Abstract
In East Africa, settler-colonization during the Scramble for Africa period and the militarized conservation regimes that became a common feature of colonial governance in the region, characterized by conserved land secured via fences and patrols of armed rangers, fundamentally altered locals’ access to and relationship with their land and natural environment. In parallel to the impacts on locals’ relationship with nature, direct colonial governance impacted local expressions of leisure. Colonial authorities often enforced particular activities during times normally allocated as free time, forcing individuals sometimes to perform tasks or engage in activities contrary to local conceptions of leisure. This paper draws linkages between two discrete but related scholarly literatures focusing on African contexts: the lasting influences of a particular period and type of colonization on local peoples’: (a) conceptions of leisure, and (b) relationships to their natural environment. East Africa is the primary regional focus, to contain the scope. Snowballing literature search and database keyword searches are used for literature review, in which African-authored scholarship is prioritized to address Euro-North American bias in academic research. Evidence in the literature describes how leisure and perceptions of nature were constrained and redefined during the settler-colonial period and their evolution in the postcolonial era inform how leisure and perceptions of nature are shaped in the present. However, the paper focuses only lasting impacts of a particular period and type of colonization, and thus the lasting impacts are likely to be deeper than those described in this analysis. Next, the paper draws on intersections of these literatures to examine a contemporary issue in East Africa: recent efforts to increase domestic ecotourism by encouraging locals to engage in nature-based recreation activities and leisure experiences. The paper contributes to the African ecotourism literature by intersecting colonization, sociology of leisure, and tourism literatures to identify contemporary historically-rooted opportunities and challenges in domestic ecotourism in East Africa, highlighting gaps in sociology of leisure and ecotourism literatures pertaining to prospective African tourists’ perceptions of ecotourism activities.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams, W. M., & Hutton, J. (2007). People, parks and poverty: Political ecology and biodiversity conservation. Conservation and Society, 5(2), 147–183. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26392879
Akyeampong, E., & Ambler, C. (2002). Leisure in African history: An introduction. The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 35(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.2307/3097363
Amoah, M. (2019). The new pan-Africanism: Globalism and the nation state in Africa. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Anderson, K. R., Knee, E., & Mowatt, R. (2021). Leisure and the “White-Savior Industrial Complex.” Journal of Leisure Research, 52(5), 531–550. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2020.1853490
Aristotle (2004). The Nicomachean ethics (J. A. K. Thompson, Trans.). Penguin Group.
Asakitikpi, A. O. (2018). Transformation of leisure in Nigeria. In I. Modi & T. J. Kamphorst (Eds.), Mapping leisure (pp. 301–309). Springer.
Banerjee, A., & Duflo, E. (2011). Poor economics. Public Affairs.
Biko, S. (1987). I write what I like: A selection of his writings. A. Stubbs (Ed.). Heinemann.
Blackshaw, T. (2010). Leisure. Routledge.
Brechin, S. R., Fortwangler, C. L., Wilshusen, P. R., & West, P. C. (Eds.). (2003). Contested nature: promoting international biodiversity with social justice in the twenty-first century. Suny Press.
Brown, D. S. (2000). Democracy, colonization, and human capital in sub-Saharan Africa. Studies in Comparative International Development, 35(1), 20–40. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02687449
Cabral, A. (1979). Unity and struggle: Speeches and writings of Amilcar Cabral (Vol. 3). NYU Press.
Cater, E. (2006). Ecotourism as a western construct. Journal of Ecotourism, 5(1–2), 23–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/14724040608668445
Cernea, M. M., & Schmidt-Soltau, K. (2006). Poverty risks and national parks: Policy issues in conservation and resettlement. World Development, 34(10), 1808–1830. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2006.02.008
Colchester, M. (1997). Salvaging nature: Indigenous peoples and protected areas. In K. B. Ghimire & M. P. Pimbert (Eds.), Social change and conservation (pp. 97–130). Earthscan Publications.
