Welcome to the Cyberbaraza - the digital pinboard of the Leipzig Institute of African Studies! Following the desire for new ways of exchange, the Cyberbaraza offers a space to share experiences, creativity and work of our students. Here are some of the projects realised by students in the BA and MA programmes. Have fun reading!
The search for 'real locals' on Tripadvisor
by Nikolai Krewenka
The search for „real locals“ or „real local experience“ in the frame of slum tourism unmasks the tourist's prejudicial and stigmatizing perception of southern countries as poor, wild, and backward. It reveals a way of thinking which believes that living in poverty is the only „real thing“ or „real life“ in these parts of the world and thus inherently links poverty to the global south’s authenticity. In this consequence, the facades of modern apartment towers of Mumbai, Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro dominating the sky only a few hundred meters away must be „unreal“ or artificial and hence can neither belong to nor represent the global south. By displaying these experiences via Tripadvisor these tourists of the global north, manifest this perspective by giving recommendations on how to best consume poverty, making the platform an active medium for the multiplication of this specific view on the world.
inspired by: ‘Urban Africa’ Seminar (SoSe 2021), African Studies M.A., Instructors: Dr. Irene Brunotti & Ph.D. Lara Krause
References:
Iqani, M. (2016), “Slum tourism and the consumption of poverty in tripadvisor reviews: The cases of Langa, Dharavi and Santa Marta”, in: Iqani, M. Consumption, media and the global south. Aspiration Contested. Palgrave Macmillan, London: 51-86.
