newelty

When you land at Cape Town’s International Airport, you must travel for miles along a highway where people live in the most despicable of conditions. It doesn’t take a social scientist to realize that tin shacks and no plumbing equal violence and disease. Women and children line the highway watching the cars zoom by. It’s beyond depressing.

As you get closer to the city center, you’ll notice that newer-looking ranch styled homes border the highway. But if you crane your neck you can see that the townships are positioned right up against the new homes. It appears as if someone is trying to hide the townships with these newer houses.

When I was there, I learned that city officials were doing this as a way to mask the “problem” in order to prepare the city for the international stage during the World Cup. To give a sense of scale, these townships hold a million people. Good luck with that strategy.

Before I visited, I had read about tourists going to the townships via organized groups. At first I dismissed the idea because it felt incredibly offensive. What on earth could taking a tour to gawk at these poor people accomplish?

I grappled with the notion during my first few days and spoke to tourists, as well as locals. Unanimously, and without reservation, people were in favor of these organized trips, as long as you picked a savvy and ethical operator who gave back to the community. They felt like it was important for outsiders to see the living conditions, and to support the community of the people who opened their homes during the tours.

After some deliberation, and with serious skepticism, I decided to go.

The first stop on my tour’s itinerary was in Cape Town at the District Six Museum. The museum is housed in an old church in the District Six area of the city. This was once a thriving neighborhood, and during the height of apartheid was bulldozed by the government. 60,000 inhabitants were displaced and forced to relocate to the townships miles outside of town. The museum tells the horrific story through photography and audio timelines, as well as guided tours.

We then headed to the township of Langa. Some of these townships lie nearly 70 miles outside of the city, so anyone living in these areas who work in town are forced to spend a large amount of their small wages just on the commute. How can they ever rise themselves out of poverty given these circumstances?

Langa was powerful. It was extremely poor, but all my reservations were lifted the moment I arrived. The people seemed genuinely glad to see us, and we spent the entire day learning about their lives and how they felt about the South African government. We also visited a women’s arts and cultural center where you could buy their beautiful rugs or wood cut paintings.

All in all, it was a rewarding and certainly eye-opening experience. But more than once the residents told us, “It’s great you’re here. But we wish the rich white South Africans would visit more.”

Out of sight, out of mind, right? I don’t see how their situation can be ignored, and I’m curious, since the World Cup is just a few weeks away, what the South African government has done to come up with a real strategy to help these communities.