Visualising Southern African Late Iron Age Settlements In The Digital Age

Cover of Visualising of Visualising Southern African Late Iron Age Settlements In The Digital Age.

This study examines the visualisation of Southern African Late Iron Age Settlements (LIAS) (c. 900–1800) from the late 19th to the early 21st centuries (1871–2020). It focuses on how illustrations accompanying archaeological, anthropological, and historical research have shaped the understanding of these settlements, and how these visuals have been produced, circulated, and interpreted over time.

A valuable contribution of LIAS research is its continuous demonstration of a pre-colonial hub of cosmopolitanisms on a scale never imagined in colonial histories of 'indigenous' communities, thought of as the ultimate 'other' of global modernity.

The study specifically focuses on four major settlements: Mapungubwe, Khami, Great Zimbabwe, and Bokoni. It argues that, much like the Eurocentric interpretations of LIAS research, the visualisations of these sites need to be reconsidered through critical visual cultural methodologies. Drawing on postcolonial, decolonial, and critical race theory, this approach aims to reframe how these visuals are understood and interpreted.

The research follows a dual methodology: a textual analysis of historical representations and an image-making process that explores the cultural politics of representation. Key questions guiding the study include: Who and what is being made visible in the visualisations of these settlements? What kinds of materiality and spatiality do these images portray? How do they affect the people who view them? And, importantly, what do these visualisations mean within the context in which they were created?