Earlier this year (just before Indaba) I was discussing the fact that not many South Africans go on township tours but that they should.  The response was interesting.  Some people thought a township tour was a great idea and wanted to go on an educational at once.  Some said many South Africans visited townships, despite my assertion that only foreign visitors were interested in how local people lived.  Some writers wanted me to arrange an educational (if only I could!), and others wanted to be linked up with agencies that could organise educationals. I can only apologise that it has taken me so long to pull all these different threads together, but here finally are all the connections (I hope you are all still interested):

Chris Cromhout of Uniglobe (chris@crigel.co.za) thought the educational was a great idea and asked if any tour operators would be willing to organise one.  If so, he would be keen to go. 

Richard Mullin (Richard@sportstravel.co.za) asserted quite confidently that more than 50% of their clients for township tours were South African and that KDR Travel and Tours are the largest tour operators in Soweto.  I also got two almost identical e-mails, one from a Johan Gerber and one from Albert Gerber, both asking me to link them up with tour companies for a township educational.  I much preferred Johan’s mail because he addressed me as “Esteemed Niki” which puts him at the top of the list.  He can be reached at john@africanexplore.com while Albert, who does not esteem me quite so much (to Albert, I was only a Dear), is second at albert.gerber@gmail.com And then I got a long mail from Dr Hanneke du Preez  (hdupreez@tracesofafrica.co.za), who is the owner and director of Traces of Africa, a company that has been pioneering different types of township tours for the last eight years.  According to Dr du Preez, the company has many unique tours that introduce something more that a typical township tour.  The tours go to Mandela Village, Atteridgeville, Olievenhoutbosch, Soweto, Warmbaths, Polokwane, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Kimberley, Ladysmith, Vereeniging and many others. The short write-up I was given of these tours makes them sound very interesting.  The Soweto tour sounds rather standard:  a visit to the Hector Pieterson Museum, a neighbourhood drive-by (which must not be misinterpreted, it’s just that – a drive-by!), and a Vilakazi Street walk.  But in other areas of the country the tours become much more captivating.  The tour of Mandela Village, at Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, includes a visit to a township housewife in her tin house (the lesson here is the resourcefulness of people who can make a home from the most meagre resources), a message from Father Jaconia in his Anglican church built from scrap metal, a taste of ‘chibuku’ – the beer of Africa – at a spaza shop, and a meal in the Khuwana Tavern which is famous for its Maputo chicken.  The walls of the tavern are painted with vibrant large art-works, which visitors are welcome to buy. A different type of township tour is the one that goes to Olievenhoutbosch township south of Centurion in Gauteng.  This is called the Amazing Graces tour and visitors on this tour will be expected to man a soup kitchen, serving meals to the local children at their school.  The purpose of the tour is to become practically involved with township life in a way that challenges your outlook on South Africa.  The experience includes a tour of the township to see how people live and how their lives are interrelated. Then it’s on to the school, where the visitors provide the food, cook it on site, serve it to the schoolchildren, and share the meal with the locals. The day is rounded off with a variety concert given by the residents. Something even more different is the ‘Home Dinner’ concept, where guests are offered dinner with a local family.  South Africans are renowned for their hospitality, says the write-up, and enjoy socialising with visitors.  So the guest has a choice of dinner with a middle-class suburban family or a township family.  The visitor gets a tour through either neighbourhood, with explanations of the different ways of life and culture.  The meal is taken with the family and it would be exactly what the family would serve at a dinner party for their friends. The idea is to present the different facets of South Africa as they are in real life, not the touristy experience that is choreographed to fit into a travel schedule.  It might be a bit more challenging that the usual township tour but it is most certainly a novel idea. Finally, though, and perhaps a little unfortunately, I also received a few mails before Indaba from tour operators offering intriguing products but when I followed them up for this article I discovered that they had either abandoned township tours or had gone out of business completely.  I really hope that the business collapse had not been because of a lack of interest in their product!