The "real" Africa
I’ve had a ball during my time in South Africa, and have learned a great deal, both within my discipline at my conference and personally as I have travelled. One thing has persistently bugged me, however: the tendency of tourists (and some white South Africans) to object that much of this country is not the “real” Africa. By this, they mean that much of the country’s culture has been profoundly shaped by the Dutch and English colonization, diminishing the visibility of anything indigenous.
This is, of course, quite true, and I would join anyone in lamenting the ruinous effects of the colonial period, and supporting the efforts of the current South African government to respect the diversity of cultures and languages. However, it bugs me when tourists talk about the “real” Africa, for at least two reasons. First, Africa is a huge entity, with a bewildering number of cultural groups. It thus seems much more problematic to talk about knowing the “real” Africa than it would be to talk about knowing the “real” Japan. Even the countries within Africa are made up of a diverse set of cultures, and do not at all approach the ideal of a nation-state, if indeed any state ever does.Second, I feel like tourists should strive to not just see the traditional elements of a culture but to experience a bit of the everyday life of the region one is visiting, however hybridized or Westernized a culture it is. One learns a lot more about what it’s like to live in Paris in the 21st century by taking a ride in the Metro and seeing a free movie at the Parc de Villette than one does walking around Notre Dame. Similarly, some of the fascinating things I’ve seen in my brief visit here were not postcard-perfect moments of tribal Xhosa life, but were vistas in to the current mix in which that life continues: the young Xhosa men doing initiation rituals literally on the side of a major highway, in a narrow strip of brush, the remnant of the buffer strips between neighbourhoods the apartheid government created; the brightly-painted cargo containers used in the townships as local telephone/internet hubs, of for the (amazing numerous) hair salons. I suppose I am making a plea for viewing the current way of life in a country as just as “real” as the historical reality.