Colton, C. W. (1987). Leisure, recreation, tourism: A symbolic interactionism view. Annals of Tourism Research, 14(3), 345–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-7383(87)90107-1
Coulthard, G. S. (2014). Red skin, white masks: Rejecting the colonial politics of recognition. University of Minnesota Press.
Crowe, D. M., & Shryer, J. (1995). Eco-colonialism: An opinion from sub-Saharan Africa. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 26–30. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3783189
Dattilo, J., & Lopez-Frias, F. J. (2020). A critical examination of leisure in modernity: Rejecting instrumentalism and embracing flourishing. Journal of Leisure Research, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2020.1789013
Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2013). Critical race theory: The cutting edge. Temple University Press.
Diop, C. A. (1991). Civilization or barbarism. Y.L.M. Ngemi (Trans.). Chicago Review Press.
East African Community (2000). Treaty for the establishment of the East African Community. https://www.eacj.org//wp-content/uploads/2012/08/EACJ-Treaty.pdf
Ezedike, E. U. (2019). Multi-culturalism in education: A critical assessment of the impact of colonization and globalization on indigenous African values. AFRREV IJAH: An International Journal of Arts and Humanities, 8(2), 11–17. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ijah/article/view/185626
Fanon, F. (1952). Black skin, white masks. Grove Press.
Fanon, F. (1963). The wretched of the earth. Grove Press.
Fortwangler, C. L. (2003). The winding road: Incorporating social justice and human rights into protected area policies. In S. R. Brechin, P. R. Wilhusen, C. L. Fortwangler, & P. C. West (Eds.), Contested nature: Promoting international biodiversity with social justice in the twenty-first century (pp. 25–39). State University of New York Press.
Fox, K. M., & McDermott, L. (2018). ‘A ‘ohe pau ke ‘ike ka hālau ho ‘okahi [All knowledge is not taught in the same school] Welcoming Kānaka Hawai ‘i Waves of Knowing and Revisiting Leisure. Leisure Sciences, 41(4), 330–340. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2018.1442755
Frömming, U. U. (2009). Kilimanjaro’s melting glaciers: on the colonial and postcolonial perception and appropriation of African nature. Etnográfica. Revista do Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia, 13(2), 395–416.
Gandhi, L. (1998). Postcolonial theory: A critical introduction. Columbia University Press.
Garcia-Olp, M. (2018). How colonization impacts identity through the generations: A closer look at historical trauma and education (Doctoral dissertation, University of Denver). https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1487
Giles-Vernick, T. (1999). Leaving a person behind: history, personhood, and struggles over forest resources in the Sangha Basin of Equatorial Africa. International Journal of African Historical Studies, 311–338. https://www.jstor.org/stable/220344
Giles-Vernick, T. (2005). Beyond colonialism. Environmental History, 10(1), 34–36. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3985834
Gissibl, B. (2016). The nature of German imperialism: Conservation and the politics of wildlife in colonial East Africa. Berghahn Books.
Gómez, E. (2021). “White-Savior Industrial Complex” in leisure studies: A response to Anderson, Knee, & Mowatt. Journal of Leisure Research, 52(5), 557–560. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2020.1854558
Harrison, D. (2008). Pro-poor tourism: A critique. Third World Quarterly, 29(5), 851–868. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590802105983
Hazbun, W. (2009). Modernity on the beach: A postcolonial reading from southern shores. Tourist Studies, 9(3), 203–222. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468797610382702
Holba, A. (2013). Transformative leisure: A philosophy of communication. Marquette.
