Safaris into Subjectivity: White Locals, Black Tourists, and the Politics of Belonging in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

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Safaris into Subjectivity: WhiteLocals, Black Tourists, and thePolitics of Belonging in theOkavango Delta, BotswanaCatie Gressier aa Anthropology and Sociology, The University ofWestern Australia, Crawley, Western Australia,Australia

Version of record first published: 22 Feb 2012

To cite this article: Catie Gressier (2011): Safaris into Subjectivity: White Locals,Black Tourists, and the Politics of Belonging in the Okavango Delta, Botswana,Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 18:4, 352-376

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Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 18:352–376, 2011Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 1070-289X print / 1547-3384 onlineDOI: 10.1080/1070289X.2011.654732

Safaris into Subjectivity: White Locals, Black Tourists, andthe Politics of Belonging in the Okavango Delta,Botswana

Catie GressierAnthropology and Sociology, The University of Western Australia,Crawley, Western Australia, Australia

The elite safari lodges in Botswana’s Okavango Delta provide an intriguingsite through which to explore processes of identity construction, as people fromvastly different backgrounds meet and explore ontological possibilities throughand against each other. Drawing on a dinner table dispute between an AfricanAmerican tourist and his white Motswana guide, I explore contested notions ofwhat constitutes African identities. The encounter shows that colonial histories andthe racialization of space continue to be central to African identity politics, and Idescribe how white citizens’ claims to belonging are challenged on these grounds.In response to such challenges, white Batswana assert a strongly nationalisticidentity, distancing themselves from other southern African white populations andtheir colonial histories. They staunchly defend their claims to belonging throughmobilising a partial view of Botswana’s history and contemporary sociopoliticalconditions, which has made possible a deep sense of emplacement within the socialand natural environments of the Okavango.

Key Words: African identities, identity construction, Okavango Delta, Botswana,emplacement

A thirty-two-year-old white Motswana safari guide, who I will refer toas Richard, was guiding in 2005 at one of the most exclusive safarilodges in the Okavango Delta. During this time, he hosted a groupof extremely wealthy African American tourists. The following excerptis from a recorded interview in which Richard describes his perspec-tive on a heated conversation he had with Edward, one of the AfricanAmerican visitors:

And the whole thing evolved around where one evening we were havingdinner, and I get asked by this young man of twenty four years who’sblack American—I call them black Americans, not African-Americans—and he says to me, ‘Who do you think you are? Where do you come from?’

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And I say, ‘Um, I’m white, I’m born in Botswana, I don’t know, all I doknow is that I was born in Botswana, and I live here, and I consider thismy home.’

And so he says, ‘Well, do you call yourself an African?’I say, ‘Yes, I do.’And anyway, I think he took that the wrong way and changed his whole

tune—turned it around—so what I said to him was, ‘I was born here, andI live here, and I grew up here, and I speak the language, and I knowthe people, and they all know me, and I have a home here [. . .] You don’tspeak a single African language, you don’t have a single African connec-tion, you wouldn’t even eat the same food—which is what these [blackBatswana] guys have already commented on back there—you won’t eveneat the same food as what Africans here eat. Do you call yourself anAfrican?’

And he called himself ‘a victim of Americanisation’, which is whereAnn [another African-American tourist from Edward’s group] turnedaround and said: ‘you’re a victim driving a Benz, homeboy!’

And that was it hey. Since then everything became, that became theroot of the joke. Ja, but none of them got the idea.

As exemplified in this incident, tourism is a rich site throughwhich to explore processes of identity construction. White1 citizensof postcolonial African nations are frequently challenged about theiridentification as African. In response to this the white citizens of theOkavango assert a strong sense of belonging to the nation-state, iden-tifying as Batswana specifically and African more broadly. The notionof being ‘African’ is, of course, an imagined, varied, and often highlysubjective construct, which is precisely what makes it so interesting toprobe. My aim in this article is to explore Richard’s identity and senseof belonging as a member of the white minority community.2 WhileEdward’s subject position is equally intriguing, he had unfortunatelyreturned to his home in America prior to the commencement of myfieldwork, so I am unable to explore his perspective to the same extent.I do, however, discuss Edward’s identity position as it is presented byRichard, because this makes apparent the significant role of tourists asa primary Other against whom white citizens construct and negotiateidentity.

I begin my discussion by briefly commenting on the value of tourismas a site for identity construction, before describing the challengesposed to white citizens’ claims to African identities. A number of whiteBatswana guides describe experiences where tourists have questionedthe legitimacy of their belonging on the grounds of the politics andhistories of colonialism. They counter these challenges through argu-ing that Botswana has had very different experiences to contiguous

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nations, and I explore subsequently how white citizens mobilize aparticular view of their nation’s history and the sociopolitical prac-tices of the majority Tswana to validate their claims to belonging.While the political culture of the Tswana is widely argued to disenfran-chise many of Botswana’s minority groups, I suggest that this samesystem has functioned in quite the opposite manner through strength-ening the sense of legitimacy of the white minority on a number oflevels. I go on to describe how their sense of belonging is further sup-ported by their strongly held belief that interracial relations are farmore harmonious in Botswana than in neighboring countries, outlin-ing the ways in which white Batswana contrast their own positiveself-image about interracial dynamics with stereotypes of white SouthAfricans as racists. In the final section I explore white Batswana iden-tity construction against the tourist Other, whereby white Batswanaclaims to African identities are bolstered by their extensive knowl-edge of and connections to the Okavango’s social and naturalenvironments.

The data are derived from thirteen months ethnographic fieldworkconducted in the Okavango from 2006 to 2008. With a home basein Maun, I spent a considerable amount of time in the bush par-ticipating in mobile-tented and lodge-based safaris—bumping alongin game-viewing vehicles by day and sitting around campfires bynight—all the while observing the dynamics between locals, tourists,and the Okavango wildlife. During this time I recorded 113 informal,loosely structured interviews—many of several hours’ duration—withblack and white citizens, expatriates, and tourists. While I focusvery much on Richard’s subjective experiences in this article, hisclaims to African identity and the strength of his connections to theOkavango are mirrored by many of the white citizens with whom Iworked.

