One Experience at A Time: One Day Africa founder Sipho Sangweni uses tour company to paint a different South Africa
written by Crystal Joy
I went to Johannesburg for an extended amount of time and I would always find ways to hang out with the locals because that is where you find hidden gems. I booked a cycling tour through Airbnb and the tour guide took me on a bike ride through the township of Soweto. Even though it was just him and I, it provided us a lot of time to talk and get to know each other. I learned a lot about Soweto -- more than any history book could tell me. There is something about experiencing an environment with your own eyes. It gives you a different perspective. However, I was most intrigued by the tour guide; his story, the everyday hustle, and the things he wanted to do for himself. He was also an exceptionally friendly person.
His name is Sipho Sangweni.
Sipho understands the benefits of ownership. The power in defining your narrative and creating spaces to make an impact so that others know of your existence. Two years ago, Sipho decided to start his own company, One Day Africa (previously One Day Soweto) in Johannesburg, South Africa -- aside from his Airbnb job. The 27-year-old was tired of seeing his country always connected to disease, poverty, and genocide, so he founded a touring business to paint a different picture through cycling and walking tours, photoshoots, street art tours, and an unforgettable city nightlife experience.
Born and raised in the township of Soweto, Sipho grew up knowing he wanted more. He understood he had to create a different world for himself and his family, especially in a post-apartheid world where life looks a lot different compared to his parents. “ You either make something out of yourself or you’re still carrying the burden your parents carried. Or you fight hard to get out of the system. It's quite hard. Now you need to be educated, but you can’t be in a job if you can't speak English or don’t have the qualifications. But it's harder for an older person to start a business because everything has to be on the internet. The post-apartheid is encouraging the young black generation to be more independent. To educate themselves so they don't have to rely on the government.”
Before he started his entrepreneurial journey, Sipho needed to do things differently than his family and friends did, he had to change his narrative by simply being bold, even if that meant going at it alone and being his own teacher. “Most of the people I grew up around aren't even done with school and it's hard for them to get jobs. I got to go to university. But while I was there I needed a plan and I got inspiration from my brother, yet he was struggling. I wanted to try something of my own, but people don't like to share information. No one was willing to share. So I would do the research myself. I became more independent and people started seeing my progress. On the outside people saw me as successful, but I was still hustling and trying to figure it out. I had to push harder. Even up to today. You have to keep improving every day.”
Many of us have seen what kind of effect the internet can have on someone else's life, career, or future. How many times have we watched the news slaughter a person's character, misrepresent a country, or deliver a butchered truth without the chance to have any say so? You can be the change, but that change can make a bigger impact when you leave the door open for the next generation to walk through. “How can we help the people around us, how can we empower them? I think that's what I'm trying to go for. We want to be very visible and show South Africa in a more colorful, progressive, and interesting way. We want to influence people to travel, especially young black people.”
Sipho recognizes that owning a business means owning his future. With One Day Africa, he can tell stories as he actually knows them to be and not just be a bystander while others capitalize on his country. “I think it's just showing mainly young Africans that they can travel too, that we do have amazing spaces and we need to share our personal stories. South Africa is very young, 26 years into freedom. So we are sharing that journey of this generation.” Social media has changed the way we tell stories because it gives people the power to participate. We can create stories for us, by us. He continues, “We believe this is the first generation that is different and has more opportunity -- it's obvious they won't see that, but we have to take it upon ourselves to show them what we can do with the media. That's why I created this company, to show tourists where South Africa is going, and where it's coming from. It's still a developing continent but you need to be here yourself to witness it.”
A large sector of One Day Africa delivers a political aspect where it educates people on the apartheid, housing and land displacement, and the Soweto Youth Uprising. The Black Lives Matter movement had everyone all over the world speaking out against police brutality. Sipho launched a virtual tour amid all the riots and marches and had the chance to swap stories with his customers -- he immediately recognized the similarities. “A lot of the people that booked the tour were Americans and they were just sharing the uprising [in their neighborhoods] themselves. You can hear the similarities of how the police are brutalizing black people and how the system is still rigged to the advantage of if you're white you are less dangerous but if you're black you're more of a suspect. During the virtual tour, we talked about both of these events and how South Africa relates so much to America.
However, the BLM movement did more than expose racial disparities, it bled into the pandemic which exposed a wealth gap that doesn’t receive the same attention compared to other pressing matters. “In South Africa, poverty is now exposed. If you just started working for two or three months you now have nothing. I had more of an advantage because I have my own company. But some people lost everything. If you live in the townships you have nothing. What happened with BLM was a great thing because people were speaking out. The pandemic has been able to expose a lot of the injustices that are happening all over the world. Not just America.”
In South Africa, White South Africans are the largest European-descended population group in Africa with three different classifications regarding race: white, black, and colored, which simply put, is ‘mixed’ race. It makes you more privileged than blacks and less privileged than whites. The Apartheid was equivalent to the Civil Rights Movement, and there are many after-effects of racism in South Africa that many people are still struggling with today. However, racism doesn’t play a role in One Day Africa’s business. “In Cape Town, I’m here as a black person, and there's colored, and then there's white--so we have three different races. Joburg is small and everything is between black or white. As I'm dealing with tourism, race doesn't play any role. People are coming from everywhere. But from a business perspective, it's quite harder to collaborate with other young black entrepreneurs because we are all in competition amongst each other. But it's also hard to collaborate with white people in Joburg because they're doing their own thing.”
What did play a role in One Day Africa’s momentum was the travel restrictions due to the pandemic. “Honestly, I am broke. The first few months were great. Everyone needed a break and needed to be home for once. That gave us the chance to work on our website. But one month down, two months down, three months down, you’re spending and not making. The locals don't want to travel in their own backyards. People in tourism are complaining and this is what led to the government opening the borders. Not all just a selected few. For me, I’m young and I know my target will go online to look for a local tour. It will pick up eventually. People will never stop traveling. But for now, there is no one coming. Cape Town is a tourism city. Joburg isn't. In Cape Town, the entire city is connected to tourism. Right now it's dead.”
Even though this pandemic has everyone going down memory lane, turning Throwback Thursday to throwback every day, Sipho remains focused on his vision and the bigger picture. “We want to start helping other people in Africa themselves. Making it easier for people to experience Africa from our perspective in a more local and independent perspective.” There’s a silver lining in everything and this year has given Sipho a lot of time to think about how he wants to evolve both personally and professionally. “The aim is to have young people as young as we are to be telling the stories of Africa in this modern time in how they grew up. It opens up a lot of people's minds.”
Right now, our timelines are filled with nostalgia and social distancing gatherings; many of us are twiddling our thumbs anticipating the opening of borders for our next desired travel destinations, but for Sipho, he’s simply preparing.
“We are in a space where we are trying to pave a way. To influence the next generation to be different than who we are. Making it easier for people to be less selfish and more independent. One Day Africa means get ready-- in a few years we'll be introducing tours all over Africa.”