Abstract
In parallel with trends in tourism scholarship historical research is beginning to gain slow recognition
and acceptance in hospitality studies. Existing literature is dominated by studies in Europe and North
America. The topic holds significance for both hospitality researchers and geographers as it concerns
the racialization of hospitality spaces. This paper offers a glimpse into the history of the hospitality
trades in urban South Africa. The article is novel in contributing an analysis of the racialised landscape
of hospitality during the apartheid years through examining the experience of Johannesburg.
The research focus is on the segregated formal and informal hospitality services which evolved for the
provision of food and drink to Africans, the racial group most disadvantaged by apartheid legislation.
It is demonstrated that during the 1950s and 1960s the formal and informal economies of food and
drink created different spaces of hospitality in apartheid Johannesburg.