Hitchcott, N. (2009). Travels in inhumanity: Véronique Tadjo’s tourism in Rwanda. French Cultural Studies, 20(2), 149–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957155809102630
Infield, M. (1988). Attitudes of a rural community towards conservation and a local conservation area in Natal, South Africa. Biological Conservation, 45(1), 21–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3207(88)90050-X
Infield, M., & Namara, A. (2001). Community attitudes and behaviour towards conservation: An assessment of a community conservation programme around Lake Mburo National Park. Uganda. Oryx, 35(1), 48–60. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3008.2001.00151.x
Johannesen, A. B., & Skonhoft, A. (2005). Tourism, Poaching and Wildlife Conservation: What can integrated conservation and development projects accomplish? Resource and Energy Economics, 27, 208–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2004.10.001
Kamugisha, M. (2017). Africans and their environment: Challenges and possibilities of restoring the link strained by resource conflict. In J. S. Ssentongo (Ed.), Decolonisation pathways: Postcoloniality, globalisation, and African development (pp. 290–318). Uganda Martyrs University. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12280/480
Keiter, R. B. (2013). To conserve unimpaired: The evolution of the national park idea. Island Press.
Lecy, J. D., & Beatty, K. E. (2012). Representative literature reviews using constrained snowball sampling and citation network analysis. SSRN, 1992601. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1992601
Leshoele, M. (2019). Pan-Africanism and African renaissance in contemporary Africa: Lessons from Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara [Doctoral dissertation].
Loomba, A. (2007). Colonialism/postcolonialism. Routledge.
Lopez-Frias, F. J. L., & Dattilo, J. (2021). The influence of power on leisure: Implications for inclusive leisure services. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(5), 2220. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052220
Lopez-Frias, F. J., & Dattilo, J. (2020). The synergy of the social justice and inclusive leisure continuum. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 3, 259–275. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41978-020-00059-y
MacCannell, D. (2013). The tourist: A new theory of the leisure class. Univ of California Press.
Mallett, R., Hagen-Zanker, J., Slater, R., & Duvendack, M. (2012). The benefits and challenges of using systematic reviews in international development research. Journal of Development Effectiveness, 4(3), 445–455. https://doi.org/10.1080/19439342.2012.711342
Mapadimeng, M. S. (2018). Leisure in historical perspective: The case of South Africa—past and present. In I. Modi & T. J. Kamphorst (Eds.), Mapping leisure (pp. 301–309). Springer.
Masozera, M., Erickson, J. D., Clifford, D., Coppolillo, P., Sadiki, H. G., & Mazet, J. K. (2013). Integrating the management of Ruaha landscape of Tanzania with local needs and preferences. Environmental Management, 52(6), 1533–1546. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-013-0175-9
Matip, B. (1959). Le syndicalisme en Afrique Noire: Aperçu des mouvements ouvriers dans les pays d’origine coloniale française. Africa: Rivista trimestrale di studi e documentazione dell’Istituto italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, 14(2), 65–67.
Mazimhaka, J. (2007). Diversifying Rwanda’s tourism industry: A role for domestic tourism. Development Southern Africa, 24(3), 491–504. https://doi.org/10.1080/03768350701445590
McArthur, J. (2021). Critical theory in a decolonial age. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2021.1934670
Melubo, K. (2020). Is there room for domestic tourism in Africa? The case of Tanzania. Journal of Ecotourism, 19(3), 248–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/14724049.2019.1689987
Michalopoulos, S., & Papaioannou, E. (2016). The long-run effects of the Scramble for Africa. American Economic Review, 106(7), 1802–48. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20131311
Mkono, M. (2013). African and Western tourists: Object authenticity quest? Annals of Tourism Research, 41, 195–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2013.01.002
Mkono, M. (2019). Neo-colonialism and greed: Africans’ views on trophy hunting in social media. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 27(5), 689–704. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2019.1604719
Mowatt, R. A. (2017). A people’s history of leisure studies: Early 1700s to the late 1800s. Annals of Leisure Research, 20(4), 397–405. https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2017.1357047
Mowatt, R. (2021). A people’s history of leisure studies: A historiography of four traditions of critical leisure studies. Leisure/loisir, 45(2), 165–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2021.1874830
Morupisi, P., & Mokgalo, L. (2017). Domestic tourism challenges in Botswana: A stakeholders’ perspective. Cogent Social Sciences, 3(1), 1298171.
Munro, P. (2020). Colonial seeds in African soil: A critical history of forest conservation in Sierra Leone. Berghahn Books.