Tourism and identity construction

After diamonds, tourism is the second largest driver of Botswana’seconomy (Mbaiwa 2005: 157). Botswana tourism is oriented around thenation’s vast wildlife areas, with tourists participating in either photo-graphic or hunting safaris. Ninety percent of tourists in Botswana visitthe northern national parks and wildlife areas (Magole and Gojamang2005: 87). The Okavango is the most exclusive of these areas wherethe abundant wildlife and striking landscapes have attracted increas-ing numbers of international tourists over the past two decades. Theimpact on the local economy has been profound. Sixty percent of for-mally employed people in the Okavango work in tourism directly, and

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many others work in support industries (Kgathi et al. 2006: 13). Indeed,there is little private sector employment in the Okavango region out-side tourism. The majority of white citizens work in the industryconducting high-cost safaris, with the majority of their clients travel-ling from the United States and Europe. The government’s high-cost,low-impact policy has encouraged the development of elite lodge-basedsafaris, in addition to luxury mobile-tented safaris. There are approx-imately eighty lodges in the wildlife management areas throughoutthe Okavango, and most are only accessibly by small plane for muchof the year. Government legislation stipulates that each lodge hasno more than sixteen beds; to ensure profitability, lodges charge vastsums to tourists for the exclusive experience offered. The lodge inwhich Richard hosted the African American clients cost at the timeUS$5,000 per night for a couple, while the least expensive lodges werecharging around US$1,000 per person per night. The moral and politi-cal complexities surrounding the presence of such elite playgrounds inthe midst of persistent sub-Saharan poverty are felt by the touristsand their hosts to varying extents. Consequently, Okavango touristlodges are intriguing sites of anthropological enquiry as people of vastlydifferent social, cultural, and economic backgrounds come together toexplore ideas of self through encounters with such strikingly differentOthers.

Identity is contemporaneously perceived as a perpetual work inprogress whereby individual and collective histories are negotiated andadapted according to various circumstances, possibilities, and limita-tions in the present and future (Hall 1993: 394). Consequently, theo-rists such as Melucci (1997: 64) entreat social scientists to explore theprocesses of identity construction in lieu of seeking essentialised, rei-fied categories. These processes are readily observable among touristswho often consciously embrace the possibility of personal explorationand growth through their journeys (Sørensen 2003: 853; Teo and Leong2006: 110). Of the African American tourists, Richard describes pre-cisely this phenomenon with his statement: ‘They’ve apparently cometo find their roots. They’re going to come and get in contact withAfrica.’ Yet it is not only the tourists who explore their subjectivityon safari, but also the hosts. This is certainly the case in the dinnertable discussion in which Richard is pushed by Edward to consider andarticulate his personal and cultural identity. As Frankenberg (1993:223) suggests, identities can be both ascribed and chosen. ThroughEdward and Richard’s mutual rejection of the other’s identity ascrip-tions, and their subsequent counterassertions of alternative positions,the complex processes of identity construction on safari are madeevident.

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The race debate: white citizens as inauthentic Africans

The challenge Edward raised to Richard—‘who do you think you are?Where do you come from?’—would seldom, if ever, be directed to a blackMotswana whose authenticity is generally perceived by tourists to bebeyond question. The racialization of space is particularly pertinent insouthern Africa as Sylvain (2005: 357) observes:

Essentialist conceptions of national culture assume a discomfortingsalience in postapartheid southern Africa, where conflated notions of ‘cul-ture’ and ‘race’ have been politicized as natural, territorial national unitsmore explicitly and consequentially than in most other areas of the world.

In other words, race continues to be a powerful category of iden-tity marking in southern Africa, and assumptions of Africa as equatedwith black populations (and Europe with white) certainly dominate.Writing of whites in apartheid South Africa, anthropologist VincentCrapanzano (1985: 197) describes their annoyance and frustrationwhen foreigners are ignorant to or derisive of a population of whitepeople calling African countries home. Similarly, Richard becomes frus-trated if a challenge to his identity is couched in political terms. Thisis palpable when at the end of his recollection of the dinner table inci-dent he concludes by saying: ‘But none of them got the idea.’ As anethnic minority implicated in histories of colonialism, racism, and theattendant economic and social privileges, claims to African identity andbelonging for whites in postcolonial southern Africa are often dismissedat both local and international levels. The eviction of white farmersin Zimbabwe in the past decade is an extreme manifestation of thissentiment emanating from within southern Africa. From an interna-tional perspective, Edward’s challenge as an African American is alsobased on the histories and politics of colonialism, and others, includ-ing academics, question the legitimacy of whites continuing to dwellin postcolonial African countries. Human ecologist David McDermottHughes (2006: 269), for example, seems to suggest that whites can-not ethically belong in Africa through his implicit approval of DorisLessing’s decision as ‘a leftist’ to emigrate out of Zimbabwe. In describ-ing the acute shock and disbelief of white Zimbabweans to the farminvasions in 2000, Hughes (2006: 270) goes on to ask: ‘How could they—indeed, how could any European-derived minority—develop such aresilient claim to extra-European territory?’ Sentiments such as theseelicit great frustration among white citizens, many of whom can tracenumerous generations on the continent and feel deeply connected to

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what they perceive to be their homes. I now turn to the ways inwhich white Batswana respond to these kinds of challenges to theiridentification as African.

Botswana—A unique history of interracial relations

While there are many similarities in the positions and experiences ofwhite citizens across southern African nations, white Batswana dis-tance themselves from colonialism and the negative stereotypes ofwhites in Africa through focussing on the ways in which Botswanadiffers historically and politically from neighbouring countries. WhiteBatswana’s practice of constructing identity against other southernAfrican whites calls to mind Simon Harrison’s (2003) argument thatidentity is as often as not constructed against resemblance as dif-ference. He suggests that relationships with those more similar arethose that groups work hardest to distance themselves from. ‘The moreintense the identification with the other, the more radical the mea-sures needed to counter it,’ (Harrison 2003: 345). In this vein, whiteBatswana eschew the parallels with neighbouring white populations,are stoutly nationalistic, and do not like to be mis-identified. As Richarddescribes: ‘I think everybody shares a very patriotic type of passionof the white Motswana; the people are very patriotic. We love it, eh.Don’t let anybody say we’re from South Africa or anything like that!’ Hedescribes how for a period when he was in high school he consciouslymanipulated his accent to try to avoid sounding South African. Thisserved to reinforce his national identity and to distance him from thenegative stigma associated with white South Africans in the apartheidperiod.

