Society ‘obscures itself’ by presenting a world that is self-contained and logical (Barthes, 1973) – a world underpinned by a transparency of its underlying systems of meaning. This formulation maps the theoretical location of the dissertation, by which an investigation into tourism, as an economic and political expression of contemporary culture, occurs. More specifically, the dissertation addresses the type of tourism that bisects narratives of history and of cultures – that popularly described under the label of cultural tourism. Thus it employs an array of critical tourism and cultural theory, to offer an exposition on how best to understand the articulation of meaning in the consumption of ‘place’, formations of heritage and Otherness. The study also explores the epistemological nature/agendas of the so-called ‘Image of Africa’ and the ‘Absolute Other’, and how these are recycled in the parameters of modernity. Using a genealogical approach to studying discursive formations articulating some kind of Zulu Otherness, the dissertation grounds these conventions of identity predominantly in the symbolic practice of a colonial Western society. This exposes the arbitrary, constructed nature by which contemporary society governs itself. Methodologically, the research applies participant observation and semiotic analyses, predominantly in the cultural/filmic village of Shakaland, near Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, to explore how the constructions of identity manifest and are negotiated and consumed in the activity of this tourism. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2011.

The study outlines the impact a community based tourism project has on poverty alleviation in Isithumba. Isithumba Adventure Tourism village is the case analysed in this study. This community based tourism project has been developed in KwaZuluNatal, a place called Isithumba found in KwaXimba Tribal Authority outside Durban. The rationale behind the study is to determine whether the Isithumba community based project had a positive impact, negative impact or no impact on the standards of living of the KwaXimba community. This has been achieved through the use of interviews conducted by the researcher in terms of which a survey questionnaire was used to obtain information from the respondents in one hundred households covered by the study. A supplementary questionnaire was also formulated to obtain background information from people who were employed in the project and other key informants. In this regard, the quantitative study was chosen to express in numerical values and to analyze what the studied community feels about the project and its impact on their lives. The study concluded that the project, which was perceived by the community to bring about positive economic, socio-cultural and environmental impact, has produced lower results than anticipated. Those who had been directly involved have witnessed positive impact in the form of job creation, entrepreneurial opportunities and skills development. However, the rest of the local community did not find the project beneficial to them. The researcher therefore concluded that community based tourism projects, if well managed and properly planned, could have positive impact on the local communities, but in this case, the impact was minimal. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.