‘There’s more to Mama Africa than poverty and war’, is a line from Oliver Mtukudzi and Eric Wanaina’s song Twende Twende, and the words have never made so much more sense to me than it does as a foreigner living in France. Being in a new country, where I don't know pretty much anyone, I’m always asked where I come from when interacting with new friends. I always have to explain where Kenya is, and even dig out a map and show it, and it still baffles me how so many people here don’t know most countries in Africa, I mean there are those that think it’s just one huge country.
What pains me the most is that it’s just more than the geographic aspect, it’s this whole negative perception of Africans in most western people’s minds. Africa has always been negatively represented through poverty, hunger, civil wars, greed and selfishness among leaders, and even diseases. As much as part of it is painfully true, it all comes down to what Chimamanda calls the danger of a single story.
I can't stop but feel sorry for how unimaginably ignorant and misinformed some people in the West can be, SOME people. But now you're wondering why I'm ranting about this, so let’s begin with a story. I was meeting a friend one evening, and the weather happened to be good, so we took a long walk along La Maine. I can’t even describe the beauty of how the river stretches out from the city, or it might just be my obsession with nature! We were having a good time getting to know each other, and he kept going on about his love for video games and all, but I’m not a fan, and you can imagine how boring it was beginning to get. He was now curious and he asked if it was it because there are no video games in Africa, and it’s at this point I burst out a very awkward laugh, and I even thought it was meant to be a joke, but alas!
"You know the way there's poverty in Africa, no schools and even computers'' and at this point, I'm losing my cool. "You know, like in Burkina Faso, they don't have food and homes, and my family even has charity programs to feed people and give them medicine" he went on and on. So I then asked if he has ever visited any country in Africa, "No, why should I? C'est l’Afrique". I know you can already tell how the whole encounter turned out to be uncomfortable.
It bothers me that he thinks that way, but what’s more challenging is that it’s not only him that has this image of Africa, and black people in general in his mind. It’s the type of mentality engraved in so many other people’s minds, even the men in expensive suits running the governments that can't see Africa as something beyond a charity case. It is the same people that hold ridiculous conferences and meetings to address ‘African matters’ with selfish African leaders whose sole interest is their needs. Where does this leave our continent? It’s a never-ending circle!