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That's the problem....people are shown just one side of the continent.
That happens to many people from other places too. I'm from California and when I go to another state even people have all these ridiculous stereotypes about Californians, entirely based on what they see on TV.
The fact that people ask you a lot of questions shows that they are willing to admit they don't know much & are curious. So look at it from a positive perspective...they want to know the truth, not what is fed to them on TV.
That's the problem....people are shown just one side of the continent.
That happens to many people from other places too. I'm from California and when I go to another state even people have all these ridiculous stereotypes about Californians, entirely based on what they see on TV.
The fact that people ask you a lot of questions shows that they are willing to admit they don't know much & are curious. So look at it from a positive perspective...they want to know the truth, not what is fed to them on TV.
I know what you mean. I am about to start a thread about pictures from AFRICA!!!
Hmmm.... I suppose the criteria I'd look at would be standard of living for the citizens and infrastructure (to an extent). What would day to day life be like for the average urban African? What are the prospects for an urban African kid? What about rural Africa? What would the African middle class be like?
Also, we hear a lot about us giving aid to Africa...and Africa having AIDS. We also hear about the civil wars, poverty and dictators (i.e. Mugabe running Zimbabwe/Rhodesia into the ground) but we never hear about Africa doing anything for the greater benefit of mankind. We do not hear about African films, literature, art (well, maybe a little of folk art), inventions, theories, music (other than the small world beat circuit), scientific breakthroughs and so-on. I think this also adds to people's perception of Africa.
I don't know, I have a hard time considering the South African major cities as being truly African. I know that's where they sit geographically, but that's basically the work of Europeans setting up shop a few hundred years ago. Same idea for Kirsty Coventry....
Let me tell you something. Thereason The US government urge people to give aids to africa is that SOME AFRICAN PRESIDENT JUST CARE ABOUT POWER. They hardly do anything about the people of Africa. I just read somewhere that Nigerian government officials was stealing money from the Nigerian government. We have soo many resources in Africa but dumbass presidents just want it all to themselves.
African do have fims. Go to your local african market, AFRICAN FILMS ARE THERE. tHE REASON MOST OF sOUTH African cities are mostly created by europeans is beacause OUR PRESIDENTS DO NOT WANT TO BUILD THEIR COUNTRY. THEY ARE SELF CENTERED!!!
African do have fims. Go to your local african market, !!!
I know Africa does have films, it's just that no one here watches them.
I will not go to my local African market. I do not like the people who run it. One of their employees goes outside all the time and humps the air and makes rude comments at women passing by. There's also a kid, probably about 10 years old who does it too. They've got mannequin heads in the window and one time I was walking by and I thought the kid was a mannequin head and he jumped towards the window at me, I about had a heart attack.
I said African president do not give a damn about their countries. Their respective countries.
Ask that questions to your fellow countrymen.
There is a book by an American journalist named Keith Richburg (a black American, by the way) about his time working in Liberia, Rwanda, South Africa, the Congo, etc. This was during the early 1990s, when all these countries were in the grip of violent wars, ethnic violence, and disease outbreaks. He feels much the same as you -- that Africa is at the mercy of its self-interested two-bit dictators. He feels that the root of the problem is the artificial borders drawn up by the European powers, carving up Africa and trapping ethnic groups together who would rather not live together. The book received a great deal of criticism from some in the African-American community, who felt Richburg was too harsh on Africa. I thought it was a fantastic book, utterly heartbreaking. One of his friends is blown up by a car bomb, he watches bodies choking a river in Rwanda, his helicopter is met by gun-totting Somali teenagers, etc. To be fair to Africa, Richburg was reporting on the hot spots of the day, where violence was most likely to break out, he wasn't touring everyday small-town Africa. Somalia, for instance, is still a no-man's-land.
I am not from Africa, and I have never been there, but am really interested. I am always trying to learn more about Africa, and when I talk to people, they ask questions like
"do people talk with clicks of the tongue?"
or when talking about violence in Uganda (Idi) "did the people get speared?"
I am not an idiot. I know the US is completely more advanced than Africa. What I don't get is why people can't realize that parts of africa are modern and nice. Just look at the Johannesburg skyline. Also, I think it is awful that people want to take the world cup from SA. It is a very nice country. People just want to use this as an excuse to voice thier negative incorrect views about Africa.
Yes, there ARE African languages where people talk with clicks of their tongue. That is not some joke or misunderstanding. And sure, there is shopping and there are schools, but come on now--it is NOT like the U.S. Most of Africa is in poverty. Most Africans are not attending formal schooling into high school--many do not attend at all.
I lived in Africa too, in a village, and I think it's wrong to suggest that Africa is as "modern" as the US. X-box?? That has me laughing. I'm sur eyou can find it, but if you're talking about Africa as a whole? Not a lot of video games in Senegal, in CAR, in Mali, in MANY African nations. Where I lived, no electricity, no running water, homes made of mud and straw. Yes, THAT is how most people outside the major cities live. That is not how most people outside the major US cities live!!
