The African Reality Tour - Part Two

Shashank recently wrote a post about "reality tours" in the slums of Nairobi such as Kibera - now not just a quick n' easy source for a story on african poverty ... but also a tourist destination for pity tours ... guaranteed to make you go home realising how lucky you are .... but all seemingly rather sordid with liberal intelligentsia up in arms at this semi-schadenfreude ....

Its an argument i've often had with myself .... i've worked in slums in Peru, India and townships in SA .... but i've also visited them as a "tourist" - including the favelas of Rio and Soweto near Johannesburg .... and i think it is an important thing to do and acknowledge - the favelas aren't even on city maps of rio - and tourists visiting these areas are the only recognition such cities-within-cities get .... aside from the aforementioned press reports of crime, violence and deprivation ....

Khayelitsha is one of the largest townships associated with Cape Town - over 500,000 people live there .... a remnant of the apartheid government ... its inhabitants are poor, black and typically unemployed. Most homes are corrugated iron shacks without plumbing or electricity .... crime and violence (murder, rape and domestic abuse) are rampant and HIV rates hover around 30% ....

Most white South Africans have neither reason nor inclination to be in Khayelitsha .... but the townships are a vital part of the SA culture and way of life .... and despite the crime and poverty - these communities are very tight knit groups who support and celebrate with each other. There is great passion, pride and spirit in the townships and it is unfortunate that others outside don't get to see that part of them. All they often get to see is the miles of shack-like communities lining the highways to/from the airport. In turn - the township dwellers don't think that the affluent and the white bother about or even acknowledge them or their problems .... they feel alienated, rejected and justified therefore in turning their rage against those who ignore them ....

MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières - Doctors without Borders) provides ARV treatment to HIV patients in Khayelitsha and runs a clinic there called Simelela .... and amongst other things, the clinic also serves as the Rape Crisis center for the community. Two of my colleagues, Eric and Carter (young yankee interns on a programme run by Princeton in Africa) volunteer at the Simelela clinic on their free time. Recently MSF and the TAC (Treatment Action Campaign) held a march in Khayelitsha in protest against the levels of violence against women called "Take Back the Night" .... only because the nights are so dangerous and crime-ridden .... the protest march had to be held in the day ....

NOTE: Another organization in the area is called "One in Nine". Only 1 in 9 rapes are reported and only 1 in 9 rapes get a proper trial. Much of the crime is "black on black" happening in the communities in which the women live and committed by men they know. The longer we all ignore these women, where they live and what they endure ... the longer it goes on ...