Bushmen in the Tourist Imaginary

Book excerpt: This book is a semantic and semiotic analysis of tourism texts that represent specific groups of San (or Bushmen) in modern Botswana, and is framed by postcolonial theory, post-tourism and resistance theories. Critically, the book demonstrates the power that both written and visual language can have upon consumers of texts. It provides a case-study of neo-colonial exploitation and, conversely, reveals the efficacy of self-representation for tourist consumption, with an increasing number of San offering alternatives to an entrenched ethnic hegemony, effecting gradual political and social recognition and autonomy. As such, the book is written in a spirit of optimism for the burgeoning self-determination of a long-marginalised group.