Abi Alabo Derefaka and the Reconstruction of the Cultural History of the Niger Delta

Abstract

This article examines the role of archaeology and anthropology as practiced by Abi Alabo Derefaka, in the reconstruction  of the cultural history of the preliterate people of the Niger Delta. The problematic of this study is the  evaluation of the relevance of material culture of a people to the reconstruction of their remote past through the lens of  an archaeologist and anthropologist who does the authentication or otherwise of collected oral traditions. The  methodology adopted is predominantly a comparative review of Derefaka’s published works and reports of  archaeological investigations and works of other scholars on historical reconstruction in the Niger Delta. This work  demonstrates that oral traditions provide the hypotheses and speculative information as the foundational guide to  direct archaeological investigations. It further affirms that material remains which the archaeologist investigates constitute the proof of human’s totality of past social, cultural, economic and political activities and civilizations. It  concludes that the cultural history of the Niger Delta through the material remains recovered by the archaeologist and  anthropologist aided the professional historian in the reconstruction of the sequences of past events of the Niger Delta  and indicates their relevance to the contemporary society.