Stereotypes and Africa

As I share my life in Africa, it is important for me to remind you about stereotypes.

What are stereotypes? These are overly simple pictures of a person or group.

Americans have many stereotypes about Africa, and Africans have many stereotypes about Americans. This is why I like to point out that Africa is very big, and very diverse.

For example, when I arrived in Mozambique, I met people from around the world and heard many stereotypes about America. Some of my friends said that they were surprised by my accent, because they thought everyone in America had a Southern Accent, lived on a ranch, and loved country music (like our old President George Bush). While I do love country music, and Ellington has lots of farms, I was not what they expected! My friends also told me some stereotypes that offended me. They said that the impression of America is that we don’t like to travel and don’t care about the rest of the world, because none of us own passports. They also thought that we are all fat, because we eat McDonalds all day and play video games.

Yet, we as Americans know this isn’t true. Yes, there are some cowboys out west. And yes, we do eat McDonalds sometimes and some of us play video games. But it is also very expensive and far for us to travel outside the USA, and I explained that we DO care about the rest of the world.

Of course, even now, I have many stereotypes about Africa that I am learning are not true. As a kid, I envisioned one giant poor country with families in traditional tribal clothes. Instead, even those in rural areas no longer wear tribal clothes in Mozambique. We think about all of the wildlife, and some of us may imagine kids living side-by-side with lions and tigers. This is also is not true for the most part, though I have seen elephants a few times! Most of the wildlife is actually in reserves, away from humans.

What other stereotypes do you imagine when you think of Africa? I can help you understand which of these stereotypes are true, and which are not.

What do we do about stereotypes? I think it is important that we help disprove them! One thing you can do is take the time to learn about African countries like Mozambique, which you are already doing. We should be proud of our American culture, but also respect other cultures which are different from ours.

As you read, I’m sure you are learning that kids in African countries like Mozambique lead different lives than kids in the United States. But I think you will be surprised at how much they are also similar!