Afrigather Everybody throughout the globe agrees that Africa is a good looking continent, however the magnificence they communicate of is relative and that is larargely because of misconceptions about Africa they maintain. To many, the fantastic thing about the African continent doesn’t rank on the identical scale because the individuals—or the extent of their civilization.
Africa is essentially the most misunderstood and misaligned continent on the earth, and the conception of many is that the continent is backward and uncivilised. In the course of the COVID pandemic, many individuals wrote the obituary of Africa, with the spouse of Microsoft CEO Invoice Gates, Melinda French Gates, infamously saying that ‘there will probably be useless our bodies on the streets in Africa.’
However each time, Africa has pressured its doubters to eat their phrases as a result of, certainly, the continent just isn’t as backward as they assume. Though there have been many inventions and achievements on the continent, there are nonetheless many who’ve stereotyped misconceptions about it. Beneath are a number of the extremely publicised misconceptions about Africa.
Africa is a rustic
That is in all probability one of the crucial in style misconceptions about Africa. Africa is a continent made up of 54 unbiased nations and has the second-largest land mass of 30.37 million km2, solely second to Asia. It’s also the continent with the biggest variety of nations. Every of the sovereign nations has a number of states with tens of millions of individuals and financial actions. So, it’s actually shocking that there are nonetheless individuals who assume Africa is a rustic!
Africa just isn’t all that massive
That is one false impression about Africa that’s extremely publicised however must be addressed. There have been circumstances of outstanding individuals saying they’re coming back from a visit to Africa, whereas they solely visited one nation! Africa is bigger than the USA, Japan, China, India, and nearly all of Western and Japanese Europe mixed. It spans an space of 11,724,000 sq. miles (30,365,000 sq. km).
Africans don’t have any entry to fashionable know-how
There are nonetheless many individuals who’ve the impression that Africans stay in mud homes with no entry to electrical energy, to not point out know-how. Properly, that is removed from the reality as a result of nearly all of African populations stay in cities and concrete areas. Furthermore, in response to statistics, greater than two-thirds of Africans have 24-hour entry to fashionable know-how, smartphones, and the web.
Africa is all about savannah and wild animals
American motion pictures have performed an enormous position in enhancing this false impression about Africa as they at all times are inclined to depict Africa as a jungle the place individuals share the identical communities with lions and different wild animals. This isn’t an accurate illustration of Africa in any approach. Like in every other fashionable metropolis throughout the globe, African cities have high-rise buildings, colleges, bridges, airports, and different facilities present in Europe and America.
Africa is a land riddled with illness
An excellent reference to this false impression and the continued skewed narrative churned out by Western media is the current measles outbreak in america. Many of the footage nonetheless utilized by frontline media retailers are these of occurrences in Africa a few years again.
Though there’s nonetheless lots that may be achieved within the well being sector in Africa, the African continent just isn’t a continent riddled with illness. Additionally, the continent has made commendable achievements in dealing with pandemics and illness outbreaks. An excellent instance is the dealing with of the Ebola and COVID outbreaks which many individuals thought would wipe out the African inhabitants.
Africa is just for journey, not training
Most individuals affiliate Africa solely with journey and animal sightseeing. They imagine Europe, Asia, and America are for training and know-how, whereas Africa is just for sightseeing and journey.
Discovery Channels and Nationwide Geographic could possibly be blamed for selling this false impression. Thankfully, it’s this isn’t true, and though the continent is blessed with giant savanna plains and forests, there’s way more to Africa than sightseeing.
In accordance with a 2020 report by uniRank, there are greater than 1,225 internationally accredited higher-education establishments in Africa, way more than on many different continents.
Africa is stuffed with violence
Many overseas motion pictures and the worldwide press usually venture Africa as a violent continent with wars and killings in all places. Like each different continent, Africa has its justifiable share of insecurity, however this isn’t peculiar to the continent and isn’t the best way it’s projected on-line.
Many locations in Africa are protected and are worldwide vacationer locations. In actual fact, nations like The Gambia, Morocco, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, that are a part of the nations portrayed as violent, are on file to be safer than the UK. It could shock you that the World Financial Discussion board just lately listed Rwanda because the ninth most secure nation on the earth.
Africa is made up of ‘shithole nations‘
When former United States president Donald Trump made the notorious ‘shithole assertion’ about Africa, he was talking the minds of many foreigners with the identical mindset about Africa.
Africa is a continent of vibrant minds – students and innovators who’ve contributed immensely to international development throughout all sectors. The details are there to again it up, and there the nations in Africa are making strides on completely different fronts. As an example, Kenya is on track to turn out to be a world chief in geothermal power inside a number of years.
Africans cannot communicate good English
It’s humorous that many individuals nonetheless assume Africans can not communicate fluent English. Though Africans are blessed with over 2,000 languages, they don’t have a problem studying and mastering the English language.
Over 237 million individuals in Africa communicate and write the English language fluently, and there are numerous English professors from Africa who educate the language overseas.
Africa owes its civilisation to the Europeans
Once more, there are numerous books and films that unfold this false impression. Earlier than colonisation, Africa had an array of civilised nations and settlements, and historical past is there to show it. Earlier than colonisation, Egypt was already a world energy and credited for most of the innovations we’re nonetheless utilizing as we speak, particularly in warfare.
There have been different extremely profitable and civilised kingdoms like the dominion of Kush, Carthage, Mali Empire, Bini Kingdom, and lots of extra. As seen right here, there are fairly quite a lot of misconceptions about Africa which seems aren’t true.
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