African Realities Versus Stereotypes

I just returned from the Association of African Student's Africa Night at PSU, and I was again struck by the strong contrast between the reality and the stereotypes of African culture.

I met wonderfully warm and caring and engaged people from Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Ethiopia.  Yet most Americans associate these places simply with pain and suffering.  We seldom realize that there are many positive developments in these countries, and that most of the people in them and from them are very hard working and gracious.  There was an an old saying in the Peace Corps that went something like this:  Volunteers in Latin America came back radical;  volunteers in Asia came back meditating; volunteers in Africa came back laughing.  Of course Africans, like the continent itself, are very diverse.  But the great majority of Africans I have had the pleasure of knowing are delightful--exactly the opposite of the Hollywood stereotype of AIDS, starving babies, and wild-eyed young men with machine guns.

It made me realize what is at the heart of our Yo Ghana! project: giving students in the U.S. and Ghana the opportunity to learn about each other directly.