On Africa, Part I...

Change in plans. Instead of posting the old emails I sent out to the family and friends, I've decided to write entirely new posts here. this may or may not have been influenced by the fact that I'm avoiding a certain assignment...but no matter.

Let's play a visualization game. Think about the word "Africa". What do you see? I'm going to guess that one of these four things popped into your head:

- Lions, gazelles, elephants, zebras, crocodiles, cheetahs, etc. You just went all safari on me in 0.2 seconds, didn't you? You thought about the savanna and all wonderful wildlife and how The Lion King was your favorite movie growing up, right? You were excited about the danger and beauty of nature, "mother earth", "The Circle of Life", and all that jazz, hm? Yeah, you just keep your hands and feet in the RV as we move along...

- Maybe you went all National Geographic on me. You know, topless women, Masai warriors, "tribal experiences" with faces painted and minimal clothing involving a language that sounds little more to you than grunts and/or clicks. You, my friend, have been watching too much Discovery TV, so let's change the channel...

- You may have forgotten all about the nature and history of Africa, and gone straight to the violence, chaos, and fraud. You just thought of a black Superman bent on crime who is an ex-child soldier, has experience as a Somali pirate, was one of the "bad guys" in Hotel Rwanda, and is asking you for your bank account information so you can retrieve some lottery prize. Shame on you.

- Perhaps you ventured elsewhere and landed in a "Feed the Children" ad. You're thinking about a child with flies near their eyes and mouth, drinking water from what looks like a puddle to you, being held by a mother who has a mixture of desperation, sadness, and anger in her eyes from the life experiences she has faced. You just wrote out a check for the Red Cross, didn't you? Well, before you tear that perforated sheet, let me talk to you a little...

Repeat after me: "I will not believe everything the media tells me about Africa." Feel better already, don't we? But seriously, Africa is a part of the world, and as such has come into the 21st century along with all of the other continents. In addition, it is a CONTINENT. This means that there are different places all around with different languages, food, music, clothing, wildlife, etc. Do poverty and crime exist? Yes, just like the rest of the world. Is there wildlife and are there still some villages? Of course, but the same can be said about every other continent. And don't think that these types of assumptions don't creep into the minds of Black people in the "westernized" world... Black folk, you aren't fooling me. You grew up with the same biased media, so I'm looking at you, too.

The biggest difference here? Most of the people are Black. Shocker, I know. But just because the complexions may fall along a similar area of the spectrum does not mean everyone feels the same way about race, color, or identity. This is not the place to arrive as a Black American wearing a dashiki and expect everyone to throw their arms around you and accept you as their own. While this does happen occasionally, you may not find what you thought you would. For example, you may think that because you landed in the first independent African nation, where two of the greatest minds of Pan-Africanism converged and conversed, that you would feel an overwhelming sense of Black pride. You will have your dreams deflated and possibly suffer a small mental crisis if this is what you assume. I'll have tissues and a hug waiting for you when you get back...

So before I begin to discuss my experiences in detail, I just wanted to start everyone at the same place and with a clean slate.