Township Tours in Southafrica

Term Paper , 2003 , 11 Pages , Grade: 1,0 (A)

Tourism - Miscellaneous

„Ngiwu ambe umhlaba wonk ba, Ngaze ngaba tabela ngo sizi ebesinalo, Silubonile
nosizo Iwabe zizwe, Sithi enkosi, enkosi siyanbonga, rea leboha“ (Miriam
Makeba, „Masakhane“, 1998) In her Xhosa-song, Miriam Makeba addresses the Southafrican population to
build a new Southafrica. One that consists of a diversity of cultures which together shall
secure hope and future for all in the post-Apartheid era. Even if Southafrica is still miles
away from a future for all, more and more (especially black) Southafricans are becoming
more conscious of their own heritage and a history apart from the Apartheid. Those
Southafricans reach for a life without unemployment and discrimination and have
realized that they can only put this into reality through own work and strong will.
Although this process is only starting, those Southafricans represent a new Southafrica
and an awakened Southafrican identity. However, this growing pride needs to be treated
carefully; otherwise the façade of beautiful multi-culturalis m will only be a shield for
hiding the global, meaning the western American, culture. This would not only ridicule
the different Southafrican identities but also further the gap between rich and poor as
being decreed by nature.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Cultural Tourism

3. Southafrica
3.1. Demographics
3.2. Development of Townships
3.3. Today’s situation

4. Township Tours
4.1. Problems with Township Tours
4.2. Benefits from Township Tours

5. Conclusion

1. Introduction

„Ngiwu ambe umhlaba wonk ba, Ngaze ngaba tabela ngo sizi ebesinalo, Silubonile nosizo Iwabe zizwe, Sithi enkosi, enkosi siyanbonga, rea leboha“ (Miriam Makeba, „Masakhane“, 1998)

In her Xhosa-song, Miriam Makeba addresses the Southafrican population to build a new Southafrica. One that consists of a diversity of cultures which together shall secure hope and future for all in the post-Apartheid era. Even if Southafrica is still miles away from a future for all, more and more (especially black) Southafricans are becoming more conscious of their own heritage and a history apart from the Apartheid. Those Southafricans reach for a life without unemployment and discrimination and have realized that they can only put this into reality through own work and strong will. Although this process is only starting, those Southafricans represent a new Southafrica and an awakened Southafrican identity. However, this growing pride needs to be treated carefully; otherwise the façade of beautiful multi-culturalism will only be a shield for hiding the global, meaning the western American, culture. This would not only ridicule the different Southafrican identities but also further the gap between rich and poor as being decreed by nature.

2. Cultural Tourism

What is real and what is not? That seems to be the essential question of cultural tourism. As Deidre Evans-Prichard states, tourists experience their own stereotypical images when travelling to a foreign country^[1]. Those stereotypes might defend and thus protect but might also discriminate the visited culture. The stereotypes are formed by the tourism industry itself trying to provide their consumers with an authenticity that in many cases western tourists are missing in their own alienated culture. Because of the steadily increasing technological and economical development of industrialized nations, individual life is being rationalized to a functioning screw in the system. The western cultures enforced the principles of proof and progress of the society and the individual - eliminating every breeding ground for real-ness and core values as truth or love. This MCWorld - as Benjamin R. Barber called it - is only tied together by communications, information, entertainment and commerce.^[2] It is an artificial social cooperation called modernity pursuing a bloodless economics of profit.^[3] There everyone is a consumer but no-one a citizen. The most often used example for such a society is the USA. There multi-culturalism is the rule and homogeneity the exception. However, as Barber writes it only signals…a long-term disintegration and not a nation-state that promotes and holds in high esteem equal development of identities. Therefore, people feel the need to experience the real hidden behind the civilized world and tourism agencies export the image that only in non-modern societies this real-ness can still be discovered. The paradox, however, is that the tourists, seeking for an own identity and truthful experiences, are from the first day of their journey subject to their agents perception of truth and are only exposed to an again artificial concept of real-ness. On the one side, this ignores what is actually real and thus promotes old-fashioned images and hinders the visited non-modern society from developing and prospering - not only in their culture. But on the other side, do the tourists really want to experience the real? This would most of the time only cause discomfort. This fake-ness might even help the non-modern society to protect their own dignity while showing tourists what they want to see and providing them with arts and crafts to take home as a trophy for having seen the real. Apart from that, the visited culture is mostly highly dependent on tourists. Therefore tourism is a need for those countries. And considering both economic benefits and possible social and cultural charges, it seems necessary to protect the native identities while promoting cultural tourism in a sustainable manner so that it does not stereotype identity ideas that oppress new developments in the native culture.

[...]

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^[1] Source: Evans-Prichard, Deidre: How „they“ see „us“, Native American Images of Tourists, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol.16, pp. 89-105, Pergamon Press, USA, 1989

^[2] Source: Barber, Benjamnin R.: Jihad vs. McWorld, pp. 3-20, Times Books, Randomhouse, 2001

^[3] Source: Barber, Benjamnin R.: Jihad vs. McWorld, pp. 3-20, Times Books, Randomhouse, 2001

• College: University of Southern Denmark
• Grade: 1,0 (A)
• Author: Dajana Trapp (Author)
• Publication Year: 2003
• Pages: 11
• Catalog Number: V30845
• ISBN (eBook): 9783638320221
• Language: English
• Tags: Township, Tours, Southafrica