As some of you may or may not be aware of, I am from South Africa. This very last piece of the previous sentence is an "eyebrow raiser" mostly. I cannot tell you how many times people here in the UAE have asked us where we are from, and they all have mostly the same reaction.
I guess because some people do not know that there are many different races living is South Africa, they must probably give us one look and think we are from Europe, because we are white. Along with their reactions, usually (not always) comes these questions: "But why are you white?" and/or "No, I mean, what is your nationality?". "Yes, like I told you, I am a South African!" where-after they would ask something like "but where were you born?"..."Uhm, well my birth certificate states that I was born in South Africa, and funny enough, my passport says the same thing, so yeah, I guess I was born there unless my parents falsified the documents."
Another reaction, the one that probably takes the cake, is: "Ooooh, Africa!" which follows with "Do you have lions and elephants walking in the streets?...Do they have houses?...Do they have internet?..."
Seriously?
By now I start getting sarcastic and just answer the minimum, although there was a time that I would explain that Africa is the continent:
What do they learn in school?
South Africa is famous for it's racial differences and 'Apartheid' era, yet many people do not know this. Do people who have never visited Africa, or South Africa for that matter, really walk around thinking that we are bushmen? That we use smoke signals to communicate because we do not have any technology and that we ride on the back of an elephant to collect some water in empty ostrich eggs down by the river?
Why does Africa have to be different?
"The world's basket case" is what Western economic writers often refer to when they speak about Africa. There is even a philosophy based on what it means to be African.
Although poor by economy, Africa is rich by thought and by heart. Amilcar Cabral, Kwame Gyekye, John Mbiti, Peter Bodunrin, Frantz Fanon, etc. These are all bright and intelligent thinkers who promoted African thought and what it means to be African.
What can be richer thought than the following?:
