Context Africa: Samathan Reinders pictures the complications of "poverty tourism"

The debate about "poverty tourism" rages on the blogosphere on the pages of the HuffPo, Bill Eastery's blog, and elsewhere. But, as Jina Moore (previous Context Africa feature), who wrote a great, nuanced piece about this for Christian Science Monitor, says,

If it’s that easy to be flip, you’re probably missing something.

Part of my goal in Context Africa is to look at projects that aren't interested in easy answers. There are people out there asking difficult questions, and coming back with stories, photos, and other works that don't provide straight answers. There's a lot of daily news out there that is factually incorrect, slanted, or stereotyped. But, there are also a lot of journalists committed to telling a different kind of story.

Today, I'm happy to highlight the work of Samantha Reinders, who is currently based in Cape Town, South Africa. Her take on Township Tourism shows that nothing is as straightforward as it might seem and even something as divisive as "poverty tourism" can be looked at with nuance.


Here's what she has to say about Township Tourism:

South African townships are historically rich, vibrant suburbs. It is in these townships that you can see the tangible legacy of apartheid as much as the insatiable hope for a brighter future. Touring them is important for visitors to begin to understand the complexities of modern day South Africa.

As a phenomenon it is as interesting as it is controversial. These images serve to create awareness of both the positive and negative aspects of township tourism – as a way to contribute to the very small pool of research done into the socio-cultural impacts of the trend.

My personal views on township tourism have changed considerably since I started the project in 2004.

I have seen the industry at large, as well as the actual tours, change for the better since the beginning of my study. Both the practice of touring the townships (solely looking through the window of a tour bus) as well as the perception that these tours are exclusively voyeuristic tours of poverty has changed slightly. Through encouraging media reportage, as well as positive word of mouth experiences, awareness of the positive aspects of township tourism has slowly been created. Tourists are treading more lightly in the neighborhoods they are visiting.

While many people take pictures during the Township Tours, most people don’t take pictures of the tourists themselves. How did people react to your presence and project on the tours?

People were initially surprised by my presence. Just after the tour guide introduced himself I also introduced myself and explained what I was doing. Everyone I came across was interested in the project, most asked many questions, and I think that my presence on the tours made the tourists really consider the impact of their visit. Most tourists came loaded with hundreds of questions about South Africa’s past and present, and I became quite involved in the tours in that I was another person who they could direct their questions at. In almost all of the cases the tour guides were black South Africans, living in the townships we were visiting. I’m white and live in the city…so I think it was interesting for the tourists to get both perspectives.


What made you decide to focus on this particular activity for a photo story? How does this differ from more straightforward travel photography?

Township Tourism, especially when it just became popular in the mid 90s, got really bad press in South Africa. And admittedly I was swept up in that. I thought the concept was horrible. A Brazilian friend in town was determined to do one of these tours and I went along with him and had a surprisingly good experience. So I decided to do a story on it and investigate the industry in a little more depth. As time went on I changed my mind about Township Tourism. Whilst there are definitely negative impacts on the communities involved when tours are run badly and mismanaged, I saw the positive impacts out way these in many cases. I left the project with a more 50/50 view of the industry.

It differs from normal travel photography in that is trying to tell an important story, trying to explain to the viewers the impact of this type of tourism, and show potential tourists how they can improve their experience on a township tourism for the community members of the townships they are touring. I’m hoping it will have a direct impact on the conduct of both tourists and tour guides.



What kind of reactions have you gotten to the photos?

Generally people are intrigued by the story. When I show editors it always leads to interesting discussions. No one has picked up the story to publish though ☹

Do you think photography has a role to play in post-Apartheid South Africa?

Absolutely. I really feel that photography has a massive historical importance. As South Africa moves away from the Apartheid regime I think it is integral for its unique story to be captured for prosperity. Much of South Africa’s past has been documented thoroughly through photography (the work of Kevin Carter, Ken Oosterbrook, Jurgen Schardeburg, Greg Marinovich, David Goldblatt and many others) – and its legacy is evident in many museums and books. So I hope that through this people can realize its importance in the historical sense.


See previous Context Africa posts:

• Paul Sika's technicolor dreamscape
  
• Andrew Rice on memory, murder and Idi Amin
  
• Tim Hetherington on the culmination of ten years of taking pictures in Liberia
• Rob Crilly on how to write about a place as contentious as Darfur
• Nicholai Lidow on post-conflict surfing
• Jina Moore's Q and A about forgiveness in Rwanda