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| John Sutton in Engaruka September 2011, Daryl Stump to the left. |
John E.G. Sutton passed away October 2nd 2023. He was Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa 1983–1998. His work on the archaeological study of the agrarian history of Africa has had much influence on historical geographers at Stockholm University and we worked closely together in the project Islands of intensive agriculture in Eastern Africa financed by SIDA and FRN.
I first met John Sutton at a conference in Mombasa in
1993. I then had only limited research experience from Africa. My research had
focused on field systems – morphology and dating - in Sweden.
In Mombasa my eyes first fell on a table of publications
showing aerial photography of the ancient fields of Engaruka and then on the
bearded man behind the stand, a stand of the British Institute in Eastern
Africa. Before that I did not know of any research in Africa on the history of
field systems. This meeting with John was the beginning of a series of conversations,
field visits and conference sessions with John. For me personally it was decisive for the rest of my research career. What I learnt from John was the beginning of the
second part of my research, moving from agrarian landscapes in Sweden to the
history of agrarian landscapes in Africa and subsequently the globe. John was
my mentor in this process.
I have come to look at researchers of ancient fields
as fellow nerds, not unlike narrow gauge railway amateurs. We ancient-fields-nerds
are obsessed with following winding collapsed stone walls, faint signs of
lynchets or of irrigation canals. The understanding of such systems cannot be
reached at one spot, however meticulous you observe that spot. You must
understand the totality of a large system. This makes ancient-fields-nerds into
fast walkers. They prefer to browse the landscape. The answers may lie kilometres
away. Unlike many other archaeologists John knew that.
A colleague of mine who was more used to sitting with
African farmers interviewing them last week sent me the following witness of
John. He wrote that he will
“never forget our visit to
Engaruka where I tried to keep up with Sutton's pace in a T-shirt, jeans and
sandals, while the thorn bushes cut through the sandals and I, without a
headgear, was completely burnt by the sharp sun. Sutton looked more like an alpine
mountaineer in heavy khakis, heavy boots, hat and old-fashioned grey rucksack.
He walked fast like an antelope and talked all the time....I had a hard time
keeping up”
I know only a handful of international colleagues – in
historical geography and in archaeology – who can compare with John in that
respect: the skills in disentangling horizontal stratigraphy, understanding the
underlying function of the once living farming system of canals, fields,
cairns, settlements. And walking fast like an antelope. There are no
methodology text books for the skills he had in landscape archaeology. The
methods are usually learnt only by own hard work and walk.
John Sutton was clearly a leader of archaeology on
African agrarian history. As pointed out by James McCann he changed the place
of agrarian history within African historical studies. From having been a
backdrop to history he brought the history of field systems, technology, and
cropping patterns to centre stage. The special issue of Azania from 1989 under
the heading History of African Agricultural Technology and Field Systems
was rightly characterised by James McCann as a “something of a watershed in the
historical ecology of African agriculture”.
My first meeting with John in Mombasa in 1993 led to series of field trips, seminars, and joint sessions on conferences. We borrowed from Tim Maggs the metaphor islands of intensive agriculture, brought in a group of colleagues researching such “islands” in living landscapes or in archaeological. We published the volume Islands of Intensive Agriculture in Eastern Africa: Past & Present in 2004.
During all these meetings John was always very generous
towards younger colleagues. His style of field work was inviting. Other leading
researchers may take the visit to “their” site as an opportunity to give to a
complete picture and convince the visitors of an elegant synthesis. But John did not do that. Trying to keep the
pace of John on these walks was not about him convincing us of his grand solutions
and his interpretations. He rather invited us to be part of his laboratory.
This was especially clear on a workshop in Tanzania in
2002 when we spent time in Engaruka with John. Researchers from many different
universities were then generously guided by him. In the years to come original
publications on Engaruka, inspired by John´s work, were published by researchers
from the universities of Oulu, Helsinki, Stockholm, Lund, York, and Cambridge.
John Sutton´s imprint on the agrarian history of
Africa cannot be overestimated. We miss him.
Mats Widgren, emeritus professor in Geography, Stockholm University
Readings:
McCann, James, Agriculture and African
history, Journal of African History 32, 1991, 507-513
Sutton, John E.G. (ed) History of African
Agricultural Technology and Field Systems (special issue), Azania,
24, 1989
Sutton, John E.G., Engaruka: an
irrigation agricultural community in northern Tanzania before the Maasai,
British institute in Eastern Africa, Nairobi, 2000
