In 2008, the Sabodala Cultural Heritage Project was retained by SRK Consulting to perform cultural resources studies for an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for the Sabodala Gold Mine.
The mining concession covers 230km² in the upper Senegal River basin of eastern Senegal. Over the next several years, the SCHP team led by Gerry (consisting of Nexus Heritage from the United Kingdom, the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN), based in Dakar, Senegal, and from SRI in the USA) completed numerous tasks, including:
Background and Archival Research
Predictive Model of Surface and Subsurface Archaeological Sites
Ethnographic Survey of Traditional Tangible and Intangible Cultural Resources
Reconnaissance Archaeological Survey
Intensive Archaeological Survey and Test Excavations
Geoarchaeological Investigations
Ethnopedology Study of Traditional Farmers
Artifact Analysis
Archaeological Monitoring
Baseline Reports and CRM Plans
The Sabodala Cultural Heritage Project (SCHP) represents the first major archaeological and ethnographic study of this portion of the upper Senegal River basin. We documented 300,000 years of occupation as well as provided a synthetic interpretation of local Malinké history and society.
But the SCHP is much more than an academic research project; it is the first comprehensive cultural resource study ever performed in Senegal. Our objective was not simply to document and evaluate the past and present culture and cultural resources, but also to assist IFAN in the development of the institutional infrastructure to perform similar studies in the future.
The project was completed in 2016 with the publication of: A Slave Who Would be King; Oral Tradition and Archaeology of the Recent Past in the Upper Senegal River Basin by Atlschil, Thiaw and Wait.