Human Safaris

Posted by Mike Collins on Feb 2, 2011 in Causes | 0 comments

Traveler is a rather innocuous title. My goals are benign; observe and learn about people, immerse myself into the culture, learn the language, eat the food and befriend the locals. This lifestyle is enlightening and rewarding. I reward myself with the title of Global Citizen. There are times when I’m ashamed to be cast into the mold of a common title. There are those that would take the freedom of travel too far. I am not talking about camping out on land that is posted “No Trespassing”, I am talking about genocide. That’s a pretty bold word to use. Genocide is a mammoth word, a colossal word, a word that invokes images of Hitler in 1944, Cambodia in 1975, Rwanda in 1994.

Sadly people are being used as a tourist attraction in what is termed “Human Safaris”. Local tour operators of the Andaman Islands promote tourism to see the Jarawa tribe. There are about 320 Jarawa left who live in bands of 40 to 50. These people have had little outside contact with the world, which makes them susceptible to common disease that often proves fatal. These nomadic people’s hunting and gathering way of life is threatened to the point of extinction.

In January of 2010 the last member of the Bo tribe died. The tribe is thought to have one of the oldest spoken languages. The people of the Andaman Islands have inhabited the region for 60,000 years. If something is not done immediately to stop this travesty another tribe will be lost.

Many other tour companies offer the tours in a “under the table” fashion. You can find more information at Survival International on how to help protect different tribes around the world that are facing extinction. There are several enlightening videos on the site that show how indigenous people are threatened.