Travel, Humanitarianism, and Becoming American in Africa

by Mathers, Kathryn

• ISBN13: 9780230108066
• ISBN10: 0230108067
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-12-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Travel, Humanitarianism, and Becoming American in Africauses observations of American travelers to southern Africa to ask: why is Africa so important to Americans? These travel stories show how encounters with Africans lead to a problematic desire to save Africa. Kathryn Mathers argues that this is then seen as a way to resolve the tensions between aspirations for a globally responsible America and the current reality of its geopolitical role. This book draws fascinating new conclusions about the connections and disconnections on which contemporary American identity is formed.

Author Biography

Kathryn Mathers is a visiting scholar in the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. Her published work examines reality television, adventure travel, and the tensions between tourism, development, and migration in South Africa.

Table of Contents

Introduction * Moving Fieldwork: Traveling with Americans to and from Africa * Vexed Ties: Africa in an out of America * Back to Nature: American’s Great African Adventure * Through the Glass: Encountering the Unexpected in Africa * Disrupting the Hyphen: Identity and Belonging in America * “How do they know I am American?” Travel and the Discovery of Home * Suffering Beauty: How to Save Africa without Changing It * Conclusion: Saving Africa: Love in the Time of Oprah