I LOVE Africa and have been back many times since I lived there. The cities are modern. But most of Africa is not a city. Most of Africa does not have any of the things to OP suggested. It's not embarrassing to say that. It is not a criticism to say that. It is a wonderful place, with many lessons to be learned. There is much more to it than malaria and AIDS and poverty, I totally agree with you. And I agree that it is misrepresented in the media (and highly underrepresented in the media). But Africa is nothing like the U.S. outside of the major cities.
Not one person in my village attended school. The closest was 45 KM away. Yes, the girls WERE circumcised (this is particular to certain ethnic groups--by no means is it done everywhere in Africa). Babies died a lot in my village. Flies were all over the food. Women died in labor. Farmers lived mainly on the food they grew or went hungry. In the city? Totally different story, Western clothes, schools, grocery shops (as well as open air markets), etc. In the village? Yes, the women often went around only in a pagne (like a sarong)--no shirt. There are over 15 languages spoken in this one nation. Unrelated languages. Not in the way languages are spoken in the US--entire areas of the country are mainly one ethnic group or another, with their own culture, with their own way of doing things. Outside of the city, they almost never marry outside their ethnic group. Many of the women speak nothing but their own language. (Most men speak several languages). This isn't little "pockets" of the country, but is all over as the national borders are random. This was all in one of the more "developed" nations--Senegal. Not as "developed" as many parts of S.AFrica and some other African nations, but Dakar was one thing. The rest of the country was totally something else. I have never known kinder people who were as ready to laugh and smile and give what little they had. I lived there over 2 years, and I will always remember the lessons I learned. Always remember what a wonderful place it is. I even adopted a child. But it's like America? No. It's not.
Yes, there ARE African languages where people talk with clicks of their tongue. That is not some joke or misunderstanding. And sure, there is shopping and there are schools, but come on now--it is NOT like the U.S. Most of Africa is in poverty. Most Africans are not attending formal schooling into high school--many do not attend at all.
I lived in Africa too, in a village, and I think it's wrong to suggest that Africa is as "modern" as the US. X-box?? That has me laughing. I'm sur eyou can find it, but if you're talking about Africa as a whole? Not a lot of video games in Senegal, in CAR, in Mali, in MANY African nations. Where I lived, no electricity, no running water, homes made of mud and straw. Yes, THAT is how most people outside the major cities live. That is not how most people outside the major US cities live!!
I LOVE Africa and have been back many times since I lived there. The cities are modern. But most of Africa is not a city. Most of Africa does not have any of the things to OP suggested. It's not embarrassing to say that. It is not a criticism to say that. It is a wonderful place, with many lessons to be learned. There is much more to it than malaria and AIDS and poverty, I totally agree with you. And I agree that it is misrepresented in the media (and highly underrepresented in the media). But Africa is nothing like the U.S. outside of the major cities.
Not one person in my village attended school. The closest was 45 KM away. Yes, the girls WERE circumcised (this is particular to certain ethnic groups--by no means is it done everywhere in Africa). Babies died a lot in my village. Flies were all over the food. Women died in labor. Farmers lived mainly on the food they grew or went hungry. In the city? Totally different story, Western clothes, schools, grocery shops (as well as open air markets), etc. In the village? Yes, the women often went around only in a pagne (like a sarong)--no shirt. There are over 15 languages spoken in this one nation. Unrelated languages. Not in the way languages are spoken in the US--entire areas of the country are mainly one ethnic group or another, with their own culture, with their own way of doing things. Outside of the city, they almost never marry outside their ethnic group. Many of the women speak nothing but their own language. (Most men speak several languages). This isn't little "pockets" of the country, but is all over as the national borders are random. This was all in one of the more "developed" nations--Senegal. Not as "developed" as many parts of S.AFrica and some other African nations, but Dakar was one thing. The rest of the country was totally something else. I have never known kinder people who were as ready to laugh and smile and give what little they had. I lived there over 2 years, and I will always remember the lessons I learned. Always remember what a wonderful place it is. I even adopted a child. But it's like America? No. It's not.
South Africa is by far the most developed part of the African continent, and its cities are the closest you'll find to hints of the developed world- there you will find some with Xboxes and all the modern toys. But outside of that country? Forget about it..... I have family that has gone to different African countries for business- Ghana, Senegal, Chad, and Mali- and they were absolutely shocked at what they saw- they knew Africa was undeveloped, but didn't realize that it did look exactly as we see on TV. Even the major cities in those countries were very poor, like nothing they had ever seen before. South African cities are the exception to what the rest of the continent is like- and this is no slam against the continent, it's just the way it is.
South Africa is by far the most developed part of the African continent, and its cities are the closest you'll find to hints of the developed world- there you will find some with Xboxes and all the modern toys. But outside of that country? Forget about it..... I have family that has gone to different African countries for business- Ghana, Senegal, Chad, and Mali- and they were absolutely shocked at what they saw- they knew Africa was undeveloped, but didn't realize that it did look exactly as we see on TV. Even the major cities in those countries were very poor, like nothing they had ever seen before. South African cities are the exception to what the rest of the continent is like- and this is no slam against the continent, it's just the way it is.
Did your family Go to Harare, Abuja, Cape Town, Accra.
NO!!! There are poor africans and Rich africans.
If I visit a ghetto in america, DO YOU WANT ME TO BELIVE ALL AMERICA IS LIKE THAT!!! NOPE!!
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