4 ms·

Small pet peeve - saying "Africa" is too broad a statement for a continent with 54 countries, and does a disservice to the actual government institutions workin

Small pet peeve - saying "Africa" is too broad a statement for a continent with 54 countries, and does a disservice to the actual government institutions working on development. They should explicitly call out Nigeria instead of treating it as "Africa". Nigeria is unique in how they actually have a formal industrial strategy for mini-grids [0] thanks to World Bank support [1] It's a uniquely Nigerian program and Nigeria's Rural Electrification Administration (REA) should be given it's due credit. When Boko Haram does something bad it's "Nigeria", but when Abuja does something good it's "Africa". Finally, what works for a federal state with a relatively strong civil service like Nigeria cannot be replicated in every "African" country, due to entirely different administrative and bureaucratic norms and capacity. [0] - https://rea.gov.ng/minigrids/ https://rea.gov.ng/minigrids/ [1] - https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/1ea00bb3-aaab-54c0-80cd-dcec0f0db396 https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/1ea...

frereubu 2y ago
This gets my goat as well, particularly given how vast Africa is (the Mercator projection does it no favours in that regard) and the diversity of cultures.
- alephnerd 2y ago
  Amen to all of that. It feels like all discourse about Africa is either super negative ("heart of darkness") or super paternalistic ("white/outsider [asian and middle eastern countries use the same discourse] savior complex"). It's similar to the discourse I'd see about Asia as a kid 20-30 years ago, and ignores a lot of the tangible on the ground innovations happening.
mmooss 2y ago
That was my first thought. Let's say you are an editor: You can be accurate and write 'Nigeria' in the headline, but you realize that most people have no idea where or what Nigeria is - that's a bad thing, but true. If you write 'Africa', then many more people will learn about Nigeria. I don't have a good answer. Maybe they should squeeze both into the headline: 'For African climate and livelihoods, Nigeria bets big ...'
- alephnerd 2y ago
  > Maybe they should squeeze both into the headline: 'For African climate and livelihoods, Nigeria bets big ...' Yep! That's what I feel is much more constructive as a title, because it both gives credit to the originator of a success AND makes it potentially generalizable. Btw, the proposed title you mentioned is the norm for reporting on the minigrid project in business news.
- ninalanyon 2y ago
  > most people have no idea where or what Nigeria is Really? I'm pretty sure that everyone I know knows where Nigeria is.
  - mmooss 2y ago
    > everyone I know Not a representative sample of Western humanity. Look up surveys on knowledge and beliefs; you'll be very surprised.
scns 2y ago
> Small pet peeve - saying "Africa" is too broad a statement for a continent with 54 countries And in one of those 54, Cameroon to be exact, there are over 300 languages spoken.

frereubu 2y ago

This gets my goat as well, particularly given how vast Africa is (the Mercator projection does it no favours in that regard) and the diversity of cultures.

alephnerd 2y ago
Amen to all of that. It feels like all discourse about Africa is either super negative ("heart of darkness") or super paternalistic ("white/outsider [asian and middle eastern countries use the same discourse] savior complex"). It's similar to the discourse I'd see about Asia as a kid 20-30 years ago, and ignores a lot of the tangible on the ground innovations happening.

mmooss 2y ago

That was my first thought. Let's say you are an editor: You can be accurate and write 'Nigeria' in the headline, but you realize that most people have no idea where or what Nigeria is - that's a bad thing, but true. If you write 'Africa', then many more people will learn about Nigeria. I don't have a good answer. Maybe they should squeeze both into the headline: 'For African climate and livelihoods, Nigeria bets big ...'

alephnerd 2y ago
> Maybe they should squeeze both into the headline: 'For African climate and livelihoods, Nigeria bets big ...' Yep! That's what I feel is much more constructive as a title, because it both gives credit to the originator of a success AND makes it potentially generalizable. Btw, the proposed title you mentioned is the norm for reporting on the minigrid project in business news.
ninalanyon 2y ago
> most people have no idea where or what Nigeria is Really? I'm pretty sure that everyone I know knows where Nigeria is.
- mmooss 2y ago
  > everyone I know Not a representative sample of Western humanity. Look up surveys on knowledge and beliefs; you'll be very surprised.

scns 2y ago

> Small pet peeve - saying "Africa" is too broad a statement for a continent with 54 countries And in one of those 54, Cameroon to be exact, there are over 300 languages spoken.