Emphasising the relatively positive interracial relationships andpeaceful history of northwest Botswana is an important element ofwhite Batswana belonging. White citizens are quick to point out thatin contrast to neighbouring countries and the southeast regions ofBotswana, land was never allocated to settlers in the Okavango.Rather, land remained under tribal administration—as it does to thisday—and white citizens, like all Batswana, lease land from tribalauthorities that are today represented in the region by the TawanaLand Board. Thus, the term settler, with its connotations of unjustappropriation of land, is seen by the Okavango’s white Batswanaas an inaccurate description of their position. In this vein, when Iquestion Richard about race relations and the status of the white pop-ulation, he responds by recounting his perception of the nation-state’shistory:

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The thing about what’s different here is that Botswana was never acolony, it was a Protectorate, okay . . . With Seretse Khama,3 that’s whatchanged everything about this country’s attitude towards white peoplebecause he married a white woman and he said from now on we willalways be a racially tolerant country, which is so unique among Africancountries. I think most people here consider themselves part of this coun-try. It is 40 years old this country. It’s just started. So I think more thanfrom a settler point of view the people are just from here, they’re part ofit. And the thing is, essentially, all the tribes in Botswana have come fromsomewhere . . . No one fought for the land. No one fought to defend it, andno one fought to take it over. It was more just a sort of coming togetheryou know.

Historians tend to have a more critical view describing how theProtectorate government exercised certain controls reminiscent of fullcolonialism, including the imposition of taxation, regulation of the pow-ers of the chiefs, and some appropriation of land in the southeast andwest of the country (Campbell 1980: 231). While not as pervasive asin neighbouring nations, the sense of white superiority is also saidto have been present in Bechuanaland (Hall 1973: 197).4 In her dis-cussion of Australian settler-descendant connections to their homes,Miller (2003: 218) argues that belonging requires ‘standing in cor-rect relation to one’s community, one’s history, and one’s locality.’ Itis clear that Richard’s mobilisation of the positive aspects of the coun-try’s history allows him a sense of legitimacy within his position inBotswana. Consequently, when his identity and belonging are chal-lenged on the grounds of colonial histories—as in the case of Edward’sline of questioning—he strongly defends his position based on a com-parative historical approach, which emphasises Botswana’s somewhatmore peaceful history relative to the brutalities of full colonialism inneighbouring countries.

The independent government’s policy of nonracialism has furthercontributed to white Batswana senses of belonging. Botswana pridesitself on being a state committed to nonracialism with a strong empha-sis on civic, rather than ethnic, citizenship. This contrasts with manyAfrican countries where political parties are constituted patently alongethnic lines (Chabal 1996: 33). Botswana’s Constitution, instated atIndependence in 1966, guarantees the ‘Protection of FundamentalRights and Freedoms of the Individual . . . whatever his [sic] race,place of origin, political opinions, colour, creed or sex.’ As a newlyformed state bordering apartheid South Africa this was, as anthropolo-gist Sidsel Saugestad (2001: 28) suggests, ‘a courageous and visionarystatement.’ Botswana’s determination to operate as a liberal democracy

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guaranteeing equal rights on an individual rather than collective basiswas not only oppositional to discrimination in apartheid South Africabut also an antidote to potentially detrimental tribalism (Chebanne2002: 49). It is defended to this day on the latter score with situationssuch as Rwanda’s civil war being held up as evidence that ethnicallybased politics are dangerous. For the most part, Botswana has beena rare example in southern Africa of peaceful cohabitation of diverseethnic groups—a fact that Batswana of many ethnic backgrounds holdas a point of pride. Anthropologist Francis Nyamnjoh (2006: 230) haswritten extensively on issues surrounding the politics of belonging inseveral African nations, and in Botswana he describes ‘new, more flex-ible, negotiated, cosmopolitan and popular forms of citizenship, withthe emphasis on inclusion, conviviality and the celebration of differ-ence’ (ibid: 230). While Botswana may compare favourably with otherAfrican states, many feel it fails to realise pluralist ideals, and Tswanadominance has long been criticised by minority groups.

Civic citizenship is often characterised by forced assimilation into ‘apublic, political culture that is represented as universal and, as such, isoblivious of its own culturalness’ (Ceuppens and Geschiere 2005: 399).Particularly in African states, citizenship has been demonstrated byscholars to be a highly contentious and problematic category.5 Whileostensibly concerned with the rights of all individuals regardless of eth-nicity, post-Independence nationalist discourse and practice have inex-tricably linked the demarcated territory with the cultural practices,politics, and language of the dominant cultural group, the Tswana. Thecountry is after all called Botswana: ‘Place of the Tswana’—which israther telling as despite Botswana’s claims to distancing itself fromethnic citizenship, it is one of only four out of fifty-three African statesto take on the name of the dominant ethnic group (Young 2007: 249).In recent years, extensive scholarship has highlighted the disenfran-chisement of certain minorities under the sociopolitical structures thatare so strongly premised in Tswana language and cultural practices.6

The white minority are, however, seldom mentioned in this discoursefor a number of reasons. First, they are a very small minority that con-stitute less than two percent of the population. Second, unlike otherminorities, they are not seeking any recognition or rights relating totheir cultural identity on a public level. Finally, and most significantly,the Tswana-centric sociopolitical system that has been so detrimen-tal to the position of other minorities has in fact worked in quite theopposite manner by serving to legitimise white Batswana senses ofbelonging.

The Tswana-centric nationalist rhetoric emphasises the particularhistorical period of post-Independence from 1966 onward (cf. Gupta

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2003: 321; on Tswana see Bennett 2002). This is particularly salientin the Botswana context where the ruling Tswana moved into theterritory between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. This was con-siderably later than the Basarwa who have inhabited the region fortens of thousands of years, and Bantu groups such as the Bakalangaand Bayei who were long established in the territory at the time ofTswana settlement (Bennett 2002; Tlou 1985). Consequently, the ques-tion of indigeneity is the subject of heated contestation in Botswana.While the San—also referred to as Basarwa or Bushmen—are engagedin an ongoing campaign to garner rights and recognition as first peo-ple, the government has maintained the position that all citizens areindigenous.7 In 1993 the United Nations ‘Year of Indigenous Peoples,’Butale, then Minister of Local Government, Lands and Housing statedin the Parliament that no plans for the event had been made: ‘Thisis because, as far as we are concerned, all Batswana are indigenousto the country, except those who may have acquired citizenship byregistration’ (cited in Saugestad 2001: 52).

