Being African

A person's origin is the one thing they can never alter about themselves. One can never decide when and where they wish to be born, that's the way of the world. If we all had choices, China would definitely not be as crowded as it is and probably Michael Jackson would have been born a Caucasian male. Sad to say that presently, so many people are not particularly happy with who they are. On one end of the spectrum, we have black women bleaching their skin trying in futility to become as white as they can possibly get (they end up orange though), while on the other hand whites are splurging on fake tans in a bid to be as dark skinned as they possibly can. Why is this species never content? Can't recall the last time i saw a chimpanzee scrubbing itself 20times a day so it could look like an orangutan.

I am a proud African male, of pure African descent. In as much as my culture has been eroded by “western culture”, my origin can never be blotted out nor erased, i'm still African down to the core and because of this, it infuriates me how Africa is depicted in motion pictures and in conversations:

~ Being African is NOT shameful

~ Being African is NOT a pestilence

~ Being African is NOT a curse

~ Being African is NOT a result of some forefather’s sin

~ Being African is NOT a skin we all seek to shed

Being African is a unique privilege not afforded to everyone. I am literally taken aback when I view how Africa is depicted. Last night I was watching Family Guy, the 12^th Season E13 in which “God” makes a pun about Africa. “What?! You really think I'd get
involved with football games when there's people dying in Africa?” “Are you gonna do something about the people dying in Africa?” “No, but I'm pretty upset about it.”

Granted, people indeed are dying in Africa. Hunger, pestilence, disease, genocide, war, car accidents etc but show me a continent in which people aren’t dying and I’ll show you the colour of my liver. Merely ignorance makes us find such a pun funny. On a recent tweet by the BBC on the splendour of Victoria Falls, an American male goes on to attack the BBC for endorsing a trip to Africa which is plagued by Ebola!! That level of profound ignorance is just really astounding!! The Victoria Falls lies between the borders of Zimbabwe and Zambia, two countries who never got a single case of Ebola reported. In fact, not a single country in Southern Africa reported any cases of Ebola, a deadly disease which ravaged Western Africa and in some cases, Central Africa. America itself had Ebola cases arising from some doctors who had travelled to Central Africa yet Southern Africa itself never had even a single case.

There are so many ignorant assumptions people make about Africa, some of which end up being portrayed in movies as the truth when in fact they are not. This gross misinformation leads to the level of ignorance portrayed by many individuals overseas from this magnificent continent. Trevor Noah, a famous South African stand up comedian joked about his trip to America. He says an individual asked him where he was from to which he answered, “Africa”. Thereafter, the guy goes on to ask if Trevor knows some fellow(I forgot the name) from Africa as well! I mean, it is the second largest continent with hundreds of millions of people in 54 different countries. My country, Zimbabwe, is divided into provinces, each province is articulated by towns and cities, each town or city contains residential suburbs and neighbourhoods. I live in a suburb called Msasa park, in the city of Harare and I don’t even know all the people who live in the 25 houses on my street! How then can I know everyone in Harare by name, let alone the whole of Africa.

Popular Misconceptions About Africa

1. We are all a bunch of uncivilized people walking around in animal skins waiting around at airports for foreigners so we can dance for them.
2. We all live in thatched huts somewhere in the bush and we live among wild animals and hunt for our food with spears.
3. All of Africa speaks the same language, more often than not, Swahili or Zulu are used as the universal African language.
4. Africa is a country. (Far from it, it is the second largest continent in the world with over 54 countries)
5. Africa is poor and needs help. (granted the continent is underdeveloped but in terms of mineral deposits, it is second to none. It has the untapped potential of being the wealthiest continent)
6. The whole continent shares a homogenous culture
7. Africans have weird food and if you visit Africa, they will make you dine on termites, lizards, snakes and caterpillars. ( I literally laugh so hard at that my ribs hurt. I have never in my life eaten a snake or a lizard though all the dishes I mentioned are eaten by some, though not popularly) KFC and McDonalds which seem popular to Americans are also prevalent in Africa.
8. Africans are technologically challenged. “Will my phone work in Africa?” (Of course it will. I wish I could describe the technological infrastructure but I probably wont do it any justice. Yes, I own a smartphone and computers too)
9. All Africans are black. (You will be surprised)
10. “Flies, Death & Stuff” This is a snippet from an alleged Mariah Carey interview on hunger in Africa where she responded, “Don’t get me wrong, I would love to be skinny like that, but not with all the flies, and death and stuff”

A video comes on showing the plight of Africans. In the video, a skinny, semi-naked black woman is sown in a sitting position cradling a malnourished baby. Her rib cage is showing as is her pelvic bone. The narrator describes the situation as dire, both the woman and her baby are dying, will not last the night. A huge black fly lands on the baby’s face and starts traversing the length and breadth of it, taking in the scenery unhindered. Such a scene is then described as one of the most prevalent scenes in Africa.

A picture of Harare CBD

 I have lived in Africa all of 28years now, since birth. In all this time, I have never seen a person who fails to swat a fly off their baby’s face, neither have I seen this “common” sight of a person sitting in dirt dying.