Since the nineteenth century, both foreign tourists and resident tourism workers in Africa have relied upon notions of exoticism, but from vastly different perspectives. Few tourists to Africa acknowledge or even realize that skilled African artists in the tourism industry routinely and repeatedly manufacture "authentic" experiences in order to fulfill foreigners' often delusional, or at least uninformed, expectations. These carefully nurtured and controlled performances typically reinforce tourists' reductive impressions-formed over centuries- of the continent, its peoples, and even its wildlife. In turn, once back in their respective homelands, those tourists recount their travels in ways that substantiate and thereby reinforce prevailing stereotypes of "exotic" Africa. Meanwhile, the staged performances affect the lives of the African performers, primarily by generating remunerative opportunities, but they also subject the continent's residents to objectification, exoticization, and myriad forms of exploitation.
Since the nineteenth century, both foreign tourists and resident tourism workers in Africa have relied upon notions of exoticism, but from vastly different perspectives. Few tourists to Africa acknowledge or even realize that skilled African artists in the tourism industry routinely and repeatedly manufacture "authentic" experiences in order to fulfill foreigners' often delusional, or at least uninformed, expectations. These carefully nurtured and controlled performances typically reinforce tourists' reductive impressions-formed over centuries- of the continent, its peoples, and even its wildlife. In turn, once back in their respective homelands, those tourists recount their travels in ways that substantiate and thereby reinforce prevailing stereotypes of "exotic" Africa. Meanwhile, the staged performances affect the lives of the African performers, primarily by generating remunerative opportunities, but they also subject the continent's residents to objectification, exoticization, and myriad forms of exploitation.
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