I did not sleep well the first night I was in Ghana. There were strange noises outside that were keeping me up all night. I kept thinking to myself, “Wow, I can’t believe I am in Africa.” At the time it seemed so crazy to be in Africa of all places. The next morning, I called my mom and told her that I had not slept well. She said, “Oh it was probably the monkeys that kept you up.” I laughed, unsure if she was kidding or not. Where was my mom imagining I was at? The middle of a rain forest? It seemed ridiculous to me (I was staying in a house in a city), but because of stereotypes of Africa my mom probably thought that this was a fair guess of what had kept me up.
When I told people I was going to be studying abroad in Ghana over the summer, I received almost the same reaction from everyone. Most people had a look of surprise, amazement, and sometimes even horror on their faces. Many people have told me that I am brave for going to Africa because many people in the United States view Africa as a mysterious land of jungles, lions, war, and poverty.
On my last day of my internship in Ghana, my coworker asked me to please tell people back home that Africa is more than just the stereotypes. I have taken her request to heart because I have seen for myself that there is a lot more to the continent than the issues that they face. I can’t talk about any firsthand experience in other African countries, but in an extremely diverse continent with 54 countries and 2,000 languages, there is a lot more than war and poverty.
On one of my connecting flights, the woman next to me asked me where I was going. I told her I was going to Ghana and explained that I would be working at a newspaper for six weeks. Even after explaining this she kept thanking me for helping children. I kept explaining to her that I was not helping any children, but she just assumed because of stereotypes that I must be going to Africa to help children. It seemed like she thought that there must not be any other reason to go to Africa.
There is poverty in Ghana and I saw a lot of it. I don’t want to talk about the poverty though because it is something you need to witness to understand. There are amazing people who go to Africa to help with the poverty problem and that is wonderful. However, the poverty is not what defines any one country in Africa and it is not what defines the continent as a whole. I saw a lot more than poverty in Ghana. I saw unique cultures and interesting people and had experiences I can’t put into words.
Even the one country I went to was extremely diverse from area to area. This makes it even more upsetting when people generalize Africa as one big warzone of hungry people who are dying of disease. There are issues in Africa, but can we please stop stereotyping and generalizing an entire continent.
