The Myth And Stereotypes Of Africa

In Basil Davidson’s video “Different but Equal,” he outlines the European perception of Africa upon their discovery of the continent. Claims that the Europeans were making about African culture, however, were far fetched and did not depict Africa in a positive manner. History according to pre-European Africa was rich and diverse, but once Europeans saw for themselves how different their continent was from Africa, they began to make up their own version of African history.

There are many misconceptions that have been universally accepted mentioned in Curtis Keim’s book Mistaking Africa, many of which are based on biased and incorrect accounts and are extremely offensive. Three important myths are that Africa is a land of cannibals, it is backward and very uncivilized, and that it is one country where everyone and the climate are the same all over. These will be explained, refuted, and the detriment to the people of Africa will be discussed.

There are many myths and stereotypes of how the media portrays Africa to be. The media has stereotyped Africa to be poor, hazardous, hot, underdeveloped nation, violent and spiritual country (p, 37). In the chapter “How We Learn”, Curtis Keim focuses on the specific sources that stereotypes Africa to be over populated country with exotic animals. Also stereotypes the people to be illiterate and not well educated people. People take negativity from different sources of media and base their opinion upon the information given and that is how people learn about Africa.

The common feeling at the time was that Africans were less civilized than Europeans. That Africans were somehow barbaric.

Ohuoba’s “The Perception of Africa” shows how Africa has been stereotyped across America in ways including but not limited to: school textbooks, mass media, and news broadcasts. The essay expresses the continent of Africa as more than just poverty and clay roads seen on news broadcasts. Included in the essay was a short story of African native child that lives in the United States and studies about her continent in class. The child is baffled about all the perceptions of her homeland through her textbook and the children her class. Only the negative is studied and talked about rather than the good aspects of Africa. This demonstrates how one can be influenced to think something is worse than what it is.

European exposure with African people was limited and this stereotypical inferiority permeated society through historical myth and degrading parliamentary representation. Africans were often being referred to as demons or beasts. Enslaved Africans

The biased European view that Africans were useless savages is revealed in Leo Africanus’s Description of the Middle Niger, Hausaland, and Bornu. Throughout his description, he

According to Keim, some misconceptions are that they are culturally and evolutionally behind us. Also, that people living in Africa are living in the dark ages. This was even believed by African-Americans during this Dark Continent Era. They believed “in African backwardness… Because the general cultural climate in America promoted evolutionism… most were Christians and believed that most Africans, as non-Christians needed salvation. ” This is pretty alarming to me that everyone regardless of race for the most part bought into this way of thinking about an entire Continent, even if they disagreed on religions. There is this stereotype that Africa is in trouble or helpless and needs our help. People constantly come to Africa to help people that

For what little history is taught about Africans institutionally and publically presently, it used as a tool to disempower people of African descent. To start present interpretations of African history denies the feats and accomplishments done by Africans as well as the roots from which all people come from. Presently history is made for people

Africa is a continent plagued by misinformed and false stereotypes, rarely being seen or portrayed as what it really is. Countless amounts of myths and ideas are formulated based off of single stories or one-sided stories from the region, often without a second thought. These stereotypes give Africa an overall negative image to the rest of the world and suppress the reality that is hidden behind the slew of stereotypes. The belief that all of Africa is poor and undeveloped is an uninformed statement that harms the reality and worsens the image of the continent by perpetuating an incomplete idea into the world.

Stereotyping has lived in the human world for a long time. It is seen throughout our history. It was mainly recognized in Africa because of its unfamiliar culture. However, Africans are probably not aware of why their culture is not accepted.

For instance, I did not realize the discriminations I was facing at an early age was different yet virtually the same to Black Americans' experience. I now understand that my experience has more to do with the diverse types of preconceived ideas people had about me being an African immigrant. In grade school, kids would make negative assumptions because of my broken English and my conservative attire. From my perspective, the difference between the corresponding values of the American culture and the Ethiopian values are how it is approached. Most students in America have the freedom to express themselves whether that is in the way they dress or speak as opposed to some foreign countries where your freedom is restricted due to cultural norms.

One day I was with an American friend watching a video showing how our denomination was planting churches in some of the remotest areas in East Africa. The video showed large Japanese vehicles going across the bushes, passing by people on the roadsides, and running into different animals crossing the roads, including huge African elephants. Then, my friend asked me if elephants were everywhere in Africa running around in the streets like squirrels do here in Pennsylvania. I smiled before responding to him because I realized that he had seen only this single story of Africa. Then I went on and explained to him that Africa was not very different from the rest of the world, and that there are places reserved for animals as well as big cities and

The world develops and continuously expand in magnificent ways, computers now function like a human brain, it is possible these days to communicate instantly with people around the globe due to video conferencing. There is no rebut that mankind has evolved in remarkable ways, unfortunately there is still a great deal of imbalance and misunderstandings that exist in civilization, around the globe. It seems that the the world over looks the one place called Africa that covers six percent of the earth’s surface in which 1.1 billion of the worlds populations lives. Their are many stories about Africa that has been rooted and seems to be misinformed, with a lack of understanding and stereotypes.

The challenges encountered by Africans because of myths and stereotypes created for them can be disheartening, insulting and as well as degrading. People from different race mostly keep to themselves and avoid talking to people, and when other people see them they conclude about the kind of person they are because of their ethnicity and how they believe they should behave or should not behave. Most people believe that Africans sleeps on the mat, lives in clay-built houses, everybody in Africa is miserably poor, depend on well-civilized countries like America and European country to help them, Animals like lions, and elephants are virtually everywhere and most importantly, unsafe to visit Africa.