ABSTRACT

Kaiija shrine tree was once known to everyone in Katuruka Village and many other neighboring and more distant villages. It is special in the annals of African history, marking the place where the first iron was produced in East, Central, or southern Africa. Prominent elders and keepers of oral tradition had taken great pride in this site's history and had reveled in disclosing it 40 years earlier as a place deserving archaeological inquiry. In this manner one of the first community archaeology projects in Africa unfolded—guided by elders' testimonies and training more than a dozen young villagers as part of the excavation team, two of whom played key roles in this heritage initiative and remain livings. The idea that Africa lagged behind Europe technologically to develop innovative ways to make a complicated product like iron or carbon steel is, simply put, a representation that arises out of a sense of colonial privilege and superiority.