Living museums in Namibia: between empowerment and exploitation

Abstract

This article examines the recent rise of living museums in postcolonial Namibia, one of the most rapidly increasing forms of cultural tourism. Living museums are designed and executed by minority communities that seek to reach socio-economic emancipation by making use of what they consider their unique culture. The article examines six such living museums that have been instituted in cooperation with a Namibian–German non-governmental organisation. It approaches the living museum as a tourist bubble with an imagery that is built along the global–local nexus. The aim is to explore how the bubble is constructed and what meanings various stakeholders foster onto these cultural shows. The basic conceptual and methodological framework derives from the premises of a multi-sited ethnography. We argue that the tourist bubble constituting Namibia’s living museums enables the involved stakeholders to retain a myth of authentic Africa that is incommensurate with local performers’ everyday life. Yet a certain permeability of the bubble allows for the creative and diversified response of the local population.