Poverty Tourism

It started with an email. I dashed off a quick note to Ayesha, the head of the IHRE program, for which I’m teaching, telling her I heard that group tours were a cheaper way than taxis to get into Soweto and I wondered if she had an opinion of which was the best one to take. I’ve been to Soweto with friends a number of times since coming to Johannesburg (or “Jozi,” as my locals call it)- for Soweto Pride, to visit some friends of friends, for the best dinner I’ve had here (mutton curry and pap at Nambitha’s on Vilakazi Street). My friends, however, don’t seem much interested in visiting the Hector Peterson museum, (named for the 12 yr old boy, one of 20 school children shot and killed during the Soweto uprising of 1976), featured in this iconic newspaper photo:
I'd like to see it, and I'm increasingly aware of how little time remains for me here. Ayesha wrote back, giving me the name of a well-known tour company, but telling me also that she objects to township tourism- a viewpoint with which my sympathies lay more and more. I had called this company the day before, but was put off by the invitation to tour a local church and enter the homes of residents in an “informal settlement.” Something about it felt invasive. I was uncomfortable…

This weekend, I’m in Cape Town for a batch of interviews and a few hours of relaxation by the water. Cape Town really feels like a tourist city to me, particularly the closer one gets to the ocean(s). It seems I can’t go anywhere without being approached by a barker or seeing a flyer proclaiming, “ Come for a township tour! Witness first hand the living conditions, joys and sadness of the ‘townships’ where the Democratic revolution was nurtured and fought. Home to Cabinet Ministers, poets, gangsters and workers!”

So, I’ve been thinking- what is it about bearing witness to poverty that appeals to so many visitors? Is it the particularity of South African history and the clear role of the township as a symbol of the apartheid government’s racist ideology? Is it the rare opportunity to "visit" poverty in relative safety, to see but to not have to stay? What's the draw? There is an incredibly engaging and vibrant culture in Soweto, but that’s not what these brochures seem to advertise.

So, I felt awfully clever when I thought of the term “poverty tourism.” Of course, I’m not the first to think of it. A quick Google search revealed a host of hits, including this article from the Mail & Guardian, a liberal SA paper, on the potential salutary effects of poverty tourism- money for the people in the communities. At least one interviewee claims that he doesn't find the traipsing of tourists through his home invasive... so does that make my discomfort paternalistic?

To be fair, it's also not just tourists who've been bitten by the township bug. A book on the SA bestseller lists this week, Khayalitsha: uMlungu in a Township, tells the story of an Afrikaans journalist's time living as the sole white person in "Khaya," a notoriously poverty-ridden township outside Cape Town. And that is the entire plot of the book- the fact that he did this- and copies are flying off the shelves as locals reach for their own glimpse into township life. (As more than one person has told me, the only white people who actually set foot in the townships are tourists; the locals avoid them or drive through at top speed.)

Anyway, I’m undecided about what to do- do I take the tour, refusing the parts that make me uncomfortable, or forfeit the chance to see the landmarks I’d like to see? An invocation of larger questions of outsider-ship that have been plaguing me in my time here...