Africa Is Not A Country

Africa is Not a Country
By Jiska Van Dingenen

For a very long time, Africans have been dehumanized and regarded as uncivilized.
Many people
have had a negative
view of Africans for a
very long time and it
still is going on. One
example of Africans
being dehumanized is
the story of Ota
Benga. Ota Benga
was from the Mbuti
pygmy tribe, escorted
to the United States by
Samuel Phillips
Verner. Verner
Mahadaga, Burkina Faso
IVD photography contacted William
Temple Hornaday, the
owner of Bronx Zoo in New York and Ota Benga stayed at the zoo and later became
part of the exhibit. People mocked him and laughed at him. He was displayed as an
animal, not as a human. Read more about Ota Benga
Another example of Africans being discriminated is the African slave trade. For
17 centuries, the trans-Saharan slave trade was led by Arab slave traders. In the
1700s, European slave traders started the trans-Atlantic slave trade and West
Africans were enslaved and taken to the Americas. Here they worked hard and no
slave ever came back to their country alive. Kidnapping people and forcing them into
slavery is simply not acceptable. Luckily people were against this idea and fought for
the freedom of the slaves; and they received it.
Stereotype #1: Africans are all the same
Africa has been known to be a dangerous continent for many years, with black
savages running around with bones in their noses, cooking people in big pots, and
wearing almost nothing. However this is not true. The majority of Africans today are
fully dressed. It is wrong to state that a whole group of people are cannibals or even
that they are less important than others. Like anywhere, some Africans are poorer
than other Africans. Often times, it is these Africans that have a smile on their face
and are grateful for what they have. All Africans each have their own cultures and
beliefs and are unique in their own way.
Stereotype #2: Africans carry diseases.
The people that live in Africa do not all have diseases. Many Africans are
healthy, and there is no evidence that outsiders have to be afraid of Africans because
Africans are not all contagious. Some people might think that the whole African
generation is dying of HIV/AIDS or of Ebola, but this is not the case. In 2013, 1.11
billion people lived in Africa. How could it possibly be that everyone in Africa is sick?
Stereotype #3: Africa is not developing.
There are many big cities and people do not run around like savages. There
are businesses and people have jobs just like on other continents. Many Africans
have changed the life on this continent, people like Michel Sidib from Mali. Sidib
lead a global campaign for prevention and education on HIV/AIDS and along with
that, he created universal access to treatment for those who are infected with the
virus. Also, a Kenyan woman, Ikal Angelei, was awarded the Goldman Environmental
Prize for a four year campaign fighting against the building of a dam on the Omo river
in Ethiopia. Africans are not all ignorant and they are not helpless unless outsiders
step in and take control. Many Africans, just like on any continents, have worked their
way to the top. They are all human beings, like you and me.
You might be thinking, I never said that! It doesnt matter. All that matters is
that you care and that you change your attitude toward Africa and its people. Not all
Africans have done something to you. Even if an African ever hurt you, it does not
give you a reason to hate the entire African continent. Don't depict Africans because
of what you heard in the news or saw on the internet. Africa is a continent. A
continent with many countries and in which cities thrive and people learn. Africans
learn to embrace the situation they are in and live with what they have. They educate
themselves not only by books, but also by life and what nature has to give them. The
people smile no matter what and they all know in their hearts: The African continent
is our home.

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By Jiska Van Dingenen

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