Abstract
This wide ranging title seems to presume that the word ‘African’ which can be used to define a singular over-arching entity, even though the Continent is made up of fifty four countries, each of which, in turn, consists of a variety of religious, ethnic and linguistic groups. As a consequence it seems to presuppose that there is something that could be called ‘African’ leisure. So, before going on to discuss leisure in Africa it becomes necessary to clarify as to what is meant by the terms ‘leisure’, ‘Africa’ and the phrase ‘African leisure’. The essay recognises and asserts that leisure is not a monolithic idea drawn from Anglo-Euro-American models only, that it is a fluid evolving concept that takes varied forms in differing temporal, spatial, historical and cultural contexts. It emphasises that leisure is not a discrete entity occupying a space dissociated from historical experiences and other varied aspects of social and cultural life, and that it is not the monopoly of any one ethnic or racial group. Different peoples in different geographical and cultural situations have understood leisure in their own ways and devised methods for experiencing and actualising it, with or without using the term.
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Notes
- 1.
Akyeampong and Ambler, p. 3.
- 2.
Ibid., pp. 5, 6.
- 3.
Ibid., p. 6.
- 4.
Mazrui (2002), p. 37.
- 5.
Nkrumah, p. 132.
- 6.
Mazrui (2002), pp. 38–9.
- 7.
Davidson, pp. 12–13.
- 8.
Ibid., p. 13.
- 9.
Gyekye, pp. 187–212.
- 10.
Akeampong, p. 5.
- 11.
Nkrumah, p. 9.
- 12.
Ibid.
- 13.
Ibid., pp. 39–40.
- 14.
Soyinka, pp. 39–41.
- 15.
Ibid., 39.
- 16.
Ibid., p. 40.
- 17.
Soyinka, p. 37.
- 18.
Achebe.
- 19.
Sharma, p. 17.
- 20.
Mandela, p. 12.
- 21.
Ibid., p. 11.
- 22.
Grobler, p. 180.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
Akeampong and Ambler, p. 8.
- 25.
Ibid., p. 9.
- 26.
Akyeampong and Ambler, p. 5.
- 27.
Akyeampong and Ambler, p. 5.
- 28.
Metz, p. 327.
- 29.
Grobler, p.183.
- 30.
Grobler, p. 184.
- 31.
Grobler, 189, writes this with regard to South Africa, but it applies to colonized Africa in general.
- 32.
Grobler, 190–1, quoting Callinicos.
- 33.
Grobler, 192.
- 34.
Grobler, p. 194.
- 35.
Makhanya and Maree, pp. 171–2.
- 36.
Bell, p. 105.
- 37.
Bell, p. 97.
- 38.
Makhanya, p. 163.
- 39.
Bell, p. 97.
- 40.
Bell, p.107.
- 41.
Bell, p.105.
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Sharma, V. (2018). From Pre-colonial, Colonial to Post-colonial: A Survey of African Leisure. In: Modi, I., Kamphorst, T. (eds) Mapping Leisure. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3632-3_13
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