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Pioneers a conceptual blend of performance studies and linguistic anthropology to decode the vital ‘backstage’ spaces that sustain frontstage tourist encounters at the grassroots level
This book presents an ethnographic study of tourism and cultural change at Diani Beach on Kenya’s southern coast. It examines how tourism is performed across different spaces – including beaches, hotels, heritage sites and pubs – and analyses the relationship between frontstage performances visible to tourists and backstage practices that sustain local communities.
Drawing on postcolonial theory, performance studies, linguistic anthropology and tourism studies, it explores how colonial legacies continue to shape tourism while highlighting the agency, multilingual creativity and everyday strategies of beach operators. The volume contributes to debates on tourism, cultural change and decolonisation by demonstrating how tourism simultaneously reproduces structural inequalities and creates spaces for negotiation, resistance and cultural innovation.
It is a useful resource for researchers, teachers and students in social and cultural anthropology, tourism studies, African studies and postcolonial studies.
Tourism is no neutral pleasure – it’s a battleground of power. In this pioneering study, Janna Perbix draws on anthropology, postcolonial theory, and the study of space and performativity to expose how racism, class, and colonialism persist in Kenya’s coastal encounters – even in fleeting moments: a smile, a trade, a gesture.
Based on careful ethnographic fieldwork, this thought-provoking book provides unique insights into the dynamics of cultural and linguistic change in Kenyan tourism. As well as an analysis of tourism’s front stages, it showcases the crucial function of its back stages (such as palm wine pubs) for those working in tourism, and underscores their importance for resistance against the industry’s commodifying nature.
Janna Perbix is a Lecturer and Researcher at Bielefeld University and Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Cologne, Germany. Her research centres on critical tourism studies and postcolonial theory, with particular attention to colonial power relations in tourism, literature and social media.
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. History and Stories
Chapter 3. Hotels and Resorts
Chapter 4. The Beach as a Stage
Chapter 5. The Backstage
Chapter 6. Conclusion: Tourism, Performance, and the Politics of Change