Stuck in the Bushman-Baas nexus: Static power relations in Southern African tourism

Abstract

In Namibia and South Africa, tourism is an important strategy to empower marginalized Bushmen, ever more by the creation of joint ventures and the inclusion of the private sector. In these initiatives communities can create income and learn from a private operator how one should run a business. In this paper I analyze various case situations of Bushmen in and around farming and conservation areas and argue that in reality these educational and economic trickle-down effects hardly take place. On the contrary, the relation between Bushmen and the mostly white managers in tourism resembles that of baasskap, a concept from the colonial farms, which creates a status quo.