Christine Vrey a writer on listverse has shared these popular misconceptions about AFRICA
I am African, well I’m Namibian which is in Africa, so I guess I can call myself African. I was born in Namibia, my parents were born in Namibia, and even my grandparents were born in Namibia. I have traveled to several countries in Africa and have done a lot of research on the ones I have not visited, and I think I have a pretty clear idea of how it is. I have always gotten very irritated with the ignorance of some people and would like to tell at least a small part of the world about the real Africa. Media has been a real disaster when it comes to Africa, as they only show the arid deserts, people starving and animals everywhere. If you have ever been deceived by these misconceptions, blame the media.
1. AFRICA IS A COUNTRY
Africa is not a country, but a continent. In fact it is the second largest, and second most populated, continent besides Asia. Africa has about 1 billion people and 61 different countries within it. So to end this misconception& – Africa is definitely not a country!
2. AFRICA IS A DESERT
While there are a few deserts in Africa (like the Sahara Desert in the North and the Namib Desert in the Southwest of Africa), large parts of Africa, especially central Africa, are tropical rainforests. On high mountains, like Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, are subarctic conditions. Furthermore, large areas in Africa have savannah plains, which are similar to prairies. So Africa is definitely not just a desert.
3. AFRICANS LIVE IN HUTS
Many people believe that all African people live in mud and dung huts. This is complete nonsense. There are buildings and towns and cities in every country in Africa. If you were to google the capital of any country you would be surprised by what you see. That is also not to say that no people in Africa live in huts, as there are a lot of tribes that still choose to live in their traditional villages in huts, but the bulk of each country have become westernized and civilized. Even in Africa you find those landscape spoiling skyscrapers and concrete covered metropolises. [Pictured: Windhoek, capital of Namibia.
4. AFRICANS HAVE WEIRD FOOD
This misconception does hold a small amount of truth to it, but nothing like what most people think. First of all, not all food in Africa is strange. It is not difficult to find a KFC or McDonald’s in many countries in Africa. There are restaurants where you can order a nice and juicy filet steak, seafood, pizza, pasta, burgers and basically whatever else you can think of. One of the most popular family meals in southern Africa is a “braai,” which is just an ordinary classic barbecue. In the more rural villages and tribes the people hunt for their food and so eat mostly game meat and, on occasion, they will eat certain types of worms, like the Mopani worm. It is impossible to find these foods in the towns and cities, so if you were ever to come and visit Africa, I doubt that you would even come across any of these.
5. ANIMALS DON'T HAVE TECHNOLOGY
This one I always find very funny. People that I have conversations with online are often shocked that I come from Africa and that I have a computer. In one hilarious exchange I had a guy believe that I was using a steam powered computer! Let me just put it like this: Africa has almost everything the rest of the world has, we just get it a couple of months later than everyone else. And no, we aren’t still stuck on dial-up!
