Oleh : Nancy Parode
Human Safaris in The News
Human Safaris in The News
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| pic : indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com |
In March 2012, Marco Werman, host of Public Radio
International's "The World," interviewed Sophie Grig of Survival
International. They discussed human safaris. Werman asked Grig about recent news stories
concerning the Jarawa, indigenous inhabitants of India's Andaman Islands who
have only had contact with outsiders for about a dozen years. Grig described
the Jarawa as "a hunter-gatherer tribe," one that is threatened by
"pressure from outsiders" and "exploitation," including
"human safaris," tour groups that travel through the Jarawas' rain
forest homeland – a protected reserve – in hopes of seeing the Jarawa. Grig
compared the tours to "viewing animals in a zoo" and mentioned that
tourists throw cookies and candy at the Jarawa to convince them to come out
into the open. In some cases, tour operators have apparently bribed police
officers to allow them to bring tourists to places where they can photograph or
film the Jarawa. In one instance, a group of police officers herded a group of
Jarawa into a particular area so that a tour group could see and photograph them.
Two months earlier, in January 2012, three tour operators
offering tours to Bonda tribal villages in the Indian state of Orissa (Odisha)
were charged with violating laws prohibiting use of
"objectionable" material to promote tours. All three companies
offered tours to Bonda villages. Although many tour operators have removed
their tribal tours information from their websites, a recent search by this
writer revealed that Tribal India Tours offers tours that allow vacationers
to "visit approximately 6000 members of the fierce Bondas (naked people).
They live in the remote hills and keep themselves isolated." Until late
March 2012, Orissa Tourism promoted an Odisha (Orissa) Tribal Tour on its
website that offered a "photo session" with "Bondos [sic]"
and "Didayis." Sonata
Travels offers "Tribal Tour Orissa," featuring a visit to a
Muria Gond tribal village. The tour description includes information about
tribal dress: "The dress of Maria [sic] women consists of a white skirt
with the upper portion of the body being left bare; and the men wear loin
cloths and turbans which are often adorned with long strings of beads wound
several times around combs," which leads one to wonder why most guidebooks
to New York City and Berlin fail to mention details of native dress.
While tour operators like these clearly demean native tribes
by trotting out individuals for photo opportunities and using titillating words
to entice vacationers to book an Orissa trip, there is a larger issue that
should be considered, namely, whether "human safaris" and
"poverty" or "slum" tourism offer any benefits at all.
What Is a "Human Safari"?
In its broadest sense, a "human safari" is an
organized tour that takes visitors to a place where they can observe
"locals" or "natives" in their indigenous settings. There
can be a fine line between cultural tourism and human safaris. True cultural
tourism offers an opportunity for interaction, perhaps alongside shopping
opportunities, foodways demonstrations or craft lessons. Human safaris focus on
the opportunity to see, photograph and video local people in an exploitative
manner; for example, a tour that takes vacationers to a tribal village,
encourages vacationers to bribe locals with food or money to perform a dance
and permits the vacationers to film the entire experience would definitely fall
into the "human safari" category.
On a smaller scale, one might classify certain church tours or
individual visits to gospel churches in Harlem, New York, as
human safaris, particularly if participants visit a Sunday worship service
solely to listen to the choir for a short while, take photographs and leave
rather than to participate in the entire church service.
Ethics of Human Safaris
There are few, if any, reasons to recommend a human safari
to anyone. Human safari operators exploit people who may wish either to
continue their traditional way of life or to avoid contact with other cultures,
often for a profit. Human safari operators sometimes blatantly disregard local
laws designed to protect indigenous
peoples from exposure to disease, unwanted outside influences and
exploitation. Local residents lose the opportunity to determine for themselves
how much contact they wish to have with tourists and other visitors when human
safari operators bring busloads of people onto their tribal lands.
