Slumming It by Fabian Frenzel

Author:Fabian Frenzel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zed Books
Published: 2016-03-11T05:00:00+00:00

Figure 6 One of the many backpackers near Soweto’s Vilakazi Street

Tourist disruptive valorization has also worked towards questioning some of the official South African narratives of township development. Official place-making strategies highlight the political heritage and the heritage landscapes thus constructed, as in Vilakazi Street in Soweto. But tourists ask to see the more difficult places, and tour operators respond by making low-quality housing conditions part of their tours. Thus township tours, partly incorporated into public policy and encouraged as avenues of economic advancement, have increasingly highlighted the persisting social problems of the country. What is displayed here, to some extent, is the increasing social diversity of townships as places to live as well as places to visit.

The diversification of township tourism and the respective value practices of tourists in Soweto today is strong. It includes not only foreign tourists in search of political heritage and insights into social problems in contemporary South Africa, but also significant numbers of domestic tourists, friends and family visits, particularly evident in Vilakazi Street. On a Sunday afternoon I chatted with a couple from a wealthy suburb of Johannesburg, black South Africans who visited Soweto regularly on weekends to spend time in a place that they rated for its liveliness.

Another example of new forms of domestic township tourism in Soweto is the Locrate Market, inaugurated by young Sowetans who work as musicians, in textiles and in the food industry. This market has managed to bring white South Africans to Soweto, linking the current rediscovery of a market culture in Johannesburg with the emerging Sowetan creative producers. The Locrate Market is the result of concerted efforts at value practices that add layers of meaning to Soweto. Similar developments have occurred in downtown Johannesburg, where such markets have indicated a rediscovery of formerly disregarded and neglected urban spaces. It is in this context, in inner-city Johannesburg, that the disruptive valorization appears increasingly as place-making.

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