Analysis of an Article Mistaking Africa: Curiosities and inventions of the American Mind: American Ignorance About Africa

“For many Americans, the mention of Africa immediately conjures up images of safaris, ferocious animals strangely dressed “tribesmen,” and impenetrable jungles. Although the occasional newspaper headline mentions authoritarian rule, corruption, genocide, devastating illness, or civil war in Africa, the collective American consciousness still carries strong mental images of Africa that are reflected in advertising, movies, amusement parks, cartoons and many other corners of society.”

In “Mistaking Africa: Curiosities and inventions of the American Mind”?i realized that so many of us has stereotyped Africa sometimes good and sometimes bad. There are media sources that tend to stereotype but they don’t know that and is only doing their job. Some typical misconceptions that has been said about Africa is: Africa is technologically backwards, Africa is mostly jungle, Africa has no history, Africans all live in huts and Africans all speak “African” and share the same culture. The most common misconception about Africa is that they lack the use of technology, but they really are resourceful about what they use. According to www.Africa.com” “ Africa is the fastest region when it comes to mobile growth.”

In Africa they have so many different internet sources and technology just like Americans. They even have Africans that blog about Africa. “ Certainly social media can be positive because they can provide more accurate sources of information about Africa.” Another stereotype that is always used is that African is mostly jungle. Even though we think we see Africa on T.V. and base our assumption on that and assume that it’s real. Africa actually have multimillion homes and urban centers. There is only a small portion of Africa that includes rainforests and jungles. According to Malcolm X” They always project Africa in a negative light: jungle savages, cannibles, nothing civilized.” He said as he visited there several times.

Africa always had history we just never heard of it and didn’t think it was true when hearing about it. According to “ Mistaking Africa” In 1889 a similar Universal Exposition took place in Paris and featured the newly built Eiffel Tower, an African village with four hundred Africans from French colonies, and an Egyptian exhibit.” In the book it talks about some of the history that happened but I never knew it would be fewer sources than you would think. It is really important for us to really try to do research and try to learn more about Africa.

When I was younger I believed that all Africans used to live in huts, but as I got older I did more research and actually found out that Africans actually do live in houses. “ We see African community life as basic but impossible to return to in our own communities” When you think about African’s homes most likely you think that they live in huts made of mud and maybe sticks. There are many African nations that is growing rapidly which is helping them have houses bricks and stone, clean water and electricity.

The last most common stereotype is that all Africans speak “ African” and share the same culture. Right off the bat some Americans assume that all Africans speak alike and that they share the same kind of culture. What you may not know is that there are about 2,000 and over languages spoken in Africa such as Zulu, Swahili and many others in the country.

I think that the stereotype lady sustained in America because we hear it it so much from family, friends, or it could be some someone you don’t really know. Stereotypes makes us kind of ignore the difference between different people. “ One of the biggest difficulties with generalizing about American views of Africa concerns the inclusion of African American views” (pg 12)

“Fortunately, with each passing decade, Americans have been treating Africans with less prejudice.” (Pg 11) “The other places where we learn our ideas about Africa are too numerous to discuss her. How about children’s books, place mats in restaurants, and Africa-themed resorts, billboards, and computer games? We’ve seen Africa used in exotic, inaccurate, and sometimes offensive ways in each of these examples.”