ABSTRACT
The Gambia has a reputation as a tourist destination where beach boys offer sexual services to female tourists, often in the hope of establishing partnerships which provide opportunities for migration to the West (Brown 1992; Ebron 2002; Nyanzi et al. 2005; Fleming 2006). Criticising traditional tourism studies which limit their focus to male tourists who ‘sexually exploit’ female sex workers (Oppermann 1999; Ryan 1999), it is increasingly recognised that sexual interaction and exchange also takes place between male local providers and women tourists (cf. Brown 1992; Phillips 1999; Kempadoo 2001; Ebron 2002; Jeffreys 2003; Nyanzi et al. 2005; Taylor 2006; Bauer 2007; Jennaway 2008). A feminist analytical framework posited by McCormick (1994) categorises stu-
dies of these relationships as either radical – because local players are situated as exploited victims of powerful Western nations, or liberal – because the relationships are interpreted as sites of sexual empowerment, pleasure, experience and fulfilment. While this dichotomy is useful as a heuristic device that allows explanation of complex processes, it is also too simplistic to capture the inherent contradictions, flux, ambivalences and dynamic character of these sexual interactions. Rather than start with the premise of exploitation, this chapter explores rea-
sons given by, and experiences of, bumsters (Gambian beach boys) entering into sexual liaisons with female tourists. Understanding bumsters’ emic perspective is a crucial precursor to analysing what Western women encounter when they fall for locals while on holiday and the sexual risks that both sides are prepared to take.
With a population of 1.7 million, The Gambia is the smallest country in West Africa. Rural-urban migration has facilitated rapid urbanisation, particularly in the coastal urban-peripherals of Greater Banjul Area, and Kombos St. Mary’s. Regular cyclical migration is patterned along two seasons which revolve around the agricultural cycle and the tourism boom season between November and April. Responding to developments in the tourism industry, young men seasonally travel to urban coastal areas to tap into the tourist trade by offering various entrepreneurial services.
