a little over a year ago I went out to
dinner with my friends family for the
first time I had been in America for a
few months upon introduction of myself
as Nigerian the first question out her
mom’s mouth was how far did you have to
walk from your village to your school
every day I found this question
especially bizarre because I had never
walked to school before nor did I live
in a village so it took me few seconds
to process and register my answer to the
question when I finally found my tongue
I’d said something along the lines of I
boarded the school bus to school every
day sounding just doesn’t sure of myself
as the look of surprise – crept across
her face when she got my answer even
though I was telling the truth what I
find most fascinating about this to date
though is the fact that this woman my
friend’s mom who had no hide no idea who
I was knew nothing about me except my
name and that I was friends with a
daughter he come to such a drastic
conclusion that I lived in a village or
walk to school every day based on the
mere fact that I was from Nigeria or
from Africa as it’s usually put this was
the first time I had been caught off
guard by such a question as regards
where I was from but it surely was in
the last as over the next few months I
found myself in conversations where I
had to answer questions like are you
poor is your family too happy to realize
how poor you are
do they have cars in Africa do you know
how there’s no internet and there’s no
power in Africa other times I listen to
people say friends like oh I’m gonna
visit Africa Cuba a flight attendants
talk about their routes to Japan China
or Africa or regardless of the fact that
Africa is a continent and all this other
places were countries although I try to
make an argument for my continent
I could it was never truly enough as I
remain continually haunted by the
inaccuracy of the perceptions people
hide of where I was from and so my
journey began the frantic search for
answers to questions about where I was
from the first question being what do
people really think about Africa or what
image comes to mind when year Africa in
a bid to find the most random sample of
people with different perspectives and
from different ways of life I constantly
looked up answers to this question ask
people in person whenever I got the
chance and put up multiple color pulse
to get their answers the most popular
answers were abundant wildlife poverty
disease beautiful landscape black people
aids and starving children sadly for the
vast majority of people this is all dc1
to think of Africa not the second
largest continent in the world whose
land size fits the entirety Europe and
two of the largest countries in the
world in the United States and China not
the 54 different countries in Africa not
the 1.2 billion people a seventh of the
world’s population who lives in Africa
but rather a huge lump of people defined
by one truth regardless of the fact that
two Africans more genetically different
from each other than a person of Chinese
descent is from a person of European
descent
the bigger question knows what drives
this notions for quite a number of
people their narratives of Africa
loosely but solely based on the media TV
commercials the news and Hollywood
movies like The Lion King or Hotel
Rwanda for some others their narratives
of Africa is based on the core of an
African country they’ve discussed in a
history class they took or the relief
troops they’ve taken to spar villages
countries like Mauritania Togo or Ghana
well mr. pictures from the movies the
visit and the history classes are
accurate they do not do enough justice
of this huge continent to create a
concrete Universal narrative of it does
leading us to create something called a
single story notion of African countries
so what is a single story notion a
single story notion is a judgment of
hasty generalization we make about a
people or a community based on stories
we’ve heard seen a length even though
the stories might contain limited
information or may be incomplete
an example of a single story would be I
want to visit Ed Welch County Colorado I
stayed with my friend Kevin Frye on his
farm Kevin and a lot of people in the
community owned a lot of cows own logic
because of lands for farm and enjoyed a
good cow auction I realized that North
Americans owned large acres of land big
cornfields and had fun at a good cow
auction so low outrageous but on the
flip side of it a single story notion
could also be I visited Manhattan New
York once I decided and realized that
North Americans lived in big cities with
skyscrapers and chose to walk ride the
bikes or take the subway rather than
drive because traffic is too hectic
for my friend’s mom though her single
story notion was that to be from an
African country you needed to live in a
village and to be educated from an
African country you had to walk to
school on a daily basis although single
sorry notions can come in positives and
negatives African countries have often
got in the shorter end of the stick with
negative views because the biggest
influence of Africa’s narratives in the
media and the school system tend to
focus only on the juicy stuff only the
extremes the misfortunes and the
terrorists get reported on TV or made
into movies which is understandable by
the way I mean no one wants to listen to
a reporter talk about the Kenyan with a
steady 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. job to
earn a living
or the Guinean communities with steady
electricity a steady water supply but I
do think it is important to note that
while these things might not be
newsworthy they’re not non-existent just
to be clear I’m not trying to be overly
critical of anyone frankly I am in no
position to because I am just as if not
more guilty of making hasty
generalizations of places based on
single stories nevertheless I do think
it is important for us to become more
aware of how inappropriate it is to
define a whole group of people based on
one history class one story one movie or
even one visit don’t get me wrong to say
that stereotypes and narratives are
incorrect would be improper and over
inaccurate but the biggest drawback with
stereotypes is that they tend to be
incomplete and often highlight our
differences rather than our similarities
let’s prove this notion real quick take
for example the wildlife and safaris of
Africa by a quick show of hands how many
people think of lions zebras are
advancing giraffes when you think of
