Racialized hospitality spaces: Food and drink in apartheid Johannesburg

In parallel with trends in tourism scholarship historical research is beginning to gain slow recognition and acceptance in hospitality studies. Existing literature is dominated by studies in Europe and North America. The topic holds significance for both hospitality researchers and geographers as it concerns the racialization of hospitality spaces. This paper offers a glimpse into the history of the hospitality trades in urban South Africa. The article is novel in contributing an analysis of the racialised landscape of hospitality during the apartheid years through examining the experience of Johannesburg. The research focus is on the segregated formal and informal hospitality services which evolved for the provision of food and drink to Africans, the racial group most disadvantaged by apartheid legislation. It is demonstrated that during the 1950s and 1960s the formal and informal economies of food and drink created different spaces of hospitality in apartheid Johannesburg.