What is Africa?

Again from Mick's blog:

"I expected that Africa would be waiting for me like I’d seen in the ads and documentaries. Mothers with malnutrition bloated babies. Dirt and misery. People crying out for my help. It was not what I found.

Africa is Africa and that is the most important lesson I learned. We are on the same planet but Africa is not, will never be and should never be Australia or anything but Africa. Africa is wonderfully different and that is a good thing.

Part of my prejudice was that I felt sorry for Africans because they weren’t like me. That was even part of what I thought was just a lack of understanding. ‘When I understand them I will be able to relate to them and help them be more like me. To have my life and therefore have the things that I have.’ It was such a naïve way of looking at the world, especially when I considered myself worldly and open minded.

The small part of Africa that I caught a glimpse of was full of life and living. People, families, communities, towns and countries were living. They woke up everyday and got on with life. Most of them without thinking that they wish they were somewhere else with some other life. That is not to say that they don’t wish for a better life, but they don’t wish to be whisked away from this life to another country. They want to have a better life in their village with their family.
Things were certainly different, but things were certainly not doom and gloom. In fact ‘things’ were the primary difference. We (meaning western cultures) have lots of shiny, expensive, convenient things to support our shiny, expensive, inconvenient lives. In Tanzania they had what they needed, or a bit less or a bit more. Some people had some things that they wanted, like a radio or family TV, or they may have wanted them, but lived without them."