Imagining whiteness : an ethnographic exploration into fantasy and experience of young women (and men) seeking bazungu partners in Kampala, Uganda

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In one of Uganda's main national newspapers, the New Vision, women and men advertise that theyseek 'white' partners. Using emergent design, this study set out to explore this yearning for local -'white' relationships. I conducted exploratory and semi-structured interviews with 20 of these womenand men. As I started conducting the interviews, it became clear that this was a topic which provokedemotionally charged responses and a great deal of 'identity work', with participants identifying with,or disidentifying from, particular groups and categories, notably 'prostitutes' and 'traditional','cultural' or 'modern' women and men. Engaging critically with post-colonial writings andcontemporary feminist research, I argue that my respondents provided important insights into thebroader dynamics of gender, sexuality, race and power, as well as processes of identity construction inpost-colonial Uganda. I explore the fantasy constructions and stereotypes perpetuating beliefs in'white' superiority and address the various influences upon which respondents draw to bolsterconstructions of 'whites' as superior. These are marked by explicit beliefs in racial hierarchy, as wellas 'modernisation' and 'developmental' discourses which positively associate 'modernisation' with'Westernisation.' I discuss respondents' negative constructions of local, 'black' men and women bornout of past experiences with local partners. Male respondents expressed frustration with Ugandanwomen, whom they constructed as 'money minded', whom they believe forfeit dignity, for love ofmoney, in their search for modernity. 'Tradition' and 'culture' were often invoked by men againstwomen, who were seen as failing to live up to presumed cultural standards of femininity. I alsoexplore female respondents' appeals to 'tradition' and 'culture' which they feel benefit Ugandan mento the detriment of women and romantic relationships. I show that female respondents draw ondiscourses of Western 'modernity' and human rights, to illustrate the extent of gendered inequalities inUganda, and find that Western humanism, embodied in the 'white' male, is constructed as a solutionto their relationship dilemmas.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University