https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9791-9843
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ABSTRACT
In 2019 British Channel 4 reality TV programme The British Tribe Next Door putatively compares contemporary life in Britain to a small, sustainable indigenous Himba community of Otjeme in the Kaoko region of Namibia. An actual British terraced house was built and provided with all the modern furnishings. British Reality TV celebrity Scarlett Moffatt and her family would live in the house. The idea was to have a “reverse anthropological exchange” between the Moffatts and the “nomadic” Himba. Critics of the programme called it “racist and exploitative” and “the most immoral show of all time.” Others in the British viewing public praised it for revealing the simplicity of the Himba way of life. But the programme fails to comprehend that “the Himba” is really an artificial construct created by the South Africa apartheid regime for its own racist ideas and then reenforced by advertising, the tourist industry in Namibia, and international media. This essay examines the evolution of that construct and its impact on the Himba. The British Tribe Next Door does reveal the persistence of problematic and condescending colonial tropes as well as the deception of Reality TV. While playing their tourist role, the Himba will pursue their own agendas in the Kaoko, Namibia, and the World.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 For a sociological study of Reality TV and its pervasiveness in modern popular culture see (Lindermann Citation2021). Two studies that confront the nature of Reality TV and shifting definitions of truth see Tisdale (Citation2021) and Pozner (Citation2010).
2 Edwards (Citation2019). Episodes of The British Tribe Next Door as well as shorter clips and trailers can be found at www.youtube.com. Accessed 10/26/2022. Episodes also available at Channel 4 https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-british-tribe-next-door. Accessed 10/26/2022.
3 Scarlett Moffatt, IMDb https://www.imbd.com/name/nm6118098/. Accessed 10/29/2022.
4 Curtis Brown, “Agency Biography”, https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client-stacey-dooley. Accessed 10/13/2022.
5 Mohammad Awai, “‘Dehumanizing’—UK TV Reality Show The British Tribe Next Door stirs massive controversy”, 1. https://face2faceafrica.com/article/dehumanizing-uk-tv-reality-show-the-british-tribe-next-door-filmed-in-namibia-stirs-massive-controversy. Accessed 9/22/2022. A particularly virulent attack on the program is featured in a YouTube video, “The British Tribe Next Door—2019—What were they thinking?—Shocking!” October 29, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?tv=9SUKHRwAR1c. Accessed October 26, 2022.
6 “Is The British Tribe Next Door the most immoral show of all time?”, The Student Room, https://www.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6196958. Accessed 11/20/2019.
7 “African Tribe reveals what they REALLY think about Scarlett Moffatt after she moved in next door”, Express Digest, 3-4. https://expressdigest.com/african-tribe-reveals-what-they-really-think-about-scarlett-moffatt-after-she-moved-in-next-door. Accessed 8/26/2022.
8 Pumza Fihiani “Namibia’s Himba people caught between traditions and modernity”, BBC, August 31, 2017. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40247310. Accessed 8/26/2022. “How the Himba Tribe is Transitioning Under the Effects of Climate Change”, earth.org. https://how-the-himba-tribe-is-transitioning-under-the-effects-of-climate-change. Accessed 5/30/2022.
9 Smit (Citation2023). For a history of tourism after the Second World War see Eberhard Rothfuss, Ethnotourismus—Wahrnehmungen und Handlungsstrategien der pastoralnomaddischen Himba (Namibia). Ein hermeneuutischer handlungstheoretischer und methodischer Beitrag aus socialgeagraphischer Perspective. Passau: Selbstverlag Fach Geograhie der Universitat Passau, 2004.
10 See Haarhoff (Citation1991).
11 Miescher and Henrichsen (239). For Hahn see Hayes (Citation48–Citation73) and for Warmelo see Rizzo (Citation189–206).
12 Rizzo (Citation2005). Also see Hartmann, Silvester, and Hayes (Citation1999) and Hartmann (Citation2004).
13 Bollig, 238.
14 Wainaina, 3.
15 Timberg (Citation2006). “Film und Fernsehen: Eine neue alte Variante des Exotismus: Die Sar.1-Serie ‘Wie die Wilden-Deutsche in Busch”, 04/09/2006. https://www.freiburg-postcolonmial.de/Seiten/wiediwilden.htm. Accessed 5/23/2023.
16 “Category, Television shows flmed in Namibia”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Television-shows-filmed-in-namibia. Accessed 7/29/2022.
17 “Season 4, Episode 10 ‘Namibia’”, Bizarre Foods, The Travel Channel. https://www.travelchannel.com. Accessed 05/25/2023.
18 For Rina Sherman’s films see www.rinasherman.cm/indexcine.html.
19 For a discussion of the conservancy system in the Kaoko see Bollig (Citation2022, 281–285, 326–327).
20 Bollig (Citation2022, 344).
21 For a discussion of the abuses of the conservancy system in Namibia see Kaitlin van Baarle, “Misanthropy and Conservationism: The case of Namibia’s Tourism Industry”, Seminar Paper, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 2013. http://www.academia.edu/8965732/Mianthropy_and_conservationism_The_case_of_Namibias_tourist_industry. Accessed 10/20/2022.
22 “African tribe … ”, 2.
23 Hartman, 2.
24 Voeltz (Citation2010, 76–77). For the contemporary place of the “Bushmen” in the tourists’ quest for authenticity and southern African paternalism see Koot (Citation2015).
25 Kanguma (Citation131).
26 “African tribe’ … ”, 3.
27 Kat Sweet, “The History of Reality TV Goes Back Further than You Think”. https://poptonic.com/watchtv/the-history-of-reality-tv/. 8/30/2022.
28 Winifred Fordham Metz, “How Reality TV Works”, 4. https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/reality-tv.html. Accessed 9/5/2022.
29 PA News, “Scarlett Moffatt wishes everyone could be a ‘little bit more Himba’”, farmweek.com, October 28, 2019, 2. https://farmweek.com/scarlett-moffatt-wishes-everyone-could-be-a-bit-more-himba. Accessed 10/23/2022.
30 Sonia Sharma, “Scarlett Moffatt praised for ‘normalizing boob gap’ swimsuit photo”, 1. https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/gogglebox-scarlett-moffatt./ Accessed 9/1/2022.
31 Rothfuss, “Ethnic Tourism … ”, 133–134.
32 Hans Hvidsten, “Development in Kaoko—for whom. By wjom?” in Miescher and Henrichsen, Ed., 95.
33 Voeltz, “Still Dreaming of Africa … ”, 16.
34 Wainaina, 2.
35 Wendy Merrill in David (Citation2010).
36 See Sanghera (Citation2021).
37 Kanguma (Citation131).
38 Kanguma (Citation131-Citation132).