What happens when a trio of young, black, and tjatjarag photographers flip the script and go around Cape Town’’s Camps Bay taking pictures and videos of inhabitants of the affluent suburb?
Photographer Andiswa Mkosi from Langa, in Cape Town said she saw tourists do it around hers and other townships daily — which is when she and her friends Onele Liwani and Sabelo Mkhabela decided to reverse the roles for an “alternative” suburb tour.
What came out was an awkward and moody video that they said was meant to prove how “intrusive” township tours are.
The SA Institute for Race Relations has called the experiment “a positive conversation starter“.
In the 2 minutes and 38 seconds long video, tourists are seen snapping away at the surroundings.
Later, back in Camps Bay, they meet an old white man walking his dogs, which barks at them incessantly at them.
The unnamed man is heard talking over the barks, saying: “It’’s okay, they’’re fine. They won’’t bite, okay? They’’re just... because they don’’t recognise you, you’’re strangers and you’’re walking around here, that’’s why. That’’s it, nothing personal, okay? “
They also take pictures of people, asking, “do I annoy you?“
And they are nearly involved in a scuffle with a restaurant guard, who is identified as Desmond by a patron who accuses them of “harrassing” them, and asks Desmond to “please get these people away here“. Desmond subsequently orders them to delete the footage or he would “seize it“.
Makosi told The Times yesterday that the reactions of the subjects in the video, which had been watched almost 27,000 times by last night were not surprising to her.
She said the experiment was a once-off, and Camps Bay was just an example.
“People in the townships are conditioned — they don’’t see anything wrong with it,” she said.
“Some people who responded to the video said township tours brought employment for tour guides, but townships were created during apartheid, so it’’s like the same people are benefitting from it because the tourism sector is predominantly white.”
There was a “great disconnect” between the people from the townships, tour guides and the tourism sector, according to Mkosi.
Mkhabela said the experiment proved how disrespectful townships tours were — “getting into people’’s spaces and invading them, sort of like you’’re in a zoo“.
The SAIRR spokesman Meinke Steytler, said “We encourage discourse of any kind, especially when it is directed at bringing South Africans closer to reconciliation.”
But she also added that people “must also remember that tourists take photos of everything and everyone, no matter where they are — be it Barcelona, Washington DC, Cambodia, or Khayelitsha“.
Tour operator Siviwe Mbinda from Langa, who owns Siviwe Tours, dismissed the experiment.
He said yesterday: “We’’ve seen the video, but the example these girls used was wrong. It’’s not how it’’s done — rule number one to our tourists is you don’’t take pictures of people without asking their permission.
“What they did was shove cameras in people’’s faces at restaurants. No tourist would do that“
He said people in townships have never been afraid to express their disapproval, and would do so if they felt violated. He said they wouldn’’t
VIDEO: So see how you like it!
Photographer Andiswa Mkosi from Langa, in Cape Town said she saw tourists do it around hers and other townships daily — which is when she and her friends Onele Liwani and Sabelo Mkhabela decided to reverse the roles for an “alternative” suburb tour.
What came out was an awkward and moody video that they said was meant to prove how “intrusive” township tours are.
The SA Institute for Race Relations has called the experiment “a positive conversation starter“.
In the 2 minutes and 38 seconds long video, tourists are seen snapping away at the surroundings.
Later, back in Camps Bay, they meet an old white man walking his dogs, which barks at them incessantly at them.
The unnamed man is heard talking over the barks, saying: “It’’s okay, they’’re fine. They won’’t bite, okay? They’’re just... because they don’’t recognise you, you’’re strangers and you’’re walking around here, that’’s why. That’’s it, nothing personal, okay? “
They also take pictures of people, asking, “do I annoy you?“
And they are nearly involved in a scuffle with a restaurant guard, who is identified as Desmond by a patron who accuses them of “harrassing” them, and asks Desmond to “please get these people away here“. Desmond subsequently orders them to delete the footage or he would “seize it“.
Makosi told The Times yesterday that the reactions of the subjects in the video, which had been watched almost 27,000 times by last night were not surprising to her.
She said the experiment was a once-off, and Camps Bay was just an example.
“People in the townships are conditioned — they don’’t see anything wrong with it,” she said.
“Some people who responded to the video said township tours brought employment for tour guides, but townships were created during apartheid, so it’’s like the same people are benefitting from it because the tourism sector is predominantly white.”
There was a “great disconnect” between the people from the townships, tour guides and the tourism sector, according to Mkosi.
Mkhabela said the experiment proved how disrespectful townships tours were — “getting into people’’s spaces and invading them, sort of like you’’re in a zoo“.
The SAIRR spokesman Meinke Steytler, said “We encourage discourse of any kind, especially when it is directed at bringing South Africans closer to reconciliation.”
But she also added that people “must also remember that tourists take photos of everything and everyone, no matter where they are — be it Barcelona, Washington DC, Cambodia, or Khayelitsha“.
Tour operator Siviwe Mbinda from Langa, who owns Siviwe Tours, dismissed the experiment.
He said yesterday: “We’’ve seen the video, but the example these girls used was wrong. It’’s not how it’’s done — rule number one to our tourists is you don’’t take pictures of people without asking their permission.
“What they did was shove cameras in people’’s faces at restaurants. No tourist would do that“
He said people in townships have never been afraid to express their disapproval, and would do so if they felt violated. He said they wouldn’’t
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