The misconception about Africa

All around the world, there is a general misconception about Africans and Africa as a continent. This misconception bore down to the fact that Africa has been misrepresented to the world by false media reports. Whenever people from other nations or continents hear about Africa the first thing that comes to their minds is that Africa is a poor continent and the people there are all living in poverty. Africa has been regarded to be a continent of poverty and suffering. But is it really true?, is Africa and Africans really that poor as the world portrays them to be? As an African and a Nigerian I think am in the best position to tell the world about Africa and not what external satellite media platforms are publishing about Africa. All I know satellite media platforms can only report events from the angle they see them and these are only incidental events and not about developments.

The way people of other continent see Africa

I met a lady who private chat with me from a telegram group a few weeks back. She introduced herself as Hannah from Venezuela and ask that we become virtual friends. Three days ago, while chatting on telegram she asked "where are you from" I replied "am from Nigeria" she asked where is Nigeria? I told her Nigeria is in Africa. On hearing Africa she seems to be taken aback with a shock and asked "Do you have electricity and internet?" I replied, "Yes we do even the remotest areas of Africa enjoyed the best electricity and internet services". Wow, I thought Africa is very poor and lacks basic amenities like clean water she retorted.

What! Does Africa lack clean water?

I have to explain to my friend many stuff about Africa and make her know that most of the information she has heard about Africa is false from unbalanced media publications. If you go to the internet to search about how people see s Africa the result is the same. Africa has been presented to the world as a backward and poor continent such that when you tell someone from another continent that you are from Africa you are being regarded as a poor and deprived human who needed help immediately. Do Africa lack clean water? Yes and no. Lack of clean water to drink is a global problem and not peculiar to Africa. And that is only evident in the remotest areas of some Africa countries. There's portable clean water available for drinking all over Africa countries. Whatever you must have read from somewhere published by any African person claiming a lack of clean drinking water in his or her community are all propaganda and lies to get incentives from their foreign helpers. Except such person lives in a farming Hamlet which is very far away from the cities, there is nowhere you cannot get portable water to drink across Africa countries.

How about internet services?

Some can also claim that there are no internet services in most African countries. All I know using my country Nigeria for example, internet service providers compete here to get an advantage in the internet market. They span their services across several cities down to the villages and Hamlets. In most cases, those living in the remotest areas enjoyed better internet services than people in the cities. Same thing with electricity. There's no internet service problem in Africa, if anyone tells you otherwise is all lies.

Is Africa really that poor as the world sees her.

Africa like any other continent has its poor countries and its rich ones. But even its poorest countries have access to the internet and clean water and other basic amenities. Africa is not generally a poor continent, there are several rich nations and cities in Africa. From South Africa to Tunisia, from Mali to Uganda, and from Ghana to Nigeria, even the little Seychelles has beautiful cities and landscapes. That you heard children are dying from hunger in Somalia and South Sudan do not mean Africa countries are poor. Those areas that are having such extreme poverty issues are area affected by internal wars and civil unrest. This often results in loss of properties and arable farming lands living the people in such areas helpless without foreign aids. Africa is blessed with arable farming lands, mineral resources such as gold, silver, bronze, and diamond. There's no country in Africa without crude oil. But the problem is these crude oils are never refined locally. They are sold out to foreign companies who transport them to their countries to be refined and then sold it back to Africa countries at a higher cost. That's one reason why Africa countries are financially unsettled. The major problem of most African countries, in general, is a lack of good leaders, besides that Africa and Africans, are not poor people.

All images from google.