Mutinda, R., & Mayaka, M. (2012). Application of destination choice model: Factors influencing domestic tourists’ destination choice among residents of Nairobi, Kenya. Tourism Management, 33(6), 1593–1597. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2011.12.008
Newmark, W. D., Leonard, N. L., Sariko, H. I., & Gamassa, D. G. M. (1993). Conservation attitudes of local people living adjacent to five protected areas in Tanzania. Biological Conservation, 63(2), 177–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3207(93)90507-W
Nelson, R. H. (2003). Environmental colonialism: “Saving” Africa from Africans. Independent Review, 8(1), 65–86. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24562597
Okeke, J. C. (2019). The impact of colonization and authentic leadership on Africa: Nigeria, A case study. [Doctoral dissertation (Order No. 13859130)]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I. (2211441215).
Pinckney, H. P., Brown, A., Senè-Harper, A., & Lee, K. J. (2019). A case for Race scholarship: A research note. Journal of Leisure Research, 50(4), 350–358. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.2019.1626782
Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Rodney, W. (1973). How Europe underdeveloped Africa. Verso Books.
Roberts, K. (2021). Still speaking to ourselves: Leisure studies in a wilderness of multiple modernities. World Leisure Journal, 63(2), 152–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2021.1926679
Rowe, D. (2016). Complexity and the leisure complex. Annals of Leisure Research, 19(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2015.1028949
Sabuhoro, E., Wright, B., Munanura, I. E., Nyakabwa, I. N., & Nibigira, C. (2017). The potential of ecotourism opportunities to generate support for mountain gorilla conservation among local communities neighboring Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. Journal of Ecotourism, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/14724049.2017.1280043
Salafsky, N., & Wollenberg, E. (2000). Linking livelihoods and conservation: A conceptual framework and scale for assessing the integration of human needs and biodiversity. World Development, 28(8), 1421–1438. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-750X(00)00031-0
Schneider, C. J. (2004). Integrating critical race theory and postmodernism implications of race, class, and gender. Critical Criminology, 12(1), 87–103. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:CRIT.0000024440.94130.59
Sène-Harper, A., Mowatt, R. A., & Floyd, M. F. (2022). A People’s Future of Leisure Studies: Political Cultural Black Outdoors Experiences. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 40(1). https://doi.org/10.18666/JPRA-2021-11006
Sène-Harper, A., & Séye, M. (2019). Community-based tourism around national parks in Senegal: The implications of colonial legacies in current management policies. Tourism Planning & Development, 16(2), 217–234. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568316.2018.1563804
Sharma, V. (2018). From pre-colonial, colonial to post-colonial: A survey of African leisure. In I. Modi & T. J. Kamphorst (Eds.), Mapping leisure (pp. 301–309). Springer.
Shimeles, A., & Ncube, M. (2015). The making of the middle-class in Africa: Evidence from DHS data. The Journal of Development Studies, 51(2), 178–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2014.968137
Sindiga, I. (1996). Domestic tourism in Kenya. Annals of Tourism Research, 23(1), 19–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-7383(95)00040-2
Sirima, A., & Backman, K. F. (2013). Communities’ displacement from national park and tourism development in the Usangu Plains, Tanzania. Current Issues in Tourism, 16(7–8), 719–735. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2013.785484
Ssentongo, J. S. (2017). Reflections on the interplay between postcoloniality, globalization, decolonization, and development. In J. S. Ssentongo (Ed.), Decolonisation pathways: Postcoloniality, globalisation, and African development (pp. 1–16). Uganda Martyrs University. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12280/480
van Stewart, R., Rooyen, C., & de Wet, T. (2012). Purity or pragmatism? Reflecting on the use of systematic review methodology in development. Journal of Development Effectiveness, 4(3), 430–444. https://doi.org/10.1080/19439342.2012.7
Stone, L. S., & Nyaupane, G. P. (2019). The tourist gaze: Domestic versus international tourists. Journal of Travel Research, 58(5), 877–891. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287518781890
Tumusiime, D. M., Vedeld, P., & Gombya-Ssembajjwe, W. (2011). Breaking the law? Illegal livelihoods from a protected area in Uganda. Forest Policy and Economics, 13(4), 273–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2011.02.001
Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) (2017). National population and housing census 2014: Analytical report. Uganda Bureau of Statistics. https://www.ubos.org/wp-content/uploads/publications/03_20182014_National_Census_Main_Report.pdf
Veblen, T. (1934). The theory of the leisure class: An economic study of institutions. Modern Library.
