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I thought I knew virtually nothing about Africa. After reading this funny take I realized I actually know quite a bit of weirdly crafted bizarre misinformation
by wand3r 5y ago
I thought I knew virtually nothing about Africa. After reading this funny take I realized I actually know quite a bit of weirdly crafted bizarre misinformation about Africa. Not that you could sum up a continent of a billion people in a book/one place, but he did a great job of collecting a lot of popularized tropes. “Real Africans” probably cringe when they see the referenced articles & books this author references.
- beckman466 5y ago> “Real Africans” probably cringe when they see the referenced articles & books this author references. i didn't see any references, which articles and books are you referring to?
- foobarian 5y agoI occasionally do Street View trips in random spots in Africa to get a sense of the place. Wish there was some kind of driving game powered by that data.
- TigeriusKirk 5y agoI play Geoguessr every day (there's a daily challenge of 5 rounds), so it's a good way to see some of Africa. There's not a lot of Africa on streetview/geoguessr, at least not relative to the size of the continent. Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Botswana, and South Africa/Eswatini/Lesotho have good coverage. Egypt and Tunisia have a little. Anyway, you get a pretty good sampling of what those countries are like, from the small distant villages to the huge megalopolises. It's also worth following some African tech people on twitter. Nigeria in particular seems to have a lot of developers and tech entrepreneurs on Twitter.
- uncletaco 5y agoI first noticed this in college that every novel about Africa had an acacia tree at sunset on the cover. And even if they don't have the tree often novels will have a sunset theme as if the jacket designer is trying to say "nothing to see here". But maybe they're really trying to say their visual information about Africa comes entirely from the Lion King poster.
- SamBam 5y agoI loved The Power of One as an early teen. And yes, it was absolutely chock-full of everything in this article, plus the hero is a white savior, and it featured a huge setting sun with an acacia tree on its cover. By my late teens I had worked out that setting sun was indicative of a certain kind of book.
- NoSorryCannot 5y agoIf not acacia then a groce of baobab, ideally with a giraffe in silhouette.
- kkjjkgjjgg 5y agoIs it misinformation, though? I think most of the things he complains about actually exist? It would be nice to hear about some other things, but there does not seem to be much available. Edit: since I am not allowed to reply to further comments by HN, I paste my reply to the most recent comment below: "Really? Yes all those things exist, also on other continents, but we are talking about how representative they are of Africa in general." That seems rather simplistic. There are things that are specific to Africa. Female mutilation only exist in my country because it was imported from places like Africa, for example. And we also don't have free roaming Elephants anywhere on my continent. Also no hunger epidemics. "Much of what exactly?" Stories describing a version of Africa that the author of the article would approve of.
- prmph 5y agoReally? Yes all those things exist, also on other continents, but we are talking about how representative they are of Africa in general. Yes FGM exists in many places in Africa. It also exists in many places in Asia. So what? Regular mass shootings are a peculiarly American thing. Does that there is nothing else to discuss about the US? Yes elephants roam in parts of Africa, usually in national parks. I fail to see how that’s a bad thing. But also, how that implies that any wiring about Africa is incomplete without alluding to that fact. > there does not seem to be much available Much of what exactly? If you mean positive stories about Africa, there are plenty that can be told. Those stories do not sell newspapers internationally though. However, the article was not even talking about writing positively about Africa, which in itself is patronizing. It was about writing _accurately_ about Africa. For examplE, right now internet access is expensive across many countries in Africa. This is a challenge to budding entrepreneurs and ordinary people. An article about that would be representative of the concern of many actual Africans. Edits: To respond to edits above
- kkjjkgjjgg 5y ago"Yes FGM exists in many places in Africa. It also exists in many places in Asia. So what? Regular mass shootings are a peculiarly American thing. Does that there is nothing else to discuss about the US?" I don't think you make a good point here. Should female genital mutilation in Africa not be discussed, just because it also happens in some places in Asia? Should mass shootings in America not be discussed? "But also, how that implies that any wiring about Africa is incomplete without alluding to that fact." But it also is not incorrect to allude to the fact, as there are indeed Elephants in Africa. " It was about writing _accurately_ about Africa." There is female genital mutilation in Africa and those other things, so writing about it is not inaccurate. "An article about that would be representative of the concern of many actual Africans." Everybody is free to write such an article.