This current issue of Critical African Studies consists of three individual submissions – on perceptions of homosexuality within colonial histories; on everyday conceptions of the Ethiopian state; and on labour in Kenya, followed by a short special section, entitled ‘Local Perspectives on African Tourism’, consisting of three articles, situated in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zanzibar, respectively.
The issue starts with an article by Haley McEwen that argues for the relevance of examining histories of western population control in order to understand contemporary forms of intolerance towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) people across the continent. The article examines rumours and suspicions that homosexuality is a form of population control and relates these discourses to the increasing influence of the US pro-family movement in African sexual politics. The author situates these rumours within an account of continuing geo-political power inequalities and a social imaginary of how the West continues to exert control through sexualized technologies of manipulation.
In his article on ideas of the state in Northern Ethiopia, Daniel Mulugeta unpacks the language, including idioms and metaphors, that people use to talk about ‘mengist’, that is, the state or government. Through an ethnographic study of public and everyday discourses, he shows that conceptions of the state are shaped by cultural and particularly religious ideals. Mulugeta argues that citizens’ moral understandings of power and authority, goodness and legitimacy, help to explain the ways in which they make sense of both the provision and the corruption of the Ethiopian state in their everyday lives.
Catherine Dolan and Claire Gorden’s article sets out a critical and historical perspective on the entrepreneurial discourse that has infused debate on contemporary African capitalism. They do this by examining the ideological, discursive and material practices that have been used to shape the idea of the African ‘economic man’ over time. They locate the transformations of this labouring subject in Kenya within the changing political and economic strategies of governments and international development institutions filled with idioms of growth and development. The entrepreneurial and productive ‘economic man’ is linked to particular moral valuations of Kenya’s citizens that is deeply entwined with the idea of an African habitus that is an obstacle to economic growth. In contrast, the efficient and enterprising labourer has represented a set of ideas about the future of the nation. Thus, over time, concepts of enterprise and entrepreneurialism have been central not only to economic agendas of creating a productive cadre of economic men but also to strategies of nation building.
The short special section on tourism in Africa explores some of the emerging, challenging and often problematic continental and international issues related to tourist activities and different conceptions of tourism in Africa, from fresh empirical, theoretical and analytical perspectives. Very often these relationships reveal neo-colonial power imbalances and widening schisms in global relations. Stereotypical western views of travel and tourism in Africa inevitably evoke visions of sunset safaris, endless white beaches, exotic animals and perhaps also bustling and chaotic urban centres. However, the concept could be applied in a multitude of ways, challenging our idea of what tourism means. Indeed, tourism studies today is a multidisciplinary field that looks at tourism as a social phenomenon in all its diverse applications and manifestations. We could understand tourism as encapsulating the many different ways that African and non-African tourists and travellers engage with the African continent in temporary and limited ways, including domestic and intra-African tourism and south–south tourism. This special section explores some of the underlying critical and theoretical issues inherent in tourism activities on the continent. Issues related to economic deprivation as a result of prioritizing nature conservation, land struggles, infrastructure investment, contestation over resources, the introduction of western values through the pursuit of leisure activities, and the rise of the service economy also often play out against the backdrop of tourism expansion on the continent. All three papers are concerned with how tourism developments have affected local, and often marginalized or under-prioritised communities, and make positive suggestions as to how tourism expansion is and could be reconceptualised by local communities, governments and other stakeholders in ways that would be more beneficial, inclusive and sustainable to local communities.
Regis Musavengane’s article explores the existence of tourism consciousness (distinct from conscious tourism), among poor Black South Africans. Musavengane’s study reveals how patterns of travel and tourism in South Africa are still very much shaped by legacies of apartheid, inequality and racial exclusion. The author applies Bourdieu’s well-used concept of habitus (1990), a set of acquired and ingrained habits, skills and dispositions, as a framework through which to understand poor Black South Africans’ engagement with tourism. This is significant in the South African context because we know that tourism is typically an activity that only the elite were able to participate in as they had the necessary discretionary income, time and resources. As such, tourism has for a long time been associated with the global ‘rich’ and with whites in the Global South, economically privileged due to the histories of colonization and apartheid. However, there has recently been an increase in the participation of Black Africans in tourism, which necessitates further study to understand the role of tourism in certain Black African communities. As such, Musavengane study set out to establish the nexus between social class and tourism consciousness among ‘poor’ Black South Africans. The study found that some Black South Africans associate travel and tourism mostly with looking for jobs, relocating or visiting family homes during the holiday season, while it concludes that the development of tourism consciousness among Black Africans is key to building strong and cohesive communities through making tourism in South Africa more equal and inclusive.
Simon Chiutsi & Jarkko Saarinen’s article discusses the limits of inclusivity and sustainability in transfrontier peace parks, taking as its case study the Sengwe community in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA) in Zimbabwe. We know that national parks, in particular, nature and game reserves, have become one of the main tourist attractions in southern Africa for tourists from all over the globe. The authors explain that these transfrontier conservation initiatives are often called ‘peace parks’, as the intention is that they would improve conservation practices and policies which would support biodiversity, as well as supporting sustainable economic development and regional peace and stability. This study is thus also concerned with the effects of tourism in Africa on marginalized communities. Transfrontier peace parks in southern Africa are tasked with the challenge of creating a more inclusive and sustainable conservation agenda, a need that local communities have continuously lobbied for as they call for more meaningful involvement in conservation and tourism. The article argues that there are limits to this inclusivity and sustainability, and that an understanding of these limits might help to develop more beneficial stakeholder relations, which could result in improved biodiversity conservation and management strategies of these areas.
Akbar Keshodkar’s article is concerned with the ways in which local Muslim Zanzibaris are finding new ways of framing their Muslim roots in the era of tourism. The expansion of tourism in Zanzibar in the last three decades or so has resulted in the marginalization of Zanzibaris’ cultural beliefs under the weight and expectations of western leisure tourism, including a great increase in sex tourism. Zanzibaris’ engagement with Islam, the author argues, has shifted with the emergence of new contact zones, initially in the aftermath of the 1964 Revolution, and more recently under tourism and the influx of Christian migrant labourers from mainland Tanzania. This has led to growing socio-economic and political marginalization and displacement of the local community. Through extensive ethnographic research over several years, the article examines how Zanzibaris are reconfiguring their association with Islamic cultural practices as they search for new ways to connect with their Muslim roots and heritage. Tourism, as it plays out within the capitalist economy, has brought new contact zones and new routes of mobility that have introduced new lifestyles, consumption patterns and a focus on the individual at the cost of community and kinship relations. The growth of tourism on the island has also harmed other industries, with over 50% of Zanzibaris now living in poverty. The article concludes that, as tourism did not bring the economic opportunities anticipated, Zanzibaris are finding new pathways of social and economic mobility and engagement with modernity that includes considerations of their Muslim identities and heritage.