Professor Forssman received the NRF Public Engagement with Research Award, which recognises outstanding contributions to public engagement with science and celebrates individuals who make their research, science and technology accessible, relevant and meaningful to society.
“Receiving the award shows me that my work as an archaeologist, both in South Africa and internationally, is gaining recognition, and that means a great deal to me,” he said.
Professor Forssman, an NRF-rated researcher, said his work is driven by a passion for understanding the past and exploring how archaeology can contribute to contemporary society.
His research interests include forager-farmer interactions, forager economies, trade dynamics and landscape archaeology. He also runs the Thulamela Archaeological Research Project, through which he and his team investigate the rise of Thulamela, a hilltop palatial settlement occupied in the mid-second millennium AD, and how these histories can help shape current and future challenges.
“Archaeology has the potential to confront challenges in the present and help us make decisions as we move forward. It gives us a uniquely long-term perspective on how societies have responded to environmental change, including which strategies enabled resilience and those that increased vulnerability. If we can learn from this, we can make better-informed decisions moving forward,” he explains.
Exploring Africa’s Archaeological Heritage
Professor Forssman is also an established author, with previous publications including Bushman Rock Art: An Interpretive Guide (2012), Beyond the Dripline: Later Stone Age Changes on the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape (2013), and Foragers in the Middle Limpopo Valley: Trade, Place-Making, and Complexity (2020).
His latest book, published by Springer Nature in 2026, is titled Archaeology in Africa: Why the Past Matters. The book explores the development of archaeology on the African continent and examines how changing approaches, theoretical frameworks, local politics and global systems have influenced perceptions of Africa’s past.
Professor Forssman hopes his latest book will help broaden conversations about archaeology and its role in modern society.
“I wanted to write a book that pushed me a little outside of my comfort zone and into a topic that would have pan-African appeal. Although archaeologists deal with history, the past is, in many ways, a reflection of the present. I wanted to examine this from an African perspective,” he said.
Professor Forssman said the book highlights the historical use of archaeology and heritage as tools of power, noting that colonial approaches often disconnected people from their heritage and reproduced biases.
“The book also challenges colonial and Eurocentric narratives that have shaped perceptions of Africa and its history. Revisiting colonial narratives, as well as Eurocentric perspectives, allows us as scholars to challenge problematic constructions of the past and remove some of these biases from our understanding of history,” he explains, emphasising the importance of communities and different knowledge systems in developing richer understandings of Africa’s archaeological heritage.
“Communities possess their own oral histories and memories that can add dimensions to the past that we cannot access through archaeology alone.
By working together and drawing on different sources of knowledge, we can build much richer and more detailed accounts of the past that also possess greater meaning in the present.”
Professor Forssman hopes the book will contribute to wider conversations about the relevance of archaeology in contemporary society and its potential role in shaping the future.
Story by Cleopatra Makhaga. Pictures supplied. Copyright © UMP.