While this historical stance has been greatly detrimental to the San,it has significantly contributed to a sense of legitimate belonging forthe white population. The Batawana, the subgroup of the Tswana polit-ically dominant in the northwest, became established in the Okavangoregion around 1800, and it was only fifty years later that the first whiteexplorers arrived8 (Tlou 1985: 28). Not only was the white commu-nity not too far behind temporally, but the fact that all Batswana areconsidered indigenous by the state allows them a sense of legitimateconnection and neutralises their particular past as associated with thecolonial Protectorate. The emphasis on the post-Independence periodeffectively erases the history of inequality and renders them citizensakin to any other. As white South African author Nadine Gordimer(1988: 32) writes: ‘We want merely to be ordinary members of a multi-coloured, any-coloured society, freed both of the privileges and the guiltof the white sins of our fathers.’ While the white Batswana do notassociate their history with colonial ‘sins’ as such, there is a consciousdistancing from the histories of white privilege that pervaded the con-tinent. Thus, unlike most minorities in Botswana who are engaged ina ‘politics of recognition,’ the white community benefit from embracingthe opportunity to shed their ethnohistories to be citizens as any other.

Consistent with the emphasis on civic rather than ethnic citizen-ship, all citizens, regardless of ethnicity, are referred to as Batswana(plural)/Motswana (singular). While other minorities feel the practicesuppresses their ethnic identities, white citizens use these appellationsconsistently and with pride when referring to themselves, and partic-ularly in distinguishing themselves from white expatriate residents.

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Holding Botswana citizenship is fundamental to white Batswanasenses of identity. The very small proportion of citizens to expatri-ates, the desirability of the Okavango as a place to live and work, thestringency of the nation’s immigration policies,9 and the substantialbenefits accrued to citizens, all render citizenship status highly signif-icant. Furthermore, on a regional level, individuals from all ethnicitiesare incorporated and politically identified with one of the eight Tswanamerafes10) (chiefdoms/tribes) (Bennett 2002: 5). In the Okavango, con-sistent with the policy of minority incorporation, all people living inthis region are considered officially to be Batawana tribesmen, regard-less of their ethnic background. This policy is viewed very ambivalentlyby different groups who either commend it for its inclusiveness orcritique it as assimilationist. The academic and activist for minor-ity rights, Lydia Nyati-Ramahobo (2002: 18), argues that the policy‘denies the non-Tswana groups their right to define themselves cultur-ally, and to live according to their cultural traditions and customs.’ Bycontrast, renowned author Bessie Head (1981: 68) portrays the inclu-siveness of the Tswana merafes in a very positive light through thelens of her experience as a coloured woman emigrating out of apartheidSouth Africa. She recounts an interview with a community historian,Ramosamo, in Serowe and his response to her South African origins:

‘Well that’s all right,’ Ramosamo said kindly. ‘What we like is for all for-eigners to accept themselves as Mongwato and stay peacefully with us.This custom started from the time of our King Khama. King Khama usedto be the lover of foreigners, both black and white. In the case of black peo-ple we have very large village wards in Serowe of foreign tribes. It cameabout that we cannot easily trace who is a foreigner these days. Theyhave added to the Bamangwato tribe and all talk Setswana.

As for Bessie Head, this policy provides a very positive sense of con-nectedness for the region’s white Batswana, many of whom proudlyidentify as Tawana. Tlou (1985: 48) describes the multicultural, multi-ethnic nature of the Tawana kingdom where historically: ‘The two uni-fying institutions were the kingship and the age-regiments. Everyonein the realm had to belong to a regiment.’ While this tradition hasdecreased in significance over time, and not all Batawana, let aloneall white Batswana, are integrated into the regiment system, Richardat age seventeen underwent initiation:

Kgosi [Chief] Tawana got elected as the new Chief and when that happensthe new Chief recruit’s regiments . . . We were invited to come and havemopata, which is the initiation lashes which happen at the kgotla.11 So

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anyway, it was an incredible privilege. My Dad had it; my Dad was invitedas well with the first President . . . And basically you arrive there andyou’ve got to go into the sacred kraal at the kgotla. You take your shirt offand you lie on the ground on your belly and the guy stands at your headand he’s got this long, thin, whippy stick and he did, it’s just two lashes. . . And then I’m part of the Makata regiment of the Batawana tribe. So,ja, you can’t become much more of a tribesman than that.

For Richard, his initiation is a powerful symbol of emplacement andbelonging to the people of the Okavango region in which he was born,grew up, and continues to live. Particularly pertinent is the fact thathis father was also initiated. An older white Motswana describes hisrecollection of the time:

I remember at Independence [ . . . ] a lot of the white people were giventhe choice of becoming Batswana in the true sense of the word; not justhaving citizenship, but joining the tribe, you know. And they all had toget lashed because the custom is that if you’re the same age as the newChief that’s coming into power, you have to get lashed to basically say,you know, he was your friend, but [you] now realise his authority. So, Iremember a bunch of white people, in order to become proper Batawana,going out and getting lashed.

The 1960s in southern Africa were a time of great racial divisionwith South Africa in the peak of apartheid and violent independencestruggles raging in the nations that were to become Zimbabwe, Zambia,Namibia, and Mozambique. There were no direct material or politicalbenefits accorded to those whites who became tribesmen, and thus thesymbolic submission to the Chief in the political climate of this era isdescribed by white Batswana as evidencing the very different racialdynamics in northwest Botswana.

On an economic level, the emphasis on civic rather than ethnic citi-zenship has been detrimental to those minorities, particularly the San,whose particular histories have left them socially marginalised and eco-nomically disadvantaged. These groups require recognition and rightsas collectivities. Yet for groups with the requisite cultural and economiccapital, such as the Bakalanga12 and white Batswana, the policy allowsthem to engage successfully in economic and political arenas despitederiving from minority ethnicities. This cultural pluralism extends tothe very apex of society where headmen in Okavango have hailed froma variety of ethnic backgrounds (Bolaane 2005: 248). While they do notfrequently enter national politics,13 the white community is given theopportunity to participate fully in the economic life of the nation. This

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is even to the extent that they are able to access government assis-tance programs, such as Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency(CEDA) loans, to establish businesses. This is a somewhat unusualsituation in southern Africa where affirmative action programs tar-get previously disenfranchised African populations in an attempt toredress the histories of institutionalised white privilege.

