Appreciating art through the eyes of Africa’s first qualified blind tourist guide

Cape Town's Salt River suburb is a vibrant hub for urban artists, with giant frescoes wrapping around buildings and pops of graffiti colouring almost every corner. As Africa’s first qualified blind tourist guide, Nqabohlanga Winston Fani leads groups on urban art tours through the neighbourhood where he details the stories behind the artists and their art, and invites you to appreciate what’s in front of you with all your senses. 

Fani was born partially sighted and spent his childhood learning to find his way around the world with limited sight. But at the age of 13, he went completely blind as a result of glaucoma. “Now I can only differentiate when there's light and when there's darkness,” he says. After being retrenched from his job as a call centre agent in 2020, Fani’s disability impeded his ability to find employment. Desperate to find a way to support his wife Busi who is also visually impaired, as well as their child, Fani considered the impossible. “I dreamed of becoming the first blind tourist guide in South Africa,” he says. It might seem like an unlikely step to most, but Fani had a keen interest in education and history and believed that his experience of learning to navigate and appreciate the world gave him a unique perspective worth sharing. 

Spurring him on were Tania Robbertze and Wendy Purdon who met Fani and his wife while training their guide dog. Their Backabuddy fund to help Fani study further caught the attention of Cape Town Tourism, who saw potential in the aspiring guide’s enthusiasm and commitment and offered to cover the costs. But that was only the first hurdle for Fani who had to conquer obstacles that may not exist for sighted students – such as the commute from the township of Mfuleni where he resides to his lessons. “I had to walk more than one kilometre every day from the taxi rank to the classroom,” he explains.

Despite the challenges, Fani obtained his qualifications as a registered guide in July 2023. Since then, his interactive walking tours, which begin in front of Cape Society for The Blind and span two hours, have drawn visitors from far and wide. Not only do they learn more about the Salt River art scene, but also gain a unique perspective of what it means to be inclusive from Fani’s experiences. The murals along his route are accompanied by informative braille touch points as well as QR codes that activate audio content on the Baz-Art website, pre-recorded by Fani himself. 

When Fani opens his eyes every day, he may not be able to make out the visual details of his surroundings. But what he sees and feels is so much more. “Art exists for all people from all walks of life and it should be accessible to each and everyone,” he says. With each step that he takes, he’s bringing the beauty of the world closer to those who stop and take a moment to recognise it. 

Visit AWOL Tours to book a tour with Fani.