terça-feira, 17 de abril de 2012

“Americans and their (little/big) knowledge about Africa”


When I first arrived to United States, the question “How does Africa look like?” first sounded innocent and ingenuous, and then it started to sound offensive; Why? I will explain in the following paragraphs; however, it all made me ask myself for months and months the following: “Do all American people know enough about Africa? Do they really have to know about Africa?”
Before I start, I would say that United States of America is in my opinion the biggest multicultural country, where people from different races and ethnicities breath the same air, share the same opportunities and – in most of the cases –same rights. In my ingenuous mind, the previous statement used to mean that United States citizens were the ones that knew more – than superficial – about other cultures than any other citizens in the world, since they are inevitably meant to see about five different ethnicities on their way to school, work or mall, every single day. The dream of almost every African people is – I hope I am not wrong – visit America and live the so-appalled American Dream, which according to the historian James Truslow Adams, is “That dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.”
Before I totally go off-topic,  I hope people do not get me wrong when I say that I used to think that “United States citizens were the ones that knew more – than superficial – about other cultures than any other citizens in the world”; I am not asking for people to know from heart that Africa has 11,608,000 sq. miles, because even I had to google it. The point in my analysis – and maybe in your minds now as well – is whether American citizens should know or not about Africa, and if yes, what exactly they should know. I like to share this story that takes place in Atlanta – Georgia, where I attended an intensive english program, in order to study in United States. As soon as I arrived on the main campus, feeling a little bit lost with all my luggages, a guy came over next to me and introduced himself to me. “I have just made a new friend” that was my first thought. He seemed very interested in knowing about my cultural  background, and so then he asked me How does Africa look like?. My ingenuous answer was that Africa was just like any other continent, with some poor countries and other well developed countries as well – but that just seemed not to answer his question, then he kept asking. The next question was: “What type of clothes do you wear in Africa?”. I started not to like the path the conversation was taking, but I remained polite and replied that we use the same types of clothes Americans use, but we also have traditional clothes; Then the third question was: Do you use cellphones in Africa?. My first psychological reaction was: dude, first of all, don’t be talking about Africa like if it was a country, or a community. We have 52 distinct countries over there. You can’t just generalize it. I had totake a deep breath to answer that question because it started to sound offensive. I replied that we have cellphones and also told him that “Africa” is in the 21st century just like United States – yes, I really emphasized Africa in my speech, believe me. The last question killed me completely, leaving me nostalgic. I even thought that it was some kind of game to test my patience. The question was: “How are your burgers in Africa? I mean, the meat… Do you eat Lion Burgers in Africa?” My first reaction was “dude, shut up!” but I remained quiet and laughed instead, explaining that we even have Mcdonalds in “AFRICA” – emphasizing the name of the continent again. That conversation made me nostalgic, and from there on I figured that a lot of American people do not know about Africa. The question would be: “why would people actually care?” I cannot answer this question precisely, because first I would have to know why in the world I could fail a History course in my country just because I did not know about the French Revolution or the name of the man who discovered America – in the 7th grade.
It then became a personal matter to know why a big number of American citizens had so little information about Africa. I decided to know what was the source of the little information they had, and that drove me to conduct a survey that took place in Barry University’s campus. One of the questions of the survey asked the participants how well did they think they knew Africa and the final result was negative. People confirmed that they knew almost nothing about Africa – only the most recent famous worlwide case: Kony. The following question – with multiple choice option – asked the participants of the survey about what was the source of the information they know about Africa, leaving the following options: TV and Newspapers, Internet, Journals, and Academic Teaching. Internet was the number one choice, followed by TVs and Journals, leaving academic teaching in last.
I confess that I used to think that I was facing a case of voluntary ignorance of the topic by the American citizens, and then during my research I changed my mind. American citizens cannot be blamed for not knowing – more than what they know – about Africa. It seems to me that is a situation that should be solved by the educational system. My guess is that I would not know either about the French Revolution or about Plato’s texts if it was not for the school to introduce it to my life, and let me choose if I would like it or just study for the tests. I would not log in to my computer, and instead of accessing my facebook and twitter accounts, would just go and research about something related to History, unless I was really passionate about that matter.
According to my research and survey, it seems to me that American educational system has failed in providing what would be considered the essential information about Africa to its citizens. Africa is part of the history, and will always be.

Credits to:

http://aaenvironment.blogspot.com/

Youngro Lee, To Dream Or Not To Dream, 16 Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy 231, 232
Lewyn, Michael. "The Real Meaning Of The "American Dream"." Planetizen 23 04 2008: Planetizen. <http://planetizen.com>.
http://worldatlas.com