Slum tourism is getting momentum in Africa
Recently people are interested to visit slums and areas where poor people dwell. The practice is getting popularity in Africa, where the organizers of such visits name it as ‘slum tourism’ or ‘poverty tourism’.
However, most of the residents are against this practice as it is affecting their dignity. Some have already protested and said they feel like wildlife.
Kibera Slum, Kenya
Slum tourism actually dates back more than 150 years, when the upper Victorian class travelled from London to the east of the city to see how the lower class lived. It is said that slum tourism in Africa began in the early 1990s in South Africa.
Slum tourism is getting popularity in Kenya recently. Several local organizations offer guided tours through Kibera in Nairobi, the largest slum in Africa.
Some local organizers are even advertising in their website to lure people to visit slums and experience how the poor people live in tiny rooms in dirty surroundings.
“This is something that mainly residents protest and they say that they feel like wildlife. I spoke to one of the residents who was angry saying that this should not be happening”, said Kenyan journalist Osman Mohamed Osman.
Those who are against slum tourism says that unlike tours in South African townships, which help to tell the story of the struggle against apartheid, Kibera’s only attraction is its open sewer poverty – with residents on parade like animals in a zoo.
Photo Courtesy: Al Jazeera
However, the advocates of slum tourism claims that, it could provide employment opportunity to the locals, who can work as tourist guides or sell indigenous products to tourists, like artefacts, handicrafts etc., as souvenirs.
According to Felix Oriang, Founder of Kibera Tours, it was the foreigners showing huge interest in slums that turned it into a living for him. “They used to just show up at Kibera not knowing whom to contact,” said Oriang.
“The tours are for informing people that there is more to Kibera than just the brown iron sheets you see while passing on a chartered plane from Wilson airport or while driving along Langata Road,” he added.
