AUTHOR: Njabulo S Ndebele
PUBLICATION: Fine Lines from the Box
DATE: 1999

DESCRIPTION: In July of 1997, while holidaying on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal, I struck up a friendship with a family of American tourists. As we exchanged experiences of life in a game lodge, one of my new friends commented, ‘Now I understand what it meant to be a colonialist’. I was intrigued by this comment because it seemed to ring true of my own experience of game-lodge living. Does the game lodge not represent the ultimate ‘leisuring’ of colonial history that has remained relatively untouched in the discourse of freedom. In essence, the game lodge impedes the emergence of an image of Africa and its diverse cultures as transforming historical phenomena. But how did it feel to be a colonialist? …

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