At Home in the Okavango White Batswana Narratives of Emplacement and Belonging [Hardcover]

An ethnographic portrayal of the lives of white citizens of the Okavango Delta, Botswana, this book examines their relationships with the natural and social environments of the region. In response to the insecurity of their position as a European-descended minority in a postcolonial African state, Gressier argues that white Batswana have developed cultural values and practices that have allowed them to attain high levels of belonging. Adventure is common for this frontier community, and the book follows their safari lifestyles as they construct and perform localized identities in their interactions with dangerous wildlife, the broader African community, and the global elite via their work in the nature-tourism industry.

List of Maps
Acknowledgments

Introduction:Waiting for the Flood

Chapter 1.Connections to the Natural Environment
Chapter 2.Photographic Tourism, Emplacement and Belonging
Chapter 3.Hunting and Ambiguity in Belonging
Chapter 4.Belonging and the Nation
Chapter 5.?Race Relations and Community Ties in the Okavango

Conclusion:Making a Plan to Belong

Bibliography
Index

Catie Gressieris a McArthur Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne.

This book is an important contribution to anthropological studies of belonging, minorities, settler populations, whiteness, identity, tourism, and autochthony. A thoroughly thought-provoking, intimate, and detailed ethnography that is worth reading to gain an insight into how a white community in a postcolonial nation construct their belonging as Africans.? American Anthropologist

An engaging and timely ethnography&[that] solidly positilÉ