In respect to cultural practice, the dominance of the Setswanalanguage and customs again attracts great criticism from minorityadvocates. The national language is Setswana, while the official lan-guage is English, relegating minority languages to the private sphere.While this obviously puts many minority groups at a significant disad-vantage, particularly in early schooling, the white minority as Englishand, more often than not, Setswana speakers again benefit from thepolicy. Minority advocates describe significant loss of language andcultural practices among minorities as a result of Tswana dominance(Nyati-Ramahobo 2002; Nyamnjoh 2007; Saugestad 2001). Chebanne(2002: 50) goes so far as to suggest that Botswana has witnessed thegreatest loss of culture and language among minorities relative to anyother African country. In contrast, the white community feels they canmaintain their cultural integrity, concomitant with a sense of belongingthrough feeling comfortable in the two official languages. I ask Richardif it was in any way difficult, particularly as a teenager, being culturallyand physically different to the majority of people in his community, towhich he responds: ‘Not at all, no. It was just, if you grow up like this,it’s how you grow up. It’s normal just to be who we are . . . Just to bea white Motswana.’ This notion is corroborated by a young Motswanawoman in her twenties:

I don’t feel disadvantaged, I don’t feel bad, I don’t feel excluded, I don’tfeel inferior, I don’t feel threatened in any way because I’m white. A lot ofwhite South Africans are almost scared of their whiteness at the moment.And I think the same for a lot of Rhodesians. They feel quite betrayedand very unsure and quite sort of scared and are not comfortable as tohow they fit in to what is their home . . . My view of myself as a whiteperson living in Africa and the whole integration and race issue is thatI am white and I am not apologetic for it. I have quite Anglo customs andways and I’m not going to pretend that I eat seswa14 every night and thatI speak fluent Setswana—although I’m trying to get there—but I’m notgoing to pretend that I’m one of the homies,15 you know, and I’m quitecomfortable with that.

While recognising the cultural differences between herself and themajority Batswana, this woman feels there is a genuine tolerance of

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these differences and respect across cultures. The question remainsas to whether black Batswana share these sentiments. While a thor-ough exploration of black Batswana perspectives is beyond the scopeof this discussion, it is important to note that there is a very broadrange of responses among black community members to white citizens’claims to African identities. One Tswana woman of the Ngwaketsegroup expresses what she feels is a view of white citizens commonlyheld by black Batswana:

And obviously they are from Botswana and are entitled to all, but theyalso respect the fact that there’s a “Motswana-Motswana” and the bestway to get anything and to get by is communication and working withthose people.

This comment reflects the sentiment that ethnic citizenship prevailsdespite State rhetoric and ultimately the Batswana of the eight ethnicTswana subgroups are the only true ‘Motswana-Motswanas.’ The whiteminority are not only outsiders in terms of ethnicity, but are also asso-ciated with colonial privilege. Underlying this woman’s statement is,consequently, the belief that the position of white Batswana is contin-gent on ongoing positive connections with the majority population—afact to which she claims they are cognisant.

Miller (2003: 415) suggests that belonging is not necessarily a coher-ent set of relationships between person and place, but is rather acomplex, layered, and at times seemingly contradictory pastiche of con-nectedness and insecurity. While Richard vehemently denies any senseof insecurity in his position as a white citizen, it is important to notethat other white Batswana feel they will always be constructed as out-siders. As one man in his forties comments: ‘Am I ever going to reallybe a true African? No, I’m not. Very simple, politics won’t allow me thatprivilege.’ The presence of a certain level of insecurity arguably leadsto the emphatic claims to belonging asserted by many white Batswana.Yet despite these elements of insecurity, senses of connection continueto be strongly premised on their widely held belief that they are gener-ally accepted by black Batswana and that interracial relationships arefor the most part positive. Richard describes his sense of connection tothe broader community saying:

I tell you what, one of the things I relish about Africa is the commoncommunity, the touch you have with people. I go out to my plot, whichis far from anywhere . . . I’ve had no influence there, but already threetimes today I was stopped. ‘Hey, Richie, what’s up, hey! When are youstarting? How is your farm? When [are] you getting [it]? Where [are] you

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going?’ And you don’t find that . . . You know, be judgemental, be whitefrom Africa, be somebody who’s framed as a generally—South Africa’sright here—as a racist. [But] in the places where they’re saying ‘sorry’16

and they’re doing everything, I mean the people still can’t live together.You come here, people do live together. They just do. There’s shit, but thepeople live together. At the end of the day, everybody can still put downtheir shit. And only in Botswana, eh, not in any of the other countries.There’s your magic.

Richard’s frustration with the common stereotype of white Africansas racists is clear. He defends this through pointing out that in otherplaces, such as Australia, there are equally egregious histories of sub-jugation along racial lines. He suggests that while those conflicts arebeing dealt with on a discursive level (such as through saying ‘sorry’)in practice, deep-seated social segregation persists. This he contrasts toBotswana where people may not be as adept in multicultural rhetoric,but just get on with living together in a relatively integrated com-munity. It is also patent in his comments that a significant aspect ofbelonging for Richard is the familiarity and intimacy deriving from hiscommunity connections. As Richard pointed out to Edward, and as heagain describes above: ‘I speak the language, and I know the people,and they all know me.’ This familiarity is facilitated in part by the sizeof the community. When Richard was born in the seventies, Maun hada population of less than 12,000 inhabitants of which the white com-munity constituted less than 300 individuals (Kgathi et al. 2006: 11).While Maun has experienced huge population growth to approximately44,000 people in 2005, members of the ‘old families’ are well known,and Maun maintains the feeling of a small, tight-knit community. Theintimacy permitted by the small size of the community and the verysmall ratio of white to black citizens is, I believe, central to the senseof acceptance white Batswana claim to feel. This notion is corroboratedby William Shack (1979: 10) in the edited volume Strangers in AfricanSocieties, in which he argues that ‘[s]mallness of scale, rather than eth-nicity or race, would appear to be a more decisive factor in defining theattitudes of receptivity by African hosts toward strangers.’

While I have emphasised thus far the positive aspects of interracialrelationships, I am by no means suggesting that the Okavango is voidof racial unease. On the contrary, the region is home to a significantamount of stratification along race and class lines, and tension arisesparticularly around the conflation of these two categories. While thereis a growing black middle class, the association of white people withwealth is widespread and is the cause of both ongoing privileging andresentment of white people in the Okavango. Botswana’s bureaucratic

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and legislative systems are based on British modes of governance thatwere instituted in the Protectorate years—the period in which the cor-relation of whites with wealth originated. White families highly valueeducation and invest a significant portion of their incomes into theirchildren’s schooling, often sending them to the better resourced board-ing schools in South Africa. White citizens and expatriates are greatlyprivileged as a result of this, in addition to the fact that the publicsphere in the contemporary capitalist democracy of Botswana followsculturally familiar models.