Africa yeah yeah because it’s supposed
to be and like a diverse ecosystem right
it’s like one of the most biodiverse
diverse ecosystems in the world right
but how can we never talk about the West
African countries like Togo Ghana
Nigeria where people have to visit Zeus
to actually see what life I mean right I
don’t have Lions roaming around the
street a zebra is walking across the
street why because these people are too
similar to us I mean also we talk about
poverty diseases lack of running water
lack of electricity in African countries
but we never talk about the families
that can that have steady electricity
access to clean water health insurance
and can afford to go on vacation in the
Bahamas why because they are too similar
although the majority of our learning
tools like the school system and the
media tend to pick out and emphasize our
differences rather than our similarities
it really is up to us as individuals to
educate ourselves on unfamiliar
territories especially since we live in
a world where information is so easily
accessible so be it on the subject of
Africa a bead on a broader scale and
subject involving the judgment of other
peoples racists religion sexuality or
social backgrounds it is imperative that
we do not rely on just narratives but
rather on the complete story to make an
informed judgment while I’m not trying
to gloss over the existence of negatives
in African countries like the idea that
38% of people in African countries live
under the poverty line or that one child
dies of malaria every 30 second and 90%
of the mortality rate occurs in Africa I
just think it is important to note the
entirety of the story and not just a
single part of it someone might say I am
entitled to my own opinion I can say
whatever I want I am of a belief that
we’re not entitled to our opinions but
we are entitled to our informed opinions
as no one is entitled to be ignorant so
next time you want to tell your friend
about the visit to a poor village in
Guinea Bissau I want to say Africa think
of the 54 different countries 3,000
different ethnicities and 2,000
different languages you’re going to lump
together into a group and expect the
small village to represent one next you
want to say why is Africa so poor or why
do they still live off hand offs think
about the one in three Africans that are
actually middle class one next you want
to discuss the foreign aid that’s
preventing Africa from its impending
doom realize that foreign aid represents
only 2% of the GDP of African countries
and that Africans abroad sent eight
million dollars more to their families
at home annually than the entire world
sense to African countries and foreign
aid on a yearly basis finally when you
want to say
Africa so backwards oh why do all
Africans live in huts think of cities
Johannesburg South Africa and legis
Nigeria to name a few who match up
infrastructure early with some of the
biggest cities in the world in the words
of regard resort Capuchin ski in Africa
the continent is too large to describe
it is a veritable ocean a separate
planet a varied immensely rich cosmos
only with the greatest simplification
for the sake of convenience can we say
Africa in reality except as a
geographical operation Africa does not
exist [Applause]
dinner with my friends family for the
first time I had been in America for a
few months upon introduction of myself
as Nigerian the first question out her
mom’s mouth was how far did you have to
walk from your village to your school
every day I found this question
especially bizarre because I had never
walked to school before nor did I live
in a village so it took me few seconds
to process and register my answer to the
question when I finally found my tongue
I’d said something along the lines of I
boarded the school bus to school every
day sounding just doesn’t sure of myself
as the look of surprise – crept across
her face when she got my answer even
though I was telling the truth what I
find most fascinating about this to date
though is the fact that this woman my
friend’s mom who had no hide no idea who
I was knew nothing about me except my
name and that I was friends with a
daughter he come to such a drastic
conclusion that I lived in a village or
walk to school every day based on the
mere fact that I was from Nigeria or
from Africa as it’s usually put this was
the first time I had been caught off
guard by such a question as regards
where I was from but it surely was in
the last as over the next few months I
found myself in conversations where I
had to answer questions like are you
poor is your family too happy to realize
how poor you are
do they have cars in Africa do you know
how there’s no internet and there’s no
power in Africa other times I listen to
people say friends like oh I’m gonna
visit Africa Cuba a flight attendants
talk about their routes to Japan China
or Africa or regardless of the fact that
Africa is a continent and all this other
places were countries although I try to
make an argument for my continent
I could it was never truly enough as I
remain continually haunted by the
inaccuracy of the perceptions people
hide of where I was from and so my
journey began the frantic search for
answers to questions about where I was
from the first question being what do
people really think about Africa or what
image comes to mind when year Africa in
a bid to find the most random sample of
people with different perspectives and
from different ways of life I constantly
looked up answers to this question ask
people in person whenever I got the
chance and put up multiple color pulse
to get their answers the most popular
answers were abundant wildlife poverty
disease beautiful landscape black people
aids and starving children sadly for the
vast majority of people this is all dc1
to think of Africa not the second
largest continent in the world whose
land size fits the entirety Europe and
two of the largest countries in the
world in the United States and China not
the 54 different countries in Africa not
the 1.2 billion people a seventh of the
world’s population who lives in Africa
but rather a huge lump of people defined
by one truth regardless of the fact that
two Africans more genetically different
from each other than a person of Chinese
descent is from a person of European
descent
the bigger question knows what drives
this notions for quite a number of
people their narratives of Africa
loosely but solely based on the media TV
commercials the news and Hollywood
movies like The Lion King or Hotel
