African Diversity

Every week I attend a book club that reads publications about Africa, written by African authors, or both. Yesterday, as we were choosing our books for the next few months, I made a startling comment that surprised even myself: "Before reading this book [King Leopald's Ghost] I had no idea where the Congo was or even that it used to be called Zaire." Embarrassing but true.

Before moving to Lagos, Africa was this conglomerate of the unknown. Botswana, Sudan, and Togo could easily have passed for the same country in my mind. After all, they're all Africa, right? Lots of black people, lions and leopards, and probably civil unrest. In a nut shell, that was my Africa. I exaggerate a bit, knowing full well the world's largest desert rests in the north (I don't think leopards hang out there), and the residents of northeast Africa most certainly do not look black. Then of course there is South Africa...lots of white people and the most "civilized" of all African countries.

But let's be serious...if I took a poll of all my blog followers and asked them to point out Gabon, Namibia, and Burkina Faso on a map, how many of us would get all three right? Somehow, over the years, this vastly diverse continent that boasts over 1,000 indigenous languages and probably just as many cultures, has melded into "Africa." So, in celebration of the most misunderstood continent on the planet, my next couple of blogs will focus on African diversity. To give you a taste of what's to come, here are a couple of photos of people from different African countries. Can you guess where they are from?