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Forum for Modern Language Studies Advance Access originally published online on August 19, 2009
Forum for Modern Language Studies 2009 45(4):378-389; doi:10.1093/fmls/cqp109
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© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press for the Court of the University of St Andrews. All rights reserved. The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland: No. SC013532.

This article appears in the following Forum for Modern Language Studies issue: SPECIAL ISSUE: Perspectives on Africa [View the issue table of contents]

European Travellers in Africa – The Negotiation of Identity

Catharine Mee

catharine.mee{at}gmail.com

  Abstract

In their African journeys, the three writers chosen (two Italian, one French) do not simply respond to Africa as a backdrop to their personal development. It is a question of how they write about themselves in Africa, how they find themselves confronted with their own identities, and how identities are imposed on them as they travel. The "travellees" they encounter play a very active role, in direct contrast to the image of Africa as depopulated passive backdrop. The implications of vulnerability or inadequacy expressed by the three authors also contrast with the confident colonial stance of earlier European writing on Africa. Their own racial identity, of which they become aware on their arrival in Africa, is not simply a matter of skin colour. If a tourist's race is assumed to indicate wealth it is because it is associated with political identity, suggesting membership of a wealthy Western nation.

Key Words: travel • tourism • Africa • identity • race • Celati, Gianni • Guillebaud, Jean-Claude • Ramazzotti Sergio


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