They are the noble savages, staring out from coffee table books. Africa Adorned. The Last Nomads. Backdrops and extras for Vogue fashion shoots. Stock ingredients for tourist brochures … They are the myth of tribal splendour. Everything about them is foreign … Their “timeless culture” is the stuff of children’s books, of Western fantasies. They are everyone’s dream of people untouched by modernity. (Patel, 2010: 45; emphasis in original)
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