With privilege often comes resentment, and anthropologist RichardWerbner (2004: 76) argues that since Protectorate times big businesshas been in the hands of whites, few of whom have given Africans fullpartnership in these enterprises. This pattern is evident to an extentin the Okavango, and yet it is important to separate white citizensfrom expatriates in this sense. Big business is unquestionably in thehands of expatriates, who constitute around 90 percent of the whitepopulation. The small numbers of white Batswana in many cases owntheir own businesses, and yet their operations are for the most partsmall. White Batswana tend to choose lifestyle over ambition and donot tend to earn great amounts of money. Yet the fact that they tendto choose not to develop wealth to greater extents by no means negatesthe fact that privilege persists. Moreover, it can be argued that the deci-sion to keep a low economic profile serves to differentiate them fromexpatriates who are resented for their economic success.

Many Okavango residents believe interracial tension is burgeoningas a result of increasing numbers of white expatriate workers in upper-management positions in tourism ventures, some of whom are accusedof importing racist attitudes that are seen to prevail in neighbouringAfrican countries. Consequently, white Batswana claim that animos-ity in the tourism industry runs along nationalistic rather than raciallines. This belief was supported by a number of the black BatswanaI interviewed, who described white Batswana as part of the commu-nity because they have many shared experiences, speak Setswana, andknow, and are known to, the broader community. As one twenty-four-year-old black Motswana woman working in a tourist lodge stated:‘If you know them they are Motswana, but if you don’t know themthey are lekgoa.’ Lekgoa is the Setswana term for a white personand, as in this instance, can be used with a slightly derogatory over-tone (Nyamnjoh 2007: 15). The young woman’s distinction betweenvarious white individuals highlights the significance of familiarity ininterracial relations. She spoke further of the friendships and goodrelationships she has with a number of white Batswana, includingher employer, but recounted with anger incidences of being treated

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disrespectfully by white expatriates and tourists. While most whiteBatswana acknowledge that racism is on the rise, they nonetheless feelthat their black compatriots for the most part accept them as a legiti-mate part of the community, differentiating them from white people ofother nationalities.

Identity construction against tourist other

Having explored the ways in which white Batswana claim a strongsense of belonging within Botswana, I now return to the ways in whichthey construct identity in relation to the tourist Other. In contrast tothe strong ties the white Batswana feel they have with the local com-munity, the tourists, naturally, do not have the cultural or linguisticknowledge of the local people, nor personal relationships with individ-uals. Richard commented that Edward’s group made very little effortto communicate or build connections with the black Batswana in camp.This is consistent with a common paradigm evident in tourist-hostrelationships in developing nations whereby: ‘Oriental and frontierhosts primarily serve as passive objects to be gazed upon. They areattractions for, rather than interacting with, the tourists’ (Echtner andPrasad 2003: 665). Edward is vastly different in social class from themajority of the lodge’s black Batswana staff and has more in commonwith his white host in terms of language, customs, values, and beliefsand consequently chooses to spend more time with the latter duringhis holiday. As an owner of a ‘Benz,’ holidaying in an exclusive resort,Edward is a world apart financially from the local staff, many of whomwill never be able to afford to own a vehicle of any sort or travel inter-nationally as leisure tourists. Richard describes the perceptions of thelocal staff of the African American group:

Everybody arrives and one of the first things was the response that youget from the Mahouts—from the guys who ride the elephants, who are theguides of the camp, they are all Batswana, black people—and speaking tothem, the whole time they’re saying things like, ‘these guys, they’re notAfrican!’ Because you’ve told them there’s African American people com-ing, you know, black people from America coming here. And anyway sothey turn around and they say, ‘no, there’s no way these guys are African!’

Regarding the process of identity formation through and against anOther, Harrison’s (2003) theory of identity through resemblance againproves cogent. For Edward, the local black Batswana are unfamiliar inall ways but skin colour. Richard, on the other hand, shares Englishas the mother tongue, has far more common knowledge and shared

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experience, and is closer in terms of social class. As a freelance spe-cialist guide, Richard earns significantly more than camp staff, andyet possesses only a fraction of the disposable income of the touristshe guides. He is, however, tertiary educated and well travelled andpossesses the social and cultural capital to participate in the tourists’conversations as an equal. This renders him the obvious Other toconstruct identity through and against in this particular context.

It is significant to note in the above statement that Richard’srecourse to the black Batswana to consolidate his argument that thevisitors are not African shows his at least partial subscription to thenotion that black Africans are the measure of African identity. Thisis further evidenced through a comment he made about the physicalcharacteristics of the guests, which he perceives as racially ambiguous:‘So any way they all arrived and right at the beginning, you’ve got awhole bunch of African Americans, and they’re not all African. Half ofthem are whiter than I am; they’re of mixed race.’ Their personal iden-tification as African is insufficient for Richard who feels that Africanidentity is illegitimate in the absence of intimate knowledge and expe-rience of the continent. Thus, even as he denies the racial element inAfrican identity, he reinforces it through both soliciting supporting evi-dence from the black Batswana and through his own questioning of thetourist’s racial qualifications.

Through the challenge Edward levels at Richard’s identity as bothwhite and African, it appears that he too associates blackness withbeing African. Edward’s trip to Africa, according to Richard, was forthe purpose of connecting to his ancestral home: ‘They’ve apparentlycome to find their roots. They’re going to come and get in contactwith Africa.’ The exaggerated inflection in Richard’s voice implies thathe sees Edward’s Africa as an imagined construct that falls shortin terms of authenticity to his own Africa, which he perceives asa tangible, objective reality. Yet Henrietta Moore (2004: 79) rightlyargues that identities are not produced within singular locales butrather:

The identity of any one person or group or nation is produced simulta-neously in several locales or contexts, and [is] connected to many thatare not physically present, and to others that have never been directlyexperienced or engaged with.

