Panel Organisers: Harry Wels / Marja Spierenburg / Chris Boonzaaier

The white (elephant) hunter during colonial times is for many an icon of the European penetration and appropriation of Africa (cf. MacKenzie 1988; Steinhart 2006). His role in the economic exploitation of Africa, as well as his contribution to the beginnings of conservation thinking have been thoroughly researched and documented (see Andersson and Grove 1987). Sports hunting has continued to play an important role in southern Africa, both economically and culturally (Gibson 1999), at the moment mainly through a mushrooming number of initiatives towards private wildlife conservation, like game farms and conservancies (Duffy 2000; Wels 2003). It is also still very much a ‘white men’s affair’. This panel wants to explore the developments in, and economic and cultural interpretations of, sports hunting. The panel will investigate the role of sports hunting in the tourism economy in southern Africa from its origin in colonial times to the modern-day industry that it has become, as well as its implications for processes of white identity construction.