Open AccessPostcolonial travel accounts and ethnic subjectivity: travelling through Southern Africa
Author(s) -
Loes Nas
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
literator
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.126
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 2219-8237
pISSN - 0258-2279
DOI - 10.4102/lit.v32i2.16
Subject(s) - subjectivity , white (mutation) , ethnic group , journalism , gender studies , history , colonialism , travel writing , geography , ethnology , media studies , sociology , anthropology , archaeology , art , philosophy , chemistry , biochemistry , literature , epistemology , gene
This article deals with three recent South African travelogues, to wit Sihle Khumalo’s “Dark continent: my black arse” (2007) and “Heart of Africa: centre of my gravity” (2009), and Steven Otter’s “Khayelitsha: umlungu in a township” (2007). It argues that the authors are engaged in a postcolonial quest to find out what makes them African: the one, a black corporate employee, by following the footsteps of white nineteenth century explorers; the other, a white journalism student, by living in one of South Africa’s largest black townships