Although they live in the first century of the third millennium, and have the best internet connections and the best of most things, many Americans still hold on to nineteenth century fallacies about Africa. To them, wild animals still walk the streets, mud houses fill up everywhere and for an African to speak English well is surprising and worthy of adulation.
The other day one asked me if I could ride a zebra. I said no. She repeated the question the following day and a younger colleague wondered why she was asking and she said: “Because he is from Africa. I am just curious.”
She spoke about rearing the zebra from babyhood, thus domesticating it and then riding it. I told her zebras are wild animal and not reared at home like horses and donkeys and I had never seen one. She was taken aback I had not seen wild animals.
The younger one said he had always assumed Africa was one small place, which sounded like jungle in my ears. I moved closer to the older one and explained that Africa is not a country, but a continent of several countries, and that a place called Banana Island in Lagos is one of the most expensive real estates in the world. I also told her that the place we were at the time, the North of Houston, is a ghetto compared to some parts of Lagos. I remember once telling her about how developed some parts of Africa are, and also mentioning the challenge that make many Africans choose to live abroad.
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“But, they don’t show us these good parts,” she said.
I didn’t say this to her, but I thought of the fact that Netflix and other American streaming sites have movies set in beautiful parts of Africa.
I remember once explaining that Nigeria alone has over 200 languages and the dialects are something else. I did this to counter the belief that we speak a language called African. Thousands of languages and dialects are spoken on the continent.
Despite my explanations, I still look forward to more “blithering ignorance” (apologies to Dr Maya Angelou) being displayed. Maybe I would be asked if we have libraries and like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie did while responding to a French journalist, I will query the education Americans get, especially about places outside of the God’s own country.