Abstract
This undertaking investigated whether the success of cultural tourism ventures depended on the intangible mental representations of a destination as opposed to the tangible infrastructural and physical aspects of a space. The hypothesis was that the creation and proliferation of anchoring narratives imbues a sense of authenticity, mysticism and intrigue to differentiate one destination from similar offerings. The Tsonga community of the Baleni cultural camp and the Venda community of the Fundudzi cultural camp respectively, both on the African Ivory Route in Limpopo, South Africa were the communities investigated. It is maintained that the intangible value contained in the narratives centred around the people, animals and ecological phenomena at a particular place bolsters the efficacy and desire for cultural tourism. The theory of perspectivism underpins how indigenous cosmologies incorporate natural phenomena and the mythology around sentient animals and plants into their worldviews and perceptions of reality. This theory was used in conjunction with Tzvetan Todorov’s literary theory of the fantastic—the liminal space between belief and disbelief—to delineate the scope of the investigation. Critical indigenous methods of inquiry were used to collect data through in-depth interviews of community members that resided close to the cultural camps. This method uses the worldview of the indigenous community as the starting point for the undertaking. Field notes derived from my participant observation were used to triangulate the data from the interviews. The findings indicate that syncretic religious and cultural practices that merge indigenous beliefs with Christianity are pivotal in representing the performed sacredness of ancestrally sanctioned natural ecological phenomena such as lakes, forests, hot springs, mounds of compacted plant-material that wobbled when stepped on and the demonstration of traditional salt-harvesting practices at the Klein Letaba river. These myths incorporate tales of rare animals such as white lions and white pythons. The intangible aspects of creating a sense of place—as opposed to only representing a geographical space—is indispensable to the cultural tourism strategies identified in this case study.
Ph.D. (Communication Studies)