Rwanda for some others their narratives
of Africa is based on the core of an
African country they’ve discussed in a
history class they took or the relief
troops they’ve taken to spar villages
countries like Mauritania Togo or Ghana
well mr. pictures from the movies the
visit and the history classes are
accurate they do not do enough justice
of this huge continent to create a
concrete Universal narrative of it does
leading us to create something called a
single story notion of African countries
so what is a single story notion a
single story notion is a judgment of
hasty generalization we make about a
people or a community based on stories
we’ve heard seen a length even though
the stories might contain limited
information or may be incomplete
an example of a single story would be I
want to visit Ed Welch County Colorado I
stayed with my friend Kevin Frye on his
farm Kevin and a lot of people in the
community owned a lot of cows own logic
because of lands for farm and enjoyed a
good cow auction I realized that North
Americans owned large acres of land big
cornfields and had fun at a good cow
auction so low outrageous but on the
flip side of it a single story notion
could also be I visited Manhattan New
York once I decided and realized that
North Americans lived in big cities with
skyscrapers and chose to walk ride the
bikes or take the subway rather than
drive because traffic is too hectic
for my friend’s mom though her single
story notion was that to be from an
African country you needed to live in a
village and to be educated from an
African country you had to walk to
school on a daily basis although single
sorry notions can come in positives and
negatives African countries have often
got in the shorter end of the stick with
negative views because the biggest
influence of Africa’s narratives in the
media and the school system tend to
focus only on the juicy stuff only the
extremes the misfortunes and the
terrorists get reported on TV or made
into movies which is understandable by
the way I mean no one wants to listen to
a reporter talk about the Kenyan with a
steady 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. job to
earn a living
or the Guinean communities with steady
electricity a steady water supply but I
do think it is important to note that
while these things might not be
newsworthy they’re not non-existent just
to be clear I’m not trying to be overly
critical of anyone frankly I am in no
position to because I am just as if not
more guilty of making hasty
generalizations of places based on
single stories nevertheless I do think
it is important for us to become more
aware of how inappropriate it is to
define a whole group of people based on
one history class one story one movie or
even one visit don’t get me wrong to say
that stereotypes and narratives are
incorrect would be improper and over
inaccurate but the biggest drawback with
stereotypes is that they tend to be
incomplete and often highlight our
differences rather than our similarities
let’s prove this notion real quick take
for example the wildlife and safaris of
Africa by a quick show of hands how many
people think of lions zebras are
advancing giraffes when you think of
Africa yeah yeah because it’s supposed
to be and like a diverse ecosystem right
it’s like one of the most biodiverse
diverse ecosystems in the world right
but how can we never talk about the West
African countries like Togo Ghana
Nigeria where people have to visit Zeus
to actually see what life I mean right I
don’t have Lions roaming around the
street a zebra is walking across the
street why because these people are too
similar to us I mean also we talk about
poverty diseases lack of running water
lack of electricity in African countries
but we never talk about the families
that can that have steady electricity
access to clean water health insurance
and can afford to go on vacation in the
Bahamas why because they are too similar
although the majority of our learning
tools like the school system and the
media tend to pick out and emphasize our
differences rather than our similarities
it really is up to us as individuals to
educate ourselves on unfamiliar
territories especially since we live in
a world where information is so easily
accessible so be it on the subject of
Africa a bead on a broader scale and
subject involving the judgment of other
peoples racists religion sexuality or
social backgrounds it is imperative that
we do not rely on just narratives but
rather on the complete story to make an
informed judgment while I’m not trying
to gloss over the existence of negatives
in African countries like the idea that
38% of people in African countries live
under the poverty line or that one child
dies of malaria every 30 second and 90%
of the mortality rate occurs in Africa I
just think it is important to note the
entirety of the story and not just a
single part of it someone might say I am
entitled to my own opinion I can say
whatever I want I am of a belief that
we’re not entitled to our opinions but
we are entitled to our informed opinions
as no one is entitled to be ignorant so
next time you want to tell your friend
about the visit to a poor village in
Guinea Bissau I want to say Africa think
of the 54 different countries 3,000
different ethnicities and 2,000
different languages you’re going to lump
together into a group and expect the
small village to represent one next you
want to say why is Africa so poor or why
do they still live off hand offs think
about the one in three Africans that are
actually middle class one next you want
to discuss the foreign aid that’s
preventing Africa from its impending
doom realize that foreign aid represents
only 2% of the GDP of African countries
and that Africans abroad sent eight
million dollars more to their families
at home annually than the entire world
sense to African countries and foreign
aid on a yearly basis finally when you
want to say
Africa so backwards oh why do all
Africans live in huts think of cities
Johannesburg South Africa and legis
Nigeria to name a few who match up
infrastructure early with some of the
biggest cities in the world in the words
of regard resort Capuchin ski in Africa
the continent is too large to describe
it is a veritable ocean a separate
planet a varied immensely rich cosmos
only with the greatest simplification
for the sake of convenience can we say
Africa in reality except as a
geographical operation Africa does not
exist [Applause]
Please follow and like us: