Transformative Colonial Encounters between the Germans and People of Kete-Krachi, Ghana

Abstract

This article examines the archaeological signature of German colonial intervention at Kete-Krachi in present-day Oti Region, Ghana. It argues that archaeology clarifies how a brief colonial occupation reshaped everyday life, administration and local power relations at an important inland trading centre. The analysis draws on two excavation trenches at the former German station of Kete-Hedwigswarte, historical records, archival references and selected oral traditions. The assemblage includes local pottery, imported ceramics, glass bottles, metal objects, faunal remains, beads, coins, buttons and European clay-pipe fragments. These materials reveal changing patterns of diet, consumption, exchange, medicine, smoking and coercive force. They also show that the station was not a sealed European enclave, but a transcultural node within a commercial and ritual landscape shaped by African authority and long-distance exchange. The article contributes to archaeological, colonial and African heritage discourses.