Dark Tourism : The Grotesque tales of old kept alive
Dark Tourism : Halloween has just been celebrated world over and as much as it has evolved to be a fun holiday that was never the case in the medieval times. It was a time when a people known as celts remembered the dead and believed that the worlds between the living and the dead where blurred so they wore costumes comprising animal skulls and skins and built bonfires to ward off ghosts and also tell their fortunes of the coming year.
The practices and the fears of those times have been long forgotten by many which is no surprise as many other gruesome events in history have suffered the same fate. However, there are quite a number of such events in history that have been preserved and retold to generations through Dark Tourism.
Dark tourism is the act of visiting places associated with death and tragedy but John Lenon and Malcom Foley, 2000 in their book Dark tourism: the attraction of death and disaster define it as the representation of inhuman acts and how these are interpreted by visitors. This kind of tourism is unique, and every one associates with it differently. Some people have immersed themselves into such experience to get in touch with their emotional being, some for a thrilling experience, some for research, some for curiosity, some for religious purposes and some others its entirely for fun which would sound strange but dark tourism has various spectrums that allow anyone to engage and enjoy it the way they would want to while on Uganda Safaris.
One spectrum is for an authentic learning experience where a tourist is much interested in the educational aspect on the history of the tourist destination and will mostly engage in the type of dark tourism that will offer a depth of historical knowledge about the site and its historical events. Such types would include disaster tourism – the act of visiting places that have been subjected to man-made or natural environmental disasters. Some of the popular disaster tourism sites are Hiroshima in Japan where the first nuclear attack took place in 1945, Ghost town of Prypiat which is record as the worst Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 and its effects are still present to this day as some toxic radiations still permeate the air, genocide memorial sites in Rwanda which tell of the Rwanda genocide and not forgetting Auschwitz in Krakow, Poland which held the largest and most deadly Nazi concentration camp. Another type would be dark exhibitions or holocaust exhibitions. Popular sites include the Salem Witch Museum in Salem Massachusetts where they exhibit witch trial rooms and witches hanging on a noose, the Paris Catacombs which are miles long tunnels of skeletons which are beneath the capital city of France, the Sedlec Ossuary also known as the Bone Church in Czech Republic that show cases a church decorated with about 40,000 to 70,000 human skeletons and the Island of Dolls in Mexico which exhibits a collection of dolls hang all around the Island by a man who lived in the island by himself. The doll collection surely does look like the relatives of Chuck and Annabel.
On the other spectrum we have dark tourism for religious engagement and the most popular destination for this is in Jerusalem where many Christians visit to have an experience commonly referred to as Journey Through the Bible where they visit all historical sites in the Bible.
The other side of dark tourism is expressed in a commercial nature and meant to be a fun experience. Here we have the dark fun factories that involve play centres that evolve around a dark theme. Most common are scare rooms which are popular during Halloween, escape rooms, a Lady-Antebellum party which are celebrations of the Antebellum-era south and of the Confederacy but today considered parties that glorify the times of slavery of black people, theatrical productions like Romeo and Juliet that show case a tragic love story and Jack the Ripper themed parties where guest attend wearing face masks or coverings to create a sense of mystery which mimics the events in history of unsolved series of murder in Whitechapel in 1888.
Dark tourism is growing popularity which I would credit to the media particularly shows that are creating awareness of these sites/locations of historical dark events and mysteries. We have The Dark Tourist TV series which are documentaries to various dark tourism sites in the world, Chernobyl a movie showing the events of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and interesting after it release in 2019, there was a 30% increase in tourist to the Ukrainian site, Pompeii which also delivered an increase of tourist to the archaeological site in Italy after its release in 2014.
The Westerner countries have embraced and developed the concept of dark tourism however in Africa, dark tourism is still a growing concept that has not been popularized yet. But here are 8 dark tourism sites you ought to look out for while in Africa.
- The Adkodessawa Fetish Market in Togo
This is considered the world’s largest public voodoo market where travelers can visit to purchase charms and consult traditional healers and fortune tellers.
The first thing that will catch your attention will be the water that is blood red in color but the lake is also known for killing animals that plunge into it by turning them into stone statues.
- Robben Island in Cape Town, South Africa
This is a world heritage site that is famous for being a prison for political activists and a prison for Nelson Mandela for about 18 years.
- Goma in Democratic Republic of Congo
With the recent volcanic eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in May 2021, Goma is other dark site that reveals the gross effective and remains of a volcanic eruption.
- The House of Slaves in Ghana
This is said to be the place that African captured slaves where held before they were boarded on to ships. It show cases the sickening rooms captives were held in for days and the adverse conditions they lived under.
- The Luwero Triangle in Uganda
Here many lost their lives during the conflict between the Obote regime and the NRA rebels to the scored earth policy that was employed by the ruling government soldiers who were in such of the rebels. On site, the skulls are collected and assembled along the road for commemoration.
- Fort Jesus in Kenya
Fort Jesus is a formidable structure the displays the military architectural design which also housed captive slaves during the East African slave trade era.
- Red terror Memorial Museum in Ethiopia
Located in Addis Ababa, the Red terror Martyrs’ Memorial museum which is only about a decade old exhibits the skulls, bones, bloody clothes, torture instruments and photographs of victims who died during the Red Terror under the Derg government.
Do not be afraid to engage in dark tourism. It is a rewarding, thrilling and educational experience.
Nothing in life is to be feared, its only to be understood. Now is the time t understand more and fear less.
