Performing indigeneity
Spectacles of culture and identity in coloniality
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Formerly colonised people sometimes play roles that sustain the power structure of coloniality. In this book, Professor Morgan Ndlovu asks why and how they can possibly participate in a system that is responsible for their subjugation. The author uses as an example the ‘staged’ performances of non-Western culture in South Africa, such as traditional healing, and the creation of ‘cultural villages’, which while seeming to define and keep alive elements of an African culture also serve the business of international and cultural tourism. He compares practices in South Africa with parallels in India, Australia, Canada, other parts of Africa and the Americas. He argues that it is not just brute force that made the survival and continuity of coloniality possible up to the present but also the control of knowledge that justified and naturalised the colonial project. Performing Indigeneity provides an insightful evaluation of what could constitute an ‘authentic’ indigenous agency and the pitfalls and prospects of decolonial practices.
