Abstract
The production of particular spaces for tourist consumption of the “exotic” other involves the performance of particular conceptualizations of people and places that recreates theatrical versions of the primitive. Through analysis of one such space—Nyoni’s Kraal in Cape Town—we contend that both hosts and visitors are complicit in the construction of these spaces and imaginaries. To this end, practices of social and spatial policing as well as performativity and representations of cultural constructs of an “authentic Africa” are deployed in the projection of a specific form of constructed, “benign” multiculturalism. We contend that such practices reproduce a mythical idyll of Africa for consumption that recreates—rather than questions—colonial power structures, and therefore remain imbued with the inequitable and uncertain outcomes of modernity.
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Notes
Numerous travel and business websites present Cape Town as a comparable city to San Francisco, so much so that it can be argued that for many foreign visitors, the former enters the popular imagination as a comparable city to the latter. Selling Cape Town in this way shapes travelers’ expectations of the city—it has eateries that compare to the San Franciscan palate (http://chowhound.chow.com); it is gay-friendly (http://www.capetown.tv); it is a good location for economic and property investment, especially for web-based startup companies (http://www.capetowndailyphoto.com/2008/09/could-cape-town-be-next-silicon-valley.html); and has a wonderful natural backdrop (http://www.budgettravel.com). Perhaps visitors’ expectations of the city are best summed up by a 2008 poll conducted for the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, which named Cape Town as the Best World City in their 2008 travel awards. BuaNews, the South African government’s internet news service described the city as “well placed to receive visitors looking for value for money and an authentic experience” (http://www.buanews.gov.za/news/08/08120112451002). The implications are clear: Cape Town embodies the attractions of many of the world’s top tourist destinations at a lower cost, but also a visitor can also experience the “authentic” Africa without the dangers of the “real Africa”.
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Acknowledgements
Daniel Hammett would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Economic and Social Research Council. M. Neelika Jayawardane would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Nuala McGann Drescher Fellowship (SUNY). Both authors would like to thank the Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town for the provision of research space.
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Hammett, D., Jayawardane, N. Performing the Primitive in the Postcolony: Nyoni’s Kraal in Cape Town. Urban Forum 20, 215–233 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-009-9055-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-009-9055-z