Africa: The Common Misperceptions

In the past few years I have, as well as many others I know, thought of Africa as a backwards country. Personally, I receive this idea most likely by viewing discovery channel or the history channel specials on Africa. These shows need interesting subject matter so they focus on primitive African tribes or the vast ranges of land inhabited by wild animals. Thomas Friedman's book Hot, Flat, and Crowded talks about the problem of Americans being "as dumb as we wanna be". Many people in America do not know much about Africa and just take the one visual of the country displayed in media as a main source. This makes people generalize about Africa. This is an excerpt from an article by CNN correspondent Robyn Curnow.

     It was Chris Karanja, who is corporate communications manager from Kenya Airways. He phoned to point out that one of the recent interviewees on Marketplace Africa misrepresented the airline industry in Africa. The guest said that you couldn’t fly across Africa from west to east or east to west and that if you wanted to travel across Africa you would have to fly to Europe and back.
     Now, this was a real problem some time ago but he says Kenya Airways now operates many flights across the continent. Besides his commercial interest in pointing out the guest’s error, he also stressed that it made Africa seem backward.
     Now, the perception that Africa is 'backward' is something that irritates and worries many businesspeople on the continent, particularly those working for world-class companies or in highly developed industries.

The common misconceptions of Africa are definitely not helping them. The African marketplace is not one to look down upon. Africa may one day pull itself out of negative perceptions and dampen the worries of industries invested in the country. This picture is proof that Africa is now more modern than ever before.

Johannesburg Skyline