Introduction : de-centring ethical assumptions by re-centring ethical debate in African archaeology

Archaeological research carries a message that Africa is the cradle of human culture and must thus contain the full range of human experiences within its conceptual parameters. However, it tends to be the exceptional bad news stories that dominate world attention, resulting in overtly negative interpretations of the African past, present and future, both within and outside the continent, constructions that Africans have rightly railed against. Indeed, as Thabo Mbeki (2005), the former president of South Africa, once concluded a speech, ‘There will be no perpetual catastrophe. The stereotypes will neither define who we are nor dictate what will be.’