WaThiong’o, N. (1992). Decolonising the mind: The politics of language in African literature. East African Publishers.
Wessels, N., Sitas, N., Esler, K. J., & O’Farrell, P. (2021). Understanding community perceptions of a natural open space system for urban conservation and stewardship in a metropolitan city in Africa. Environmental Conservation, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892921000345
Wiredu, K. (1998). Toward decolonizing African philosophy and religion. African Studies Quarterly, 1(4), 17–46. http://asq.africa.ufl.edu/files/Vol-1-Issue-4-Wiredu.pdf
Wunder, S. (2000). Ecotourism and economic incentives—an empirical approach. Ecological Economics, 32(3), 465–479. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8009(99)00119-6
Zeleza, P. T. (2003). The creation and consumption of leisure: Theoretical and methodological considerations. In P. T. Zeleza & C. R. Veney (Eds.), Leisure in urban Africa (pp. vii–3). Africa World Press.
Land Acknowledgement
This article was written partly in Uganda, and partly on the University Park campus of Pennsylvania State University in the United States. Uganda, which experienced various forms of British settler-colonization from 1894 to 1964, is home to over 40 local languages and several interconnected and historically and culturally rich kingdoms including but not limited to the Buganda, Bunyoro, Toro, Ankole and Bugosa. Pennsylvania State University is on the original homelands of the Erie, Haudenosaunee (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora), Lenape (Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe, Stockbridge-Munsee), Shawnee (Absentee, Eastern, and Oklahoma), Susquehannock, and Wahzhazhe (Osage) Nations, displaced by settler-colonization and the extension of the University as a land grant institution (see Pennsylvania State University’s Land Acknowledgment http://equity.psu.edu/acknowledgement-of-land). As co-authors, we are committed to understanding our role and the role of our institution in shaping the history and modern social, political, and geographic landscapes where we reside and conduct research. We note that this paper, focused on the historical and contemporary implications of settler-colonization and its violence and displacement, was written in contexts and by co-authors that have been heavily influenced by that history, and are still engrained in systems that are shaped by various forms of colonialism.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Co-author Katie P. Bernhard is United States-based and of mixed European descent, and is a former resident of Rwanda and Uganda. Her primary expertise pertaining to this paper is in the application of decolonial research methodologies. Co-author Dr. Edwin Sabuhoro is a United States-based Rwandan and a former Ugandan refugee. Dr. Sabuhoro’s primary expertise pertaining to this paper is in ecotourism, nature-based activities, and community conservation in East Africa. Co-author Dr. John Dattilo is United States-based and of European descent. Dr. Dattilo’s primary expertise pertaining to this paper is in leisure studies, inclusive leisure, and the sociology of leisure. All three co-authors hold affiliation with a Western, North American academic institution, Pennsylvania State University, and reflect on this academic, social, and physical positionality in research seeking to address the same Euro-North American bias in academic literatures to which we simultaneously contribute. Additionally, following Fox and McDermott (2018), we reflect on how our discussion of local perspectives in East Africa within the neocolonial logic of Western research could perpetuate and extend colonial logics that we discuss in this article.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Declarations
The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Bernhard, K.P., Sabuhoro, E. & Dattilo, J. Colonial Influence on Local Relationships with Leisure and Environment in East Africa: Intersecting Two Literatures to Reflect on Domestic Ecotourism. Int J Sociol Leis 5, 445–464 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41978-022-00115-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41978-022-00115-9