Prisons, Tourism, and Symbolism: Reflecting (on) the Past, Present, and Future of South Africa

Abstract

Hope is widely acknowledged as a desirable state of individual being, but less attention has been paid to its potential as a collective sentiment that can be steered in various directions by governing agencies. (Shearing and Kempa 2004: 62) South Africa’s negotiated transition from autocratic rule to democratic dispensation has been widely presented as a “miracle,” a remarkable counterpoint to a stylized history of Africa in which it is inescapably seen as the “dark” continent (for further detail, see Waldmeir 1998; Friedman and Atkinson 1994; Sparks 2009). As problematic and factually incorrect as this is, such imagery is still frequently invoked in the popular press and media. Such understandings, moreover, frame tourist expectations by both misconstruing and romanticizing many of the destinations on the continent.