Purpose Statement: Inform my audience about the misconceptions about Africa. Introduction Attention-getter A. Engage audience in a guessing game with images. B. Reveal answers. Thesis Statement A.Unbalanced media coverage is to blame for the numerous misconceptions most westerners have about Africa. Preview 1. I will list and clarify the three common misconceptions about Africa. Body Africa is a country 1. Africa is the second largest continent . 2. Made up of 54 countries recognized by the AU(Africa Union). 3. Diverse cultures( languages,history,clothing et cetera). 4. According to …show more content…
3. Because of political apathy for environmental conservation and economic gains. Africa relies solely on foreign aid because it’s poor 1. There’s no doubt that some areas in Africa experience dire economic hardships and foreign aid has helped eradicate diseases such as small pox,measles et cetera,but Africa’s sole dependence on aid is not entirely true. 2.Refer to it as the “Great Paradox” because in terms of natural resources Africa is the richest continent in the world.Yet still,is the poorest continent in world. 3.Most African countries are made up of Urban and Rural areas. Urban areas are cities rife with economic activities e.g. Industries,retail stores et cetera. Rural areas also have economic activities mostly farming and the sale of
When I began reading Chapter 1 of “Mistaking Africa,” it reminded me of our first class meeting. Professor Crowley asked us to do the same exercise Curtis Keim talks about in the text. Professor Crowley asked us what comes to mind when we think about Africa. It is a great exercise and allow us to express our perceptions of Africa. Even in class, it took me time to think about what comes to mind when I hear the word Africa, because I have not really heard much about it besides the common misconceptions: “Africa is a primitive place, full of trouble and wild animals, and in need of our help” (5). I frequently see the UNICEF commercial with Alyssa Milano, who asks her viewers how it would feel to be able to save a child’s life for fifty cents a day. The commercial precedes to play really depressing music and shows a slideshow of undernourished children, who fend for themselves in
There are many misconceptions that have been universally accepted mentioned in Curtis Keim’s book Mistaking Africa, many of which are based on biased and incorrect accounts and are extremely offensive. Three important myths are that Africa is a land of cannibals, it is backward and very uncivilized, and that it is one country where everyone and the climate are the same all over. These will be explained, refuted, and the detriment to the people of Africa will be discussed.
Many contemporary scholars such as John Iliffe rashly characterize Africa as a hostile environment that induces weak agriculture and small population. Yes, their perception about Africa is sound to some degree because African geography suggests that its environment is less suitable for certain types of harvesting. Also, there are some diseases more prevalent in Africa. However, it is hasty to judge Africa solely based on these features, and such judgment parochially overlooks other characteristics of African environment that enable its inhabitants to live a life that is not at all inferior but quintessentially different from western continents. In contrary to the typical stereotype, Africa contains a rich diversity of plants and foods sources
According to Keim, some misconceptions are that they are culturally and evolutionally behind us. Also, that people living in Africa are living in the dark ages. This was even believed by African-Americans during this Dark Continent Era. They believed “in African backwardness… Because the general cultural climate in America promoted evolutionism… most were Christians and believed that most Africans, as non-Christians needed salvation. ” This is pretty alarming to me that everyone regardless of race for the most part bought into this way of thinking about an entire Continent, even if they disagreed on religions. There is this stereotype that Africa is in trouble or helpless and needs our help. People constantly come to Africa to help people that
Have you ever considered how life was like as an African American? Well if you have I'm going to tell you some facts about how It was to be an African American first one thing no one would want to happen to them is if you’re a married slave you would still be separated if someone bought you also you would have to wake up early in the morning to pick cotton because for most slaves they had to pick cotton because that made the most money. but there were people that didn’t like people having slaves and those people were called abolitionist.