Minority status and experiences of deep-seated racism in the UnitedStates have led many African Americans to look to Africa as both a kindof sanctuary or promised land and a source for ideological, cultural,and spiritual enrichment (Kilson 1992: 361; Adeleke 1998; Clarke

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2007). As part of this paradigm, Edward has turned back (and literallyreturned) to Africa as his originary homeland, with his identification asa ‘victim of Americanisation’ suggesting he has incorporated the histo-ries of colonialism, oppression, and slavery as an integral aspect of hisidentity. Yet the fact that Edward’s journey to connect with Africa ledto a visit to Botswana—a landlocked country in southern Africa thatwas not affected by the slave trade that so brutally tore people fromtheir homes in West, Central, and East Africa17—suggests the affinityis more about ethnic and racial origins generally than a more targetedretracing of history.

While tourists tend to associate African identity with ethnicity andthe designation of blackness, it is hardly surprising that Richard—like many other white citizens of African nation-states whose ethnicand historical ties to Africa are short-lived and politically precarious—emphasises the significance of lived experience. Nadine Gordimer(1988: 34) contends that ‘home is not necessarily where you belongethnogenically, but rather the place you were born to, the faces you firstsaw around you, and the elements of the situation among your fellowmen in which you found yourself.’ For Richard, his identity as Africanis based precisely on this experiential emplacement: ‘I was born here,and I live here, and I grew up here, and I speak the language, andI know the people, and they all know me, and I have a home here.’The sociocultural and physical environments of our birth and upbring-ing are indelibly inscribed into our identities. This emplacement, whiledirected by cultural patterns, is not a matter of volition, but ratheris an inevitable aspect of living and being in the world (Miller 1999:414–415). That is, irrespective of the politics of belonging, a senseof connection for the white Batswana to their nation-state is, to anextent, an automatic consequence of their birth and upbringing and theattendant knowledge and familiarity with the physical and social envi-ronment. By contrast, that this was the first visit to an African countryby Edward and his group led to Richard’s scepticism about their iden-tity as African. He explicitly rejects their claims on account of theirlack of familiarity and time spent on the continent saying, ‘I call themblack Americans, not African Americans.’ Beryl Markham (1984: 13), awhite Kenyan novelist, poetically evokes the notion commonly held byEuropean-descended citizens of African nation-states, that one musthave been drenched in African life from birth to fully understand andembrace it:

But the soul of Africa, its integrity, the slow inexorable pulse of its life,is its own and of such singular rhythm that no outsider, unless steepedfrom childhood in its endless, even beat, can ever hope to experience it,

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except only as a bystander might experience a Masai war dance knowingnothing of its music nor the meaning of its steps.

Richard’s national identity is firmly entrenched in the place of hisbirth and residence in Botswana, and he does not closely identify withhis European ancestry. Similarly, he sees Edward’s identity as tied tothe place of his birth and life in America, rather than emphasisinghis African ancestry. This again shows the fissure between ascribedand chosen identities, with Richard and Edward both staking claims toAfrican identity that are challenged and denied by the other. The tenac-ity of their own identity claims shows, however, that the ascriptions ofothers are not internalised but are rejected as false.

Relative relationships to the natural environment

Finally, I comment briefly on the relative relationships of hosts andtourists to the African bush. The setting in the Okavango Delta ishighly significant in this particular negotiation of identity categories.Jimenez (2003: 140) describes space as ‘a condition or faculty—acapacity—of social relationships. It is what people do, not where theyare.’ This is certainly the case where the visitors have come on safarito experience the wildlife and beauty of the Okavango specifically andAfrica more broadly. Landscape, however, has very different mean-ings for individuals of different backgrounds, and this divergenceplays a significant role in the dispute between Edward and Richard.Place is the term widely used for known, appropriated space infusedwith meaning and memories (Darian-Smith et al. 1996: 3; Low andAltman 1992: 5; Tuan 1978: 14). On a temporal level, for Richard andother Batswana, the Okavango is a palimpsest of histories, currentengagement, and future connection, whereas for tourists the bush theyencounter and the places they visit constitute ‘one-time only interpre-tive acts of a potential or imagined nature’ (Ness 2005: 121). As Richardexplains: ‘You’re viewing it from a different point if you grew up here.You’re looking at it, you know, the bush to you is like a story. It’s full ofall sorts of anecdotes, things you’ve seen, things you’ve experienced.’

The Okavango is a dynamic and extremely complex system of chan-nels, floodplains, islands and forests, and while those who live in itseamlessly navigate the environs, to the visiting tourist it is bewil-deringly confusing. This imbalance of knowledge has implications interms of power because the tourists must submit to the instructionsand decisions of their guides and are highly dependent on them forboth their safety and, to a significant extent, their enjoyment. As a con-sequence ‘guiding can be seen as a public display of competence, both of

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knowledge and of language proficiency’ (Salazaar 2006: 842). For whiteBatswana, I would extend this also to public displays of belonging andlocalness and, indeed, performance of African identity. While the powerinequity between hosts and tourists is negated somewhat by the factthat the clients are paying vast sums for the experience, the high levelof potential danger on safari renders it necessary for the guide to bequite prescriptive about the movements of the guests. In light of thecontested claims to African identity, Richard no doubt feels that hisposition is vindicated through his role as Edward’s expert ‘local’ guide.

Conclusion

Lett (1989: 275) suggests that tourism engenders ‘the single largestpeaceful movement of people across cultural boundaries in the his-tory of the world.’ Yet Edward and Richard’s dinner table conversationshows that tourism also presents ample opportunities for contesta-tion as diverse groups meet and confront the politics of identity andbelonging. According to Harrison (2003: 353), for identities to be mean-ingfully developed and contested against an Other, it is necessary forboth parties to hold shared criteria for what constitutes difference. Thisis evident in this instance where both Edward and Richard contestclaims to African identities through constructions of race and ethnic-ity, personal and political histories, connections to African people, andrelationships to the natural environment. Their mobilisation of thesecategories is, however, divergent. Edward suggests that blackness anda political identity as a victim of colonialism are the primary determi-nants of African identity. Richard downplays these elements, validatinghis position through narrowing the focus to a national perspective byusing a positive narrative of Botswana’s colonial history, while citingthe inclusive nature of Tswana cultural and sociopolitical structures.Richard contends that identity as African is inextricable from a localbirth and upbringing, which in turn facilitates intimate and enduringconnections to the local community, the nation-state, and the naturalenvironment. While both Edward and Richard reject the authenticityof the identity claims of the other, what becomes apparent in this dis-pute is that belonging and identity are entrenched ontological realitiesthat persist regardless of challenges to them.

