So You Think You Should Dance?

O.R. Tambo International Airport on the outskirts of Johannesburg is the main gateway into South Africa for those of us boring enough to arrive in South Africa by air. Carrying more than 17 million passengers per year it is also the busiest airport in Africa. Even with the burden of hundreds of thousands extra passengers during the 2010 FIFA World Cup O.R. Tambo International coped without any major hitches. That was no big suprise, after all why would handling a mere 800 planes per day bother you when your systems can handle up to 28 million passengers per year without breaking a sweat?

In Short, O.R. Tambo International Airport has a lot it can boast about. By extension South Africa has a lot it can boast about. World class infrastructure, world class stadia, Nobel Laureates, world class universities, beautiful landscape and a wide and diverse culture.

So why was the first thing that international passengers saw after the cleared immigration and customs at this, Africa’s most modern airport remember, a bunch of scantily clad dancers doing a Zulu dance?

Video by Daudi Were

In his infamous satirical essay, “How to Write About Africa” Binyavanga Wainaina reminds us to

Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.

So there! Zulu and Maasai dance are only allowed as a last resort! And even then only in satire! In Kenya there is a growing cultural revolt against having “jumping Maasai in red shukas” as the only advertised symbol of Kenya culture. There has to be more to show than this, we cry. In a similar way how can these dancers been selected as the most promiment ambassadors of South Africa culture? You never get a second chance to make a first impression the saying goes. Are these dancers the first impression South Africa wants to give about its culture?

But perhaps it is because South Africa has been so successful in many other areas (technology, construction, logistics, tourism, marketing and university education for example) that the display of half naked dancers at the airport reflects a country comfortable enough in its skin to dance in animal skins rather than one afraid to celebrate any other aspect of its culture? After all even the president put on some skins and does some dancing occasionally! Why shouldn’t South Africa highlight this aspect of its culture prominently if it wants to?

Having said that it was difficult to spend a day during the World Cup without bumping into yet another group of semi clad dancers, especially on match days.

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I am taking part in the “Blogging the 2010 FIFA World Cup” project. Highway Africa in partnership with Global Voices and supported by MTN will provide coverage of the 2010 World Cup from a citizen media perspective through the use of on-the-ground reporting and the aggregation and amplification of online conversations across the continent, with a special emphasis on development issues. The content will be published on our own blogs and on the Reporting Development News Africa blog. Check out the other bloggers taking part in this project Eduardo Avila and Rebecca Wanjiku.
Cross posted at http://reportingdna.org/blogs/blog/2010/07/21/so-you-think-you-should-dance/