This paper would contain a detailed overview of African Continent’s history and evolution. Social and cultural reformations and practices would be taken into consideration. It will carry a detail oriented research on the poverty and underdevelopment issues of the continent. A brief review to the history in the relevance of the topic would be included. Developmental crises would be analysed from several perspectives. The cultural and social norms and their relation to their relation to developmental crises would be evaluated. Possible solutions regarding the limitations and issues in the developmental social and cultural prosperity and well-being would be discussed. A meaningful conclusion would be evaluated on the research
Modern African states have various problems ranging from corruption, to armed conflict, to stunted structural development. Africa’s ongoing political instability and economic crisis have hindered the improvement of Africa. Thus, the lack of money, advancement in technology, and climate has hampered economic development. Despite European mistreatment and oppression African’s have endured hardships that have encouraged economy, education, and political
Speaking to an audience of hundreds of people sounds terrifying to me, however, it is this precise reason why I think I would make a great speaker. Throughout my academic career, I have always loathed presenting because I am naturally more reserved and in some cases, I am a shy person. I find myself not taking advantage of speaking in classes because I prefer having my thoughts prepared in advance so that I am clear and able to defend my arguments. I have not had a bad experience presenting yet, and I attribute this to careful preparation. Furthermore, I believe my idea is worth spreading because of its timeliness and potential to impact today’s society. I take pride in all the work I put in leading up to the presentation and the opportunity to have the audience’s attention.
Many people interpret Africa to be a rundown third world country. When Ann Jones goes to Africa she gets to see the real beauty of the continent. Ann Jones drove through many countries and saw the many different ways each group of people interact with each other. Jones draws the conclusion that Africa has a caring community, people who will steal, and full of beautiful landscapes.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad has been depicted as “among the half-dozen greatest short novels in the English language.” [pg.1] Chinua Achebe believes otherwise. In Chinua Achebe’s An Image of Africa: Racism is Conrad’s Heart of Darkness he simply states that, “Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist” [pg.5]
One of the biggest problem in today’s world is the struggle of African Countries and others. Seventy-five percent of the world’s poorest countries are located in Africa. Approximately one in three people living in Africa are undernourished and millions even lack the opportunity to have clean water. Only around twenty percent of women in Africa have access to education. This data proves that modern world
Africa is a continent plagued by misinformed and false stereotypes, rarely being seen or portrayed as what it really is. Countless amounts of myths and ideas are formulated based off of single stories or one-sided stories from the region, often without a second thought. These stereotypes give Africa an overall negative image to the rest of the world and suppress the reality that is hidden behind the slew of stereotypes. The belief that all of Africa is poor and undeveloped is an uninformed statement that harms the reality and worsens the image of the continent by perpetuating an incomplete idea into the world.
The myth and stereotypes about Africa are not anything new and they are very present in our daily lives and the way Africa is portrayed. For example the reason why many people today think that Africa is bleak land of poverty and diseases is because early writers, historians, and geographers talked about Africa in that way. Because these stereotypes are so readily available, they infiltrate people’s daily thinking. Furthermore this makes people less likely to actually seek to really learn about Africa because they feel that their [inaccurate] suffice for their worldview of Africa. This is in turn leads people completely ignoring anything that contract their already established ideas.
Bill Cosby, an American comedian, once said, “Is the glass half full, or half empty? It depends on whether you are pouring, or drinking.” Nowadays, when one mentions of Africa, picture of a continent with a vicious cycle of war, poverty and hunger immediately appears in people’s mind. Thus, over the past 50 years, millions, trillions of dollars were sent to aid Africa from developed countries, or organizations. However, poverty and hunger still remain as issues as if nothing has changed. Trying to find the core reasons to this unchanging phenomenon, Good Fortune, a movie directed by Landon Van Soest, explores the disparity between the developers’ and the native’s perspective of needs in urban Africa as well as in rural areas, while explaining riots and chaos are formed due to lack of communication.
Africa has more than 800 languages native to its continent. African cultures are so diverse that they are different from any other culture of the world. African cultures contain many different languages. African languages range from common French to languages unheard of to most people such as Swahili. African arts are much different than American arts. Their art involves much more creative pottery, masks, and paintings. Africa has a very interesting culture. Reasons being the people are very creative and like to express their individuality. The most diverse cultures in the world belong to Africa.