Pan-Africanisation of South African political cultural heritage as tourist attraction

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