Editor: Leah Nichols
leahhnichols@gmail.com
SITE
Guinea-Bissau, West Africa
PERSPECTIVES
• Native
(Recorded and complied by Lorenzo Bordonaro’s “Living At the Margins”- an Anthropology dissertation)
• Tourist
(Represented by Adam Nossiter’s articles- NY Times writer and West African bureau chief)
• Native v. Tourist
LOCAL / NATIVE
• Negative, marginalized perspective
• Sense of isolation, disconnectedness
• Lacks physical link to mainland- safe, rapid, inexpensive means of transportation
• Lacks communication to rest of islands and the world- telephone,mail, radio, television?
• Desires for mobility, modernity- especially among youth
GLOBAL / TOURIST
• Positive, exoticized perspective
• Sense of discovery of virgin paradise, slightly colonial (ex. “The magical wilds of West Africa”)
• Live observation of real village culture (ex. women carrying things on their heads)
• “If you have a tasts for decay, ruins, moldering colonial architecture, a first-hand glimpse of West Africa’s social and political troubles, and excellent Portuguese restaurants, you won’t regret spending a night or two in Bissau.” -Bordornaro
• Desires for both voyeuristic travel with “tranqiul” isolation
? ? ?
• Village culture (native)= stigmatization of rural backwards villages, contrasted with development
Village culture (tourist) = special, foreign traditions or practices preserved over hundreds of years
• Isolation (native) = excluded from international discourse and means for development
Isolation (tourist) = “The laid-back scene on the Bijagos islands is unlikely to change anytime soon because of their hard-to-get-to location.”
• Sea (native) = barrier to progress, a curse
Sea (tourist) = “In the morning, there are sparkling waters that separate the Bijagos from the mainland.”
SOURCES:
Bordonaro, Lorenzo Ibrahim. "Living at the Margins: Youth and Modernity in the Bijago Islands (Guinea-Bissau)." University Institute for Social Sciences, Business Studies and Technologies. Department of Anthropology. September 2006.
Nossiter, Adam (West African bureau chief). "Bijagos, a Tranquil Haven in a Troubled Land." New York Times. November 8, 2009.
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