Notes

Special thanks to ‘Richard’ and all the Okavango community members for their generousparticipation in the research. Thanks also to Nick Harney and Taz Phillips for theirextensive feedback and the anonymous reviewers for their insights.

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Address correspondence to Catie Gressier, Anthropology and Sociology (M255), TheUniversity of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley WA 6009, Australia.E-mail: [email protected]

1. While the designations black and white are highly problematic and connote anessentialised notion of race (see Dyer 1997; Kincheloe 1999), I have used thembecause they are the emic terms used by my informants. Black and white are seldomused in a derogatory way, but are seen by Batswana citizens as simple descriptorsto differentiate between people who perceive themselves as discreet groups. In thesocial sciences, there is wide acceptance that race is less a fixed biological categorythan a historically contingent social construct (Alexander 2007: 204). The concept’stenacity in popular usage, however, is also indisputable, and is a ‘phenomenon thatcannot be easily abolished by deliberate decision or decree, nor by ignoring its exis-tence’ (Saugestad 2001: 55). Racial categories have been internalised to a greatextent in southern Africa where they are seen as a biological fact, not an arbitrarysocial construct. Despite the emphasis on civic rather than ethnic citizenship and thepeaceful relations between most groups in Botswana, people still strongly subscribeto racial identifications in distinguishing European- and African-derived peoples.So while I am concerned about reinforcing a divisive form of categorisation, I see noway around using these identifiers within the ethnographic setting I describe.

2. The white citizens constitute a very small minority in Botswana. In accordancewith the emphasis on civic rather than ethnic citizenship (which I discuss furtherbelow), the Botswana census does not include ethnic data. While exact figures areconsequently unavailable, it is estimated by community members that there are amaximum of 5,000 white residents living in the greater Okavango region, which ishome to roughly 130,000 citizens in total. The vast majority of whites—most believearound 90 percent—are expatriates who have come to the Okavango to work inthe tourism industry. By these estimates, the Okavango and Maun are home to nomore than 500 white citizens, who derive predominantly from English and Afrikaansancestry.

3. Sir Seretse Khama was Botswana’s first president at Independence in 1966 andremains a well-loved national hero. His wife was English and numerous infor-mants, both black and white, have spoken of this interracial marriage as havinga significant impact on positive relations between black and white in Botswana.

4. This brief discussion does not do justice to the complexity of Botswana’s history. Forfurther information, see Parsons (1997), Bennett (2002), and Hall (1973) and on theOkavango area see Tlou (1985), Bolaane (2005; 2002), and Dziewiecka (1996).

5. See the volume edited by Sara Dorman, Daniel Hammett, and Paul Nugent(2007) for discussions concerning the complexity of citizenship and the tendencytoward ethnic nationalism in numerous postcolonial Africa states.

6. In 2002 a special issue (vol 28, issue 4) of the Journal of Southern AfricanStudies focussed on these issues, as did the volume published that year by IsaacMazonde. In particular see Nyamnjoh (2007), Werbner (2004, 2002), Mazonde(2002a, 2000b), Solway (2002), Hitchcock (2002), Nyati-Ramahobo (2002), Batibo(2002), and Saugestad (2001).

7. See Taylor (2007), Saugestad (2001), Nthomang (2004), Hitchcock (2002), Hays(2002), and Mazonde (2002b) on the plight of the San in Botswana and thediscrimination and inequities they suffer.

8. They were both preceded by the San, of whom evidence suggests have been in thearea upward of 10,000 years, and the Bayei who settled the region around 1750 (Tlou1985).

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9. As a relatively prosperous nation, bordered by countries with high levels of povertyand social unrest, citizens of Botswana tend to jealously guard their borders and arehighly selective concerning whom they allow to share in the privileges of citizenship(Nyamnjoh 2006: 13). To apply for citizenship, an individual must revoke all othercitizenships, have spent at least ten consecutive years in the country, and be able tospeak Setswana (Nyamnjoh 2006: 83).

10. The Tswana are divided into eight merafes or tribes as they are referred toin the Constitution: Bamangwato, Batawana, Bakgatla, Bakwena, Bangwaketse,Bamalete, Barolong, and Batlokwa.

11. The kgotla is the central institution in traditional Tswana political life. It refers tothe political unit of the tribal council and court, as well as the physical meetingarea of the council. It is a forum where all manner of grievances are aired, politicalissues debated, ceremonial activities conducted, laws promulgated, and judgementsbrought down by the Chief and tribal council. See Peters (1994) and Schapera (1938)for detailed explications of Tswana customary laws and traditional social structures.

12. See Werbner (2004) on the position of the Bakalanga as an elite minority. TheBakalanga differ from the white minority, however, in that they are engaged in afervent battle for recognition and rights as a cultural collectivity.

13. There are numerous reasons for this, but primarily the white population in theOkavango consciously choose to live far from Gaborone, the urban hub of nationalpolitics, and as ‘bush people’ claim little interest in participating in high-level poli-tics. Moreover, struggles for recognition among minorities in Botswana are arguedto be as much about access to power and resources as cultural and linguistic recog-nition (Nyamnjoh 2006: 98). Many of the white Batswana I worked with believe theyhave sufficient access to power through community and business networks and sodo not need to formally participate in the political system.

14. A traditional shredded meat dish that forms part of the staple diet of most Tswanapeople.

15. As in many parts of the world, Batswana youth have been influenced to an extentby African American culture and music, and this reference is to the ‘homeboy’subculture prevalent in some black youth.

16. Reference to the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology on behalf of theAustralian government to the Aboriginal ‘stolen generations’ in February 2008.

17. The nations in West and Central Africa, from which the majority of slaves origi-nated, are considered less desirable tourist destinations due to higher rates of crime,political instability, and in some cases civil war. Botswana, by contrast, is not onlystable politically and economically, but also has a far more developed safari tourismindustry based around the relatively pristine wildlife areas abundant in game. Theunique wildlife is arguably the major drawcard for tourism in Africa and, indeed, isfundamental to tourist constructions of ‘Africa.’

References

Adeleke, Tunde 1998. Black Americans and Africa: A critique of the Pan-African andidentity paradigms. The International Journal of African Historical Studies 31(3):505–536.

Alexander, Neville 2007. Ten Years after Apartheid: The State of Nation-Building inSouth Africa. In Making Nations, Creating Strangers: States and Citizenship inAfrica. Sara Dorman, Daniel Hammett and Paul Nugent, eds. Leiden & Boston: Brill.Pp. 197–219.

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