If I had traveled on my own, I would probably never go to see the Himba populations, this so as not to incur and not contribute to the mass tourism dynamics they see on the one hand Western white tourists with their cameras and other populations Tribals on the other.
The visit of the Himba people has now become an almost compulsory stage for those who are about to visit this country.
And as almost always happens, these mass phenomena create ad hoc packed phenomena for tourists, and so it seems that many Himalayan villages are not authentic but are inhabited exclusively for the use and consumption of tourists, many of whom are not interested in understanding at least in Survives a population but only taking a photo of it maybe near the tribe leader or a child.
When I traveled to Peru a year ago with a group of people we had included in our itinerary visit to the populations living on the stilts on Lake Titicaca, I was very happy to visit these populations living on one of the highest lakes in the world. A geographer with DNA in the gene of discovery, but from the very first moment we were approaching I felt a strange feeling, there was little to find out that the village we visited was not actually inhabited by those people, But the latter knowing the time when tourists came and found themselves there and prepared a sort of “theater”. For me, it was a huge disappointment because I would have liked to see and know those who really lived in those huts in the middle of the water and not in the nearby little town! But I also had a crisis of consciousness because I myself went there to contribute to this mercification of culture. This is one of the many negative aspects that mass tourism is creating and I did not want it at that time.
I just wanted to see them from afar, or not to see them at all if the latter did not want to be annoyed, rather than attending that staging.
In this world where everything has been discovered and is becoming more and more globalized, where ancient tribes are disappearing, where millennial customs and habits are leaving room for progress based on the Western model, it is increasingly difficult to find and enjoy that cultural diversity. It is for these reasons that many unpleasant dynamics of mass tourism have been triggered. Those in which people from some ethnicities are forced to live in certain places, which become like human zoos. An example of the women’s village of giraffes in Thailand where women are forced to live in fake villages because tourists with the sole purpose of taking pictures to see friends and relatives pay an entry ticket as they were entering a zoo Ready to photograph those women and girls. But what is the most serious aspect of all this? It is often that the naive tourist does not even know how to contribute to this merchandising of people, he does not know what lies behind, he is not fully aware. But this is not just for people but for animals as well, often the unconscious tourist finds out only after an elephant stroll is hiding terrible stories of animal exploitation and maltreatment.
In the case of Himba, the agency and the local operator with whom I worked from the beginning have reassured me as a tour leader and other participants that the experience we were about to do was authentic, real, the people we were about to meet They lived every day of their lives there irrespective of whether tourists would arrive that day or not. In addition, the village would not have been paid in money but in good need, and this for me was an important appetite.
The encounter with Himba for me was important because it gave me the opportunity to know one of the last peoples who still lives so we called “primitive”, it was like having a field anthropology lesson!
The Himba tribe, like all peoples in the world who come into contact with the surrounding world, is about to disappear or at least change some aspects of it.
Perhaps it is fair and normal that it is so, but it is up to them whether they want to align themselves with others or not, because for them it is the way to live their lives, it may seem absurd to us, but that is the reality they They know. Their life is a tough life, made up of so many sacrifices, but that is the life and context they know and do not ask so many questions as we are accustomed to doing on our lives.
The Namibian government is pushing the population of the Himba into schooling, but as far as this can be seen as a positive aspect, because everyone should have equal rights, it is not seen by the elders of the villages, because this would lead to the removal of young people from their origins And traditions because when they start to know another reality, very different from theirs, their previous life probably will seem too narrow. There are also logistical problems, because hellows are usually not dressed and covered with ocher and it would be impossible to think of attending a school with other people in this way. I do not know what is right or wrong, I understand that things are not white or black, especially when dealing with such delicate and complex topics. Only the future will give us these answers.
If meeting with tourists can serve to preserve its features or to enhance those peculiarities, it is not so bad, but at the same time I find that tourists must be more educated and more aware of what they are doing, because many of them Unfortunately they have the only interest in taking a photo next to a child and maybe they would not even notice the difference of an authentic context from one who is not.
I think that ethical issues are many difficult and complex, that the traveler and the tourist of today must pay attention to many aspects and dynamics that many years ago did not exist.
But I learned that reality is not always white or black, that there are many nuances, so it’s often very difficult to define what is right or wrong.
What I feel is advisable, without any doubt, to rely on local agencies and tour operators, to search for information online through forums or online news articles to decide more about what type of tourist or traveler you want to be.
Because if the consumer has a very important role to change the world of food, at the same time the tourist has the same power to change the world of tourism!