Past imperfect, present tense: The archaeology of Africa's past 200 years

The archaeology of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is a rapidly growing sub-field of African historical archaeology in tandem with a trend seen elsewhere in the world. Currently research on this time period in Africa is dominated by studies of slavery and emancipation, colonialism and capitalism and industrialisation. This research is described and research trends such as archaeologies of conflict, missionisation, Islamic expansion, colonial urbanism, identity and the contemporary world are identified as directions for the future.