Dark tourism is probably one to the least explored aspect of travel. For most of us, it has probably never made it to the top of the list for travel destinations of choice. You will be surprised that dark tourism is a big trend now.
This form of tourism is by no means as exotic, dubious or outlandish as the travel destinations that we constantly Instagram. First, let me demystify the stereotype around this kind of tourism. ‘Dark’ in this sense is meant metaphorically not literally. It can be connoted as “a dark chapter of history” some of which are quite interesting as they touch on aspects of dark history associated with humanity. In this sense then, dark tourism is a form of travel involving a visit to places historically associated with atrocities of death and tragedy.
Most of us are, to some extend, dark tourists (knowingly or unknowingly). Have you ever been to, or thought of visiting, war museums, cemeteries, and memorials? Have you ever wondered what happened in places like Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan and would want to visit to find out? Did you try to seek out the traces of the Berlin Wall when visiting Germany? Or have you ever been curious to see the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero when in New York? Or taken a tour of the famous Murambi, Nyamata and Kigali genocide memorials in Rwanda? Or even the killing fields of Cambodia? Robben Island in South Africa?
If these destinations get your curiosity antennae twinkling, then you are – or potentially could be – a dark tourist. However, you are not alone as millions of travellers across the globe undertake this adventure. Data shows that the 9/11 Memorial receives some 5 million visitors per year, which probably makes it the most visited dark site in the world today. But many dark tourism destinations are little known.
Why you should visit dark sites
While visiting places of death or disaster might sound like a gruesome addition to your travel itinerary, dark tourism can have incredible benefits for you and the affected community. Travel to these sites of inhumanity can be a deeply moving and an emotional experience and although discovering what took place there, might make us uneasy, gaining an understanding of what happened and why, could be very essential.
According to varied research, the main reasons why people visit these sites are; ‘to pay respect to the victims’, a ‘connection to the tragedy’ and interest in certain site attractions. Dark tourism comes in different forms such as a direct connection with death and disaster, like in the case of mausoleums of great communist leaders in Russia whose actual dead bodies are on public display; or can be basically indirect like sites of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes et cetera, which may not have involved actual deaths.
Without a doubt, the fact that you have decided to visit any dark tourism destination is uplifting to the society. It depicts – hopefully, a desire to pay respects to the dead and to learn. At the same time, we demonise the past wrongs, we vow to prevent them from being repeated.
Notably though, dark tourism isn’t for everyone, so, it is important to ensure that you are comfortable with where you are going, and you understand the reason why you’re visiting. Are you visiting for exploration and to enhance your understanding, or just for Instagram and indulging some morbid curiosity?
According to Professor John Lennon’s book Dark Tourism, he implores that dark tourism showcases humanity’s irresistible fascination with death. In an article on The Guardian, Professor Lennon cites that “Our motivations are murky and difficult to unravel: a mix of reverence, voyeurism and maybe even the thrill of coming into close proximity with death.”
Kenyan tales of the dark
Bringing it closer home, dark tourism has lived in Kenya since the precolonial period. At the beautiful Kenyan coast in Kwale County lies the awesome coral caves of Shimoni, pregnant with tales of the dark days of slavery on the East African coast. Located in a sleepy seafront village about 70km south of Mombasa, Shimoni Caves were used as a waiting pen for captured slaves from the hinterland. This historical site is a top tourism destination (thanks to the anti-slavery crusaders who stopped human trafficking 20 decades ago) and opens doors to hundreds of tourists every day. Tour guides here give a synopsis of the bitter tales of their ancestors, vividly detailing how the slave masters stored and packed victims here in dhows before shipping them for sale.
Other dark tourists’ interests are the August 7th 1998 Bomb Blast Memorial park in Nairobi – the site of the former US embassy – where a terrorist bomb attack killed 218 people and injured thousands others, the Sachangwan Tanker accident victims burial site, 2007 Kiambaa church burning site, 2015 Garrissa University attack site that killed 143 people, 1984 Wagalla massacre site in Wajir, President Kenyatta Mausoleum, 2013 Westgate Mall, Nairobi following a terror attack on the mall, and the Nairobi DusitD2 complex on 14 Riverside, Nairobi following a terrorist attack that killed 21, among others.
I write this with utmost respect to the lives that were lost in these places.
