southwest (Minnis 1985), and competing indigenous products such as iron (e.g., Goucher
may have been part of the successful economic position of 1981; Grier 1981).
Kuulo Kataa as a regional trade nexus. The fundamental restructuring of craft production and
Third, there are some major differences in how polit- trade dynamics under Asante and British rule effectively
ical economies were structured during the Kuulo phase as undermined the very economic system that had allowed
compared to subsequent phases, mainly in terms of craft Banda to cope with the Kuulo phase drought. Such shifts in
specialization and production and access to regional and production and trade were not restricted to Banda alone but,
long-distance trade (see Table 2). The greatest diversity rather, were part of larger processes of underdevelopment.
of craft specialists is found in the Kuulo phase, including These economic shifts were aggravated by centuries of the
skilled metal and ivory workers alongside potters, as well trans-Atlantic slave trade that had depopulated Africa of
as surplus craft production above household needs. By the skilled farmers and artisans in their prime (Rodney 1972;
19th-century Early Makala phase, evidence for copper, iron, for Banda, see Stahl 2008, 2015b). Such processes began
and ivory working disappears; by the early 20th-century Late long before formal colonial rule but snowballed as colonial
Makala phase, even regional pottery trade virtually ceases policies further hobbled local economies.
(Stahl 1999, 2001, 2007; Stahl et al. 2008). These data Today, most farmers in Banda struggle to produce
suggest a winnowing of skills, which may signal declining enough agricultural surplus to eat and to sell. In precapitalist
wealth according to a wealth-in-people model (Guyer and economies, including those of the Kuulo phase, such harvests
Belinga 1995). The production of fewer goods constrained may well have been sufficient to get families through the year.
the possibilities for earning marginal gains through trade and Nowadays, farmers are forced to sell a good portion of what
exchange (Guyer 2004). Finally, the decline in the scale of would have normally fed their families, necessitating either
production effectively diminished Banda’s purchasing power increased production or the purchase of expensive foodstuffs
for imported goods. once their own stores are depleted. Throughout the African
These trends can be seen in the erosion of long-distance continent, this dynamic has resulted in a recurrent hungry
trade networks over time. Kuulo Kataa, along with nearby season, which usually occurs just prior to the next year’s
sites like Begho, were hubs in regional and extraregional harvest, when the previous year’s harvest runs short. To-
northward-directed trade networks. Regional trade may day, two American crops help plug the hungry season gap
have enabled Kuulo Kataa access to food supplies, although it because their harvest cycles are different than African crops.
is unlikely this played a major role, because there is evidence Cassava can be harvested year round, and maize ripens be-
for local production in the form of crop byproducts, and fore other grains, right in the peak of the hungry season. It
much of the wider region would also have been experienc- is telling that neither Kuulo nor Early Makala phase farmers
ing severe drought. Long-distance trade networks appear to took advantage of maize’s high-yielding capabilities, instead
contract during the Early Makala phase, although regional preferring the indigenous foods of their ancestors. The ubiq-
trade in pottery, iron, and probably food continued. By the uity of the hungry season gap across the African continent
Late Makala phase, regional trade contracted, and there are may well be rooted in shared historical and economic trajec-
few items indicative of northern-directed trade. Instead, a tories rather than innate limitations of African environments
small handful of European imports appear (Stahl 2001). The and crop repertoires. Cumulatively, these processes of slow
promotion of British goods was an active part of colonial structural violence had significant effects on entitlements
policies meant to expand markets for industrialized goods and capabilities, effectively undermining the ability of many
and even extended to actively preventing the manufacture of Africans to feed themselves.
520 American Anthropologist • Vol. 118, No. 3 • September 2016

TOWARD AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF SLOW VIOLENCE

In Banda, chronic food insecurity is a condition that was Amanda L. Logan Department of Anthropology, Northwestern Uni-
made rather than a condition that has always been. The versity, Evanston, IL, 60208 http://www.anthropology.northwestern.
diverse economic and social strategies used to survive the edu/people/faculty/logan.html; [email protected]
Kuulo phase drought were chipped away by centuries of
economic and political exploitation so that now even mi-
nor environmental shifts have major impacts on economic
NOTES
and food security. Mike Davis (2001) argues that similar
Acknowledgments. Funding was provided by National Science
historical trajectories undergird food insecurity in much of
Foundation grants to Ann B. Stahl (BCS 0751350, BCS 9410726,
what is now the developing world. There is nothing natural
BCS 9911690) and myself (BCS 1041948), as well as a Wenner-
about this pattern; in its contours are the imprints of damage
Gren Foundation dissertation grant to the author (N013044). The
wrought by slow, structural violence.
Ghana Museums and Monuments Board and Banda Traditional Coun-
Viewed over a long time scale, the loss of food security
cil granted permissions for all research reported. I owe special thanks
in the Banda region fits the classic definition of structural
to members of the Banda community for answering my questions and
violence, which exists when people are being influenced to
exposing me to new ones; and to Ann Stahl for access to Banda’s rich
achieve less than their “potential” (Galtung 1969:168–169).
history and for assiduously collecting archaeobotanical samples long
The highest potential food security is not to be found to-
before an archaeobotanist took interest. Many colleagues have pro-
day, as progress-centered narratives might predict, but in
vided thoughtful commentary on the arguments presented, including
the past, at a time when Banda was in a much stronger eco-
James Brown, Catherine D’Andrea, Kate Franklin, Mark Hauser,
nomic position. Archaeology may allow us to narrow in on
Michelle Hegmon, Ian Hodder, Matthew Johnson, Fiona Mar-
strategies used in the past to maintain food security, such
shall, Scott MacEachern, François Richard, Cynthia Robin, Melissa
as lost agricultural techniques that may help bolster crop
Rosenzweig, David Schoenbrun, Carla Sinopoli, Katherine Spiel-
yields today. Creating such “usable pasts” is a compelling
mann, Ann Stahl, Noelle Sullivan, Barb Voss, and Mary Weismantel.
goal, especially for Africanist archaeologists (Davies 2012;
Chelsie Yount-Andre translated the abstract into French. Last, I thank
Lane 2011; Stump 2013), but as I have illustrated in this
Michael Chibnik and seven anonymous reviewers whose constructive
article, we must be mindful of the political-economic con-
criticisms improved the clarity of the argument. The first part of the
texts in which such strategies were successful. Confronting
title references Frances Lappé’s well-known 1972 speech and later
the political-economic as well as environmental forces us
article (Lappé and Collins 1978).
to reckon with the structural violence that prevents such
potentials from existing in the present day. 1. Today tuber crops like indigenous yams and cassava are important
Instead, archaeology’s most valuable contribution may food sources in Banda. Tubers are notoriously difficult to recover
well be the ability to make visible the processes by which archaeologically as their soft flesh easily decays. In Banda, at-
structural violence unfolds over time (see also González- tempts to trace tubers through phytolith and starch grain analyses
Ruibal 2008, 2014). Borrowing from Rob Nixon, I con- were unsuccessful. Hence I rely on grain crops, which preserve
ceptualize these processes as forms of slow violence, “a more reliably, enabling a stronger comparison across time and
violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of space.
delayed destruction that is dispersed across time and space,
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