Academic Affairs

March 7, 2025
Nation, Class, Race: Differential Mobility Among Professional Bird Guides in Uganda and South Africa
Dean Eaton Lounge, 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Presented by Dr. Wendi Haugh, Anthropology and African Studies

Professional bird guides based in countries like Uganda and South Africa are a key fulcrum in the global avitourism industry, which brings together mostly white, relatively affluent birders from high-income countries with people of color living in bird-rich but lower-income countries. To do their work, Black bird guides based on the African continent must navigate a world characterized by increasing mobility alongside persistent and even accelerated barriers to movement. Drawing on interviews and participant observation research with bird guides in Uganda in partnership with a cultural anthropologist who did similar research with bird guides in South Africa, I show how nationality, class, and race help create differential mobilities among these guides as they seek to turn their passion for birds into a profession in a global industry.