Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Although White Europeans have played notable roles in shaping the contemporary political and social economy of Africa, it is Africans in the diaspora who actively trace their heritage to Africa. As a result, African Americans in particular have become the primary market for Africa’s expanding heritage tourism sector. This article argues that several slave heritage sites in Africa embody the heritage of the African countries, various European countries, and Africans in the diaspora. The development of slave heritage tourism sites in Africa therefore involves the concept of contested heritage with emotional and painful undercurrents. The article examines the development of the slave heritage at Elmina Castle in Ghana by American and some international agencies and concludes that White American visitors to the site noted distinct sets of experiences that reflect deep emotional reactions to the past, present, and future. The study reflects some of the prospects and challenges facing the development of the proposed UNESCO Slave Route Project.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Appiah, K. A., & Gates, H. L. (1999). Encarta Africana: Comprehensive encyclopedia of Black history and culture [CD-ROM]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft

Ashworth, G. J. (1995). Heritage, tourism and Europe: A European future for a European past? In D. T. Herbert (Ed.), Heritage, tourism and society (pp. 68-84). London: Mansell.

Ashworth, G. J. (2003). Heritage, identity and places: For tourists and host communities. In S. Singh, D. J. Timothy, & R. K. Dowling (Eds.), Tourism and destination communities (pp. 79-97). Wallingford, UK: CAB International

Austin, N. K. (1999). Tourism and the transatlantic slave trade: Some issues and reflections. In P. U. C. Dieke (Ed.), The political economy of tourism development in Africa (pp. 208-216). New York: Cognizant.

Boahen, A. (1975). Ghana: Evolution and change in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. London: Longman.

Bruner, E. M. (1996). Tourism in Ghana: The representation of slavery and the return of the Black diaspora. American Anthropologist, 98, 290-304

Buchholtz, D. (1998). The Battle of the Little Bighorn: History, identity, and tourism in the 1990s. In A. A. Lew & G. A. Van Otten (Eds.), Tourism and gaming on American Indian lands (pp. 113-127). New York: Cognizant.)

Butler, D. L. (2001). Whitewashing plantations: The commodification of a slave-free antebellum south. In G. M. S. Dann & A. V. Seaton (Eds.), Slavery, contested heritage and thanatourism (pp. 163-175). New York: Haworth.

Essah, P. (2001). Slavery, heritage and tourism in Ghana. In G. M. S. Dann & A. V. Seaton (Eds.), Slavery, contested heritage and thanatourism (pp. 31-49). New York: Haworth.

10.

Graham, B. (1996). The contested interpretation of heritage landscapes in Northern Ireland. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2(1/2), 10-22.

11.

Harris, J. E., Jalloh, A., & Maizlish, S. E. (Eds.). (1996). The African diaspora. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.

12.

Leong, W. T. (1989). Culture and the state: Manufacturing traditions for tourism. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 6, 355-375.

13.

Lowenthal, D. (1975). Past time, present place: Landscape and memory. Geographical Review, 65(1), 1-36.

14.

Okpewho, I., Davies, C. B., & Mazrui, A. A. (Eds.). (1999). The African diaspora: African origins and New World identities. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

15.

Olsen, D. H. (2000). Contested heritage, religion and tourism. Unpublished master’s thesis, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio.

16.

Powell, R. (1997). Erasing memory, inventing tradition, rewriting history: Planning as a tool of ideology. In B. J. Shaw & R. Jones (Eds.), Contested urban heritage: Voices from the periphery (pp. 85-100). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

17.

Ranger, R. (1989). Whose heritage? The case of Matobo National Park. Journal of Southern African Studies, 15, 217-249.

18.

Robinson, M. (1999). Cultural conflicts in tourism: Inevitability and inequality. In M. Robinson & P. Boniface (Eds.), Tourism and cultural conflicts (pp. 1-32). Wallingford, UK: CAB International.

19.

Segal, R. (1995). The Black diaspora. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

20.

Sirakaya, E., Teye, V., & Sönmez, S. F. (2001). Examining the sources of differential support for the tourism industry in two Ghanaian cities. Tourism Analysis, 6, 29-40.

21.

Sirakaya, E., Teye, V., & Sönmez, S. F. (2002). Understanding residents’ support for tourism development in the Central Region of Ghana. Journal of Travel Research, 41, 57-67.

22.

Teye, V., Sönmez, S. F., & Sirakaya, E. (2002). Residents’ attitudes toward tourism development in Ghana: Comparison of two cities. Annals of Tourism Research, 29, 668-688.

23.

Timothy, D. J., & Boyd, S. W. (2003). Heritage tourism. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

24.

Timothy, D. J., & Teye, V. B. (in press). American children of the African diaspora: Journeys to the motherland. In T. Coles & D. J. Timothy (Eds.), Tourism, diasporas and space. London: Routledge.

25.

Tunbridge, J., & Ashworth, G. J. (1996). Dissonant heritage: The management of the past as a resource in conflict. Chichester, UK: Wiley.

26.

van Dantzig, A. (1980). Forts and castles of Ghana. Accra, Ghana: Sedco.

27.

World Tourism Organization/UNESCO. (1995). Accra declaration on the WTO-UNESCO cultural tourism programme “The Slave Route.” Madrid, Spain: Author.

The Varied Colors of Slave Heritage in West Africa

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References