Abstract
The most visited tourist attractions in South Africa are the political heritage sites of
memorisation
of the struggle against apartheid and are regarded as the main symbols of the new post-1994
national identity. Building on the rise of African consciousness known as the African Renaissance
and Pan- Africanism, the paper explores the possibility that these famous tourist sites are equally
representative of the newly emerging Pan-African identity. The study builds on extensive literature
on the African Renaissance movement, the concepts of national and Pan-African identity, and on two
dimensions of constructive authenticity, cognitive (learning) and affective (feeling). This
mixed-method study explores the differences in the way domestic and African tourists construct the
authenticity of their experience of the site. The results of data triangulation confirm the main
assumption of this paper that the country’s most iconic places of struggle against apartheid are
not only representative of the new South African national identity but of newly emerging
Pan-African identity too. The findings are valuable for site managers, who should include the Pan
African narrative into interpretation and presentation of the sites, and government, who should
promote the
South African political heritage sites as unique Pan African tourist attractions for the African
market.