But where are all the people?

When I was young, my dad used to tell me a nursery rhyme that involved the interlocking of fingers and hands in a particular way to show “here’s the church, here’s the steeple, look inside, and there are all the people”. Then, after a quick change in grip, the fingers “vanished” and it became “here’s the church, here’s the steeple, look inside, but where are all the people?”.

It took me a few years to figure out how he did it.

So, where are all the people?

I’m talking about the long row of photographs in the new Cape Town International Airport arrivals hall that welcome visitors to our city. They help to convey first impressions. Disappointingly, they convey a city virtually devoid of people.

Cities are about the people who live in them, who visit them, who work, play and die in them. Cities are about the memories of people, and the spaces and buildings they have used. They are about people’s cultures and identities, their activities, languages, institutions, rituals, paths and places of meeting.

Don’t get me wrong. The photographs contain some beautiful images of Cape Town and surrounds. The trouble is, they anaesthetise the city, ridding it of its most vital element – its people. And because of this, they are pretty clichéd and boring.

It’s exactly the same with the article on Cape Town in the bumper World Cup edition of Sawubona, SAA’s in-flight magazine. “Cape Town Natural Wonder” is the title, so you can guess what comes next: “Table Mountain, at the heart of Cape Town, is an icon of natural beauty recognisable across the globe. Yes, the city is magical, but it is her natural assets that are the real attraction.”

Really? Why are we so hesitant to show off our people and our urban culture? Where is the portrayal of life in our townships and inner cities? Where are the sounds of our cities: kwaito, hip hop, zef rap, reggae, goema and Cape jazz?

Where are the scenes of taxi ranks and train stations, the informal markets and shopping centres, the shebeens and spaza shops – the everyday experiences of Capetonians? Where are the people of Salt River and Site C, Bishop Lavis and Bishopscourt, Kalk Bay and Kalksteenfontein?

Why not use the cityscapes of artists such as Jackson Nkumando, among others, to tell our story? What about showing off our designers and inventors, our creative industries?

Cape Town is not just mountains, beaches, whales and winelands. It’s a living, breathing organism of people, with their hopes, fears, aspirations, beliefs, memories, languages and rhythms.

It’s a place of celebration and survival, prejudice and inspiration, hope and despair, humour and pathos – in other words, a fairly typical city.

Take the people away and there’s only an empty shell – pretty perhaps, but meaningless.

And believe it or not, that’s not what most visitors want to experience.

 Judge for yourself:

A classic medium-range image of Cape Town

Cape Point - from a distance

A person - abstracted out of the city

Greece or Clifton 4th beach?

One of the few images with real people, but the city is still far away

Adventure sports - the city as a wilderness

Bo Kaap, with, seemingly, the only black person in Cape Town

Chapman's Peak Drive with a solitary cyclist

St James - where are the bathers?

The Waterfront - pristine and picturesque

The Twelve Apostles again

The only image of a township - again, no people

The obligatory Cape Dutch homestead in the winelands

The only real 'urban' image - again, from a distance, with no people

Now, contrast these with some images of people in Cape Town that I chose randomly in five minutes:

Cape Town Carnival, Long Street (picture Shaen Adey)

Cape Town Festival, Company's Gardens (picture Shaen Adey)

Global Day of Prayer, Cape Town Stadium

Education protest march, Grand Parade (picture Shaen Adey)

Infecting the City, Thibault Square

Soccer fans (picture courtesy Cape Town Tourism)

Soccer fans (picture courtesy Cape Town Tourism)

Soccer fan (picture courtesy Cape Town Tourism)

Cape Town Carnival, Greenmarket Square (picture Shaen Adey)

When this post was reprinted in the Cape Argus, it received the following anonymous comment:

“Imagine if we did submit all the pictures of people living in townships. Would that encourage tourists to come and visit? Yes I agree this is how we live, we think it is normal because we have allowed ourselves to be OK with a shooting or a robbery. We are Ok with having our people living in shacks. When people come from overseas they are not used to the inhuman way we live and it strikes fear in them. They watch the news and all they see is shacks, tyres burning and people dancing. This is our world and I’m not really proud to be a part of a nation that is OK with the way we live. We should raise our expectations and force government to take heed. I think it is good to show the best of our country, why not? Maybe I’m wrong but then again I’m anonymous.”

My reply: Showing the reality of people from all walks of life does not mean we are ‘OK’ with people living in shacks, or in poverty, as ‘Anonymous’ seems to imply. My point is that it is only by focusing on people will we begin to address our city’s challenges, warts and all. It’s when we depict our city simply as a tourist-friendly natural wonderland, without people, we run the risk of avoiding reality.