Things Africans Wish you Knew....

According to ThisisAfrica.em..This image is from a  UNICEF Germany campaign 4 years ago which consisted of smearing white kids' faces with mud (blackface?) to show their solidarity with uneducated African kids; O_0????????. It says "In Africa, many kids would be glad to worry about school." &  “I'm waiting for my last day in school, the children in Africa for their first", while yet another had “In Africa, kids don’t come late to school, they don’t come at all.”


To Europeans and white Americans, Africans are always in need of their help: their expert knowledge, skills and aid can help us improve our situation is the default belief.
To African-Americans, Africa represents the motherland and their roots. At least it sounds nice to say so, because most don’t seem that eager to actually visit anywhere in Africa. The sentimentality and nostalgia washed away by the mere thought of all that poverty and disease.

To Asians and Middle-Easterners, we Africans lack the work ethic and self-discipline to ever be a true success. To some North Africans, too, a reason why some North Africans prefer to see themselves as Middle-Eastern rather than African.

With so many ideas and misconceptions about Africa and Africans floating about it takes a heck of a lot of determination to feel good about yourself. Which stereotypes are you too tired to conform to and which must you fight against no matter how tired you are? But the 200 million African youth out there are a tough, tenacious bunch. We know that being African today means having to work harder, having to make the best of what you have in front of you right now, but also having to keep looking to the future, because that’s where we will no longer need to deal with the additional burden of stereotypes.

Being African today means understanding that we have to write our own rules and doing things in the order that works for us, because not all of us have the opportunity (or money) to get a decent education and then land a decent job. Some of us are nursing the elderly, bringing home the bacon in child-headed families, or working two jobs in order to save up to go back to school. The rest are just trying to survive.

Do we need help? Yes, some do, but the right kind of help: the kind that leaves us with our dignity intact. We need to know that those who come here to help do not take it as given that they know exactly what we need because they are coming from the West, where all the answers are apparently self-evident, and we are African, and so obviously have no idea about anything at all. We are, like you, just trying to make our way in the world and through life. If you’re here to offer a hand-up, don’t make it feel like a slap in the face, and try not to follow it up with a pat on the head.


By Sumeera Dawood
ThisIsAfrica.ME