Curtis Keim's Mistaking Africa - Essay Example

Mistaking Africa The west has propagated many myths and misconceptions about Africa over the years. Though some of these myths are negative and untrue, they have been strongly held and believed as true. These misconceptions are passed tot eh kinds from their young age. As a child grows up, there are many false stories and misrepresentation of the Dark Continent passed on by parents, teachers and seniors. This leads to formation of biases and negative perceptions about Africa that influence western view and reception of anything African. The media has not helped put things in perspective as they often portray an exaggerated dark side (Curtis 57). Many students and graduates as well have no idea that Africa is a continent consisting of 54 independent nations and not a single country. In fact, all countries in Africa consist of many ethnic groups, use different currencies, and have unique national flags and varying political systems among many other differences. Social economic circumstances are different in each country, with different regions having different economic activities and social processes. The difference is so huge that English and French are the major languages through which people from different regions can communicate to one another. News on leading television channels often portrays Africa as chaotic, violent and dangerous. Scenes of child soldiers, pirates and kidnappers in the Indian Ocean, civil wars and massacres strongly reinforce the myth that Africa is indeed a dangerous place. What the media denies its audience is the calm and peaceful side of Africa. Rarely will countries like Ghana, Tanzania or Malawi, which are peaceful, feature on television. Whenever there is coverage on the continent, it will most likely be about civil war in Sudan, Somali pirates, the famous Rwanda genocide, post election violence in Kenya and Ivory Coast, revolution in North Africa and severe droughts in the horn of Africa. All these paint a picture of violence and great danger in the continent, a factor that contributes to entrenching of this myth from generation to generation. For a long time, nongovernmental organizations, faith based organizations and government agencies have engaged in mobilising resources to fund development projects, respond to emergencies and fight diseases and ignorance in Africa. This translates to a misconception that Africa is poor and diseases ridden. Whereas poverty is commonplace in Africa, the continent is not all poor. A closer look reveals that wealth distribution is the key problem. For instance, South Africa has a bigger GDP than some western countries, with many natural resources, good education and health care systems, organised business districts and ultramodern infrastructure. Unfortunately, poor sections of the society cannot access these facilities and are condemned to deplorable conditions in slum areas. In respect to diseases, poor sections across the continent bear the blunt of serious diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, polio and malaria, since they cannot access primary health care. Similarly, many poor children only attain primary education, which is cheap, often lacking finances to proceed to high school and collages. Election periods are very chaotic in many countries across Africa. Corruption across many African countries is responsible for keeping some old guards in power for as long as they wish. However, many countries including South Africa, Zambia and Ghana among others have exercised democracy to the latter. Western and Asian countries with economic interests in countries with weak constitutions have in the past championed for status quo in order to retain tyrants who protect their interest. Audit reports indicate that high-level corruption in international agencies and nongovernmental organizations in Africa has deep involvement of the administrators of such funds, who are mostly western. This indicates that corruption is not just an African affair, but has a back up from many western societies. Both high school and college history studies do not have much content on Africa, save for some scattered political literature. There are great historical documentations about revolutions in Europe, America and Asia. Literature about the two world wars leaves out the involvement of Africa, which contributed a lot as colonies of European countries. Aside from all these, Africa has a rich history of itself, ranging from the ancient Egypt kingdoms and pyramids to the great caves in South Africa that belonged to Zulu and San communities. The great churches of Ethiopia, ancient kingdoms in southern Africa (currently Zimbabwe) whose walls are still standing to date, and ancient universities in Mali are some extemporary pieces of history on the continent. The Bushmen of Kalahari Desert may appear primitive, but they have traded and intermarried with their neighbours for millennia. These are just examples of the rich African history that has not seen daylight in western education systems hence perpetuation of a myth that Africa has no history to study. Africa has some of the most amazing and powerful animals on the planet. The African elephant, rhinos, savannah lions, buffalos and tigers attract millions of western citizens to the continent every year. However, to say that these animals disrupt daily lives of city residents is a big myth. Nairobi, the biggest city in east Africa has rhinos and lions within its peripheries, while baboons and other big mammals make a beautiful scene across southern African cities. The truth is these animals are secured in national parks and do not roam the streets freely. With all out phased technological gadgets including computers, mobile phones and old cars finding their way into African markets, logically one can conclude that Africa is technologically backwards. Whereas it is true that Africa does not produce these commodities, it is completely a myth to say that the continent lacks in technology and innovation. Kenya for instance has the first mobile money transfer and banking services that have completely changed lives across the globe. Ironically, many western companies are replicating that technology to improve on their service delivery. Africa competes with Asia in terms of mobile phones usage and access to internet services. Rural folks in Ghana and South Africa have successfully assembled cars from scrap metal even though they hold no engineering degree or certificate. Poverty, limited resources and lack of education account to non-exploitation of latent knowledge for great technological breakthroughs in Africa. During winter, literary all carriers end for warmer beaches in Africa and South America due to favourable conditions that prevail there. Images of droughts in sections of Africa paint a picture of misery under unbearable conditions, which is far from the truth. The fact is there are ice caps on mountaintops, cool and green cities across the continent and magnificent sceneries and landscapes. Actually, the best cocoa, coffee and tea products come from Africa due to favourable climates that enable them to grow perfectly. In conclusion, prejudice and misinformation cultivated over the years create myths and misconceptions about Africa. Although there are truths about some aspects of the myth, biases creep in to form opinions that end up becoming accepted untruths about Africa. The west overlooks Positive attributes in favour of propagating myths by laying much emphasis on the negative aspects. Although Africa is not as developed as the west, the truth is there are cities like ours; in fact, some are better than ours are. The west depends on Africa for supply of some key raw materials including foodstuffs, minerals and human capital. A closer look at many myths leads to a conclusion that it is completely out of place to prejudice against the continent based on unfounded biases. Work cited Curtis, A Keim. Mistaking Africa: Curiosities and inventions of the American mind. Colorado: West view press. 2008. Print. Read More