nhamo anthony mhiripiri final thesis 2

382 Pages·2009·7.16 MB·English

The Tourist Viewer, the Bushmen and the Zulu: Imaging
and (re)invention of identities through contemporary
visual cultural productions

By

Nhamo Anthony Mhiripiri
Student No. 201512272

Supervisor: Prof. Keyan Tomaselli

Submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences, University of
KwaZulu-Natal, in fulfilment of the requirements of a PHD in Culture, Communication
and Media Studies
i
Table of Contents

Declaration iii
Acknowledgements iv
Dedication v
Abstract vi
Acronyms vii
Map ix
Chapter One: Introduction 1
Chapter Two: Literature Review and Theoretical Framework 23
Chapter Three: Research Methodology 66
Chapter Four: Encounters at Zulu Cultural Villages and Identity Implications 105
Chapter Five: Contemporary Bushman Cultural Performances 148
Chapter Six: An Interactive Reading of Kalahari RainSong and Photographs 192
Chapter Seven: Vetkat Kruiper and His Postmodern Art 210
Chapter Eight: Critical Evaluation and Conclusion 254
Bibliography 298
Appendices 339

ii
Declaration

I, Nhamo Anthony Mhiripiri, hereby declare that this thesis is my own original work, has
not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university, and that the sources
I have used have been fully acknowledged by complete references. This thesis is submitted in
fulfilment of the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Culture, Communication and Media Studies
in the Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences at the University of
KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.

Signature ____________________________ Date: November 22, 2008

iii
Acknowledgements

This thesis is a result of assistance and support from individuals and institutions without
whom it was going to be impossible to complete. I am very grateful to my mentor and
supervisor Prof. Keyan Tomaselli for his patience, understanding and invaluable guidance.
The generosity extended to me by Ruth and Keyan Tomaselli towards the reworking of this
thesis is deeply felt.
Special mention should also go to Dr Matthew Durington and Dr Michael Francis who helped
me with rethinking several assumptions that I was stuck with. The current CCMS post-
graduate students are appreciated for affording me an opportunity to present part of my work
before them for peer-review.
Through the grant-holder of National Research Foundation research grant, Prof Keyan
Tomaselli, I am indebted to the NRF of South Africa for partly funding this research. The
Natal University Humanities Faculty also contributed financial assistance. My employer the
Midlands State University also extended me some time to study and research in spite of the
occasional bureaucratic problems and the dispiriting decade-long Zimbabwe crisis that was
always in the background. My CCMS colleagues over the years, Kyle Enevoldsen, Vanessa
McLennan-Dodd, Mick Francis and the special memory of Arnold Shepperson cannot go
unmentioned.
Lauren Dyll needs special mention and thanking for assistance with final copy-editing,
alongside Mick Francis and Keyan Tomaselli. However, any errors are entirely mine.
I must also thank Belinda Kruiper for giving me permission to use Vetkat Kruiper’s works
and availing a soft copy on disk. This thesis would not have come to fruition without my
associations on both a social and academic level with Belinda and her late husband, Vetkat.
Karen Peters translated into English the Afrikaans text on some of Vetkat Kruiper’s
paintings. I also take the opportunity to thank Vanessa McLennan-Dodd and Nelia Oets for
translating a number of my interviews from Afrikaans to English.
Last but not least, I should thank my wife Joyce for her understanding and support throughout
the years.

iv
Dedication
Antoinette naTawanda shingai kutara nzira dzenyu.
v
Abstract
The thesis is an ethnographic exploration of the visual performances of the (≠Khomani)
Bushmen of the Northern Cape and the Zulu from KwaZulu-Natal of South Africa. I
investigate how the ≠Khomani and the Zulu involved in the cultural tourism industry are
using archetypical tropes of ethnicity, and how they recreate these in the process of
formulating context-specific identities in contemporary South Africa. The Bushmen and Zulu
iconography that is ubiquitous is read against the modern day quotidian lives of the people
concerned. The role and participation of tourists and researchers (anthro-tourists) in the
performative culture of cultural tourism is investigated. An opportunity is also taken to
critique the artistic creations of Vetkat Kruiper which partly arise because of the need to
satisfy a tourism industry interested in Bushman arts and artefacts. Similarly his wife’s
‘biographical’ book Kalahari Rainsong (2004) is critiqued interactively and allows me to
appreciate my encounters with people and text in the Kalahari. My visits to cultural villages
where either the Zulu or the Bushman self-perform permit me to indulge in critical
performative writing in which I also investigate the role and place of (anthro)tourists in the
reinvention of site-specific identities.

vi
Acronyms
ANC - African National Congress
BEE - Black Economic Empowerment.
CCMS - Culture, Communication and Media Studies
CPA - Communal Property Association
DP - Democratic Party
EU - European Union
IFP - Inkatha Freedom Party
KTP - Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
KZN - KwaZulu-Natal
MSNBC – Microsoft/National Broadcasting Company
MSU - Midlands State University
NGO - Non Government Organisation
PAC - Pan African Congress
SABC - South African Broadcasting Corporation
SACOD - Southern African Communications for Development
SADF - South African Defence Force
SASI - South African San Institute
SATOUR - South African Tourism
SWAPO - South West Africa People’s Organisation
TOURVEST - Tourism Investment Corporation
UN - United Nations
UNISA - University of South Africa
USAID - United States Agency for International Development
WTO - World Trade Organisation
ZANU - Zimbabwe African National Union
vii
ZANU PF - Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front
ZAPU - Zimbabwe African People’s Union
ZBC - Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation

viii
Cultural Tourism and Sites of Significance Visited

ix
Chapter One

Introduction

Heritage and cultural tourism is flourishing in South Africa, and museums and cultural
villages and related performances have been initiated in the country. Crafts production and
sales are reportedly booming, and there are plans to even expand the crafts industry in
anticipation of good business that will come with the hosting of the 2010 Soccer World Cup
(Rogerson & Gustav 2004).‘Cultural tourism’ is presently a significant market segment
attracting attention from both tourism practitioners and academics (Jansen van Veuren 2004).
Academics are concerned about several issues pertaining to cultural tourism. These include
policy issues relating to cultural tourism and the politics of tourism, especially the power
dynamics between tourism entrepreneurs and local communities involved in the tourism
ventures. However, scholars are also preoccupied with identity issues that are integral in
cultural tourism ventures, especially when elements of anthropological performances and
displays of local indigenous peoples are involved. Since culture is a key tourism resource,
“[t]ourism marketing and products are saturated with cultural signifiers” (Jansen van Veuren
2004: 139).

The issue of identities has always fascinated Cultural Studies scholars, especially identities of
‘marginalised’ people, such as the working class, gays and lesbians, subaltern cultures such
as Rastafarians, and youths and feminist identities (Hall 1996; Grossberg 1996). The
identities of people involved in the performative cultural tourism industry of contemporary
South Africa are of major importance to this study. Geographic places and spaces are
intricately linked to people’s ascribed and inscribed ethnic identities, and cultural tourism
often promotes these assumed interconnections as ready cultural capital (Oates 1997a; 1997b;
2002). Debates on how ethnic groups that are popular in the tourism industry the world over
are often presented in essentialistic, simplistic, stereotypical images to international tourists
(Edensor 2001; Tomaselli 2005; 2007a: Gordon 2002). In Africa, specific ethnic groups are
popular in the tourism industry as ‘self-performers’ and producers of ‘ethnic’ art and crafts.
1