9 Strange Misconceptions About Traveling to Africa
Forget bizarre mix-ups about travelling to Africa if you want to explore the continent. Some mistaken belief wouldn’t make for a good travel experience if you still hold them. Who said, “Africa was a country?” Africa’s the second largest continent in the world with 54 nation states.
No standard belief holds true for each of the countries at any particular point in time because these are different places and ethnicities. You’ll meet different people and culture yet the most common attribute of the continent is hospitality.
When we reject the single story. When we realise that there’s never a single story about any place. We regain a kind of paradise … Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
An African Safari is great but there’s so much more to an African adventure. There’s food, festivals, art, culture, people, and sport. I’ve compiled these facts to help you get rid of the foreign misconceptions about travelling to the most diverse continent in the world.
1. Africa is just about South Africa and Kenya
The desire to photograph and film African wildlife blinds many travellers to the realities of other places outside the popular safari destinations. In fact, every part of Africa is unique in its own way. As much as we desire to spot the ‘big five’, the pristine beaches of Seychelles and Mauritius are ideal for some sunbathing. There are nice beaches in Essaouira (formerly Mogador), where you get to spot some Moroccan antiquities and artworks. How about nightlife in Accra, Ghana?
2. Africa is not as comforting as the West
Unsophisticated travellers describe Africa as impoverished. That’s one of many lies told by the media. Images of malnourished children in war-torn territories and slums, so much so you don’t get to see Africans as people who live lavish nonetheless. And it goes like this, there’s ‘this Lagos’ and ‘that Lagos’. A high net worth Lagosian sees Banana Island, Ikoyi, Magodo and Lekki as ‘this Lagos’. ‘To them, ‘that Lagos’ is the other Lagos in the low-income neighbourhood. Four Point by Sheraton has roughly 12 properties in Africa. Luxury travellers arrive in these air-conditioned apartments furnished to taste with a chauffeur to drive them about and different cuisine to feed ‘tapeworms’ in their belly so who should be talking about comfort really? Leave that to the locals who’re faced with the real hardship of the now and then because Africa is designed for hospitality.
Stereotypes lose their power when the world is found to be more complex than the stereotype would suggest. When we learn that individuals do not fit the group stereotype, then it begins to fall apart… Ed Koch.
3. Civil war all the time
The continent is fast becoming the focus of conflicts, violence and human right violation and, all the same has become relatively peaceful. Hardly would a day pass without tales of atrocities somewhere in the world. When it comes to Africa, one swallow does not make a summer. Conflicts are clustered in particular regions of the continent and involve only a few of its nations. It’s quite a complex scenario often misunderstood for travel restriction. Far from north-eastern Nigeria, Somalia, southern Algeria, northern Mali, Egypt, Central African Republic, the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, South Sudan, and Darfur, majority of the continent have enjoyed relative peace in the last two decades.
4. Africans lack technology and are intellectually inferior
The smartphone market is growing in Africa. Cheaper devices are readily available. Subscribers’ need for affordable data tariff is far from being met, access to the internet in many parts of the continent keeps many Africans constantly online, where there are incentives for the knowledge shared openly. In many parts of the continent, inconsistent electricity, bad road network, lack of access to affordable housing and basic infrastructures are the common enemy, not the intellectual capacity.
5. Africans die of Malaria
Prevalence doesn’t make the parasite-transmitted infection the leading cause of death in Africa. Africa witnessed a 90% decline in fatalities caused by malaria between 2000 and 2015, thanks to locals who used insecticide-treated nets, indoor residual spraying, intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy and artemisinin-based combination therapy. Travellers aware of the risk are enjoined to prevent mosquitoes bite, carry antimalarial medication, diagnose, and treat cases of infection immediately.
6. Africa is a monolith
I’ve been asked too many times if Africa were a country? HN! Sadly people think the continent is some drought-hit, dirty, dusty wasteland where game animal roam untamed… HN! Africa is a richly diverse place covered with mountains, hundreds of kilometres of impressive beaches, beautiful deserts, waterfalls, large cities and jungles. Her distinct demography, people/ custom, climate, history and topography are so enormous and inexhaustible. The misconception that Africa was just one big mass of land could have been borne out of the average western tourist’s itinerary: Fly into Namibia, hook up with a Safari or Tour company and get tucked into a guarded 4 or 5-star hotel, begin a sheltered safari with virtually no contact with the locals but for those who work for the tourism industry. Why do you think all the Western culture ever perceive as Africa is East Africa or South Africa where you can easily spot the ‘big five’? That there’s more to explore in Africa aside Wild Animals can’t be overemphasized.
7. Africa is not safe
Roll your eyes when people tell you: “Africa is a dangerous place.” As much as some Africans think mass shootings at schools, clubs and workplaces happen every day in the United States, so much so non-Africans believe they would be robbed by ‘area boys’ in Lagos. Let’s just say it’s best you know the culture and recent happenings in the part of Africa you intend visiting. Most parts of Africa are yet safe for tourists and businessmen with the exception of places under terror threat (a global cancer worm).
8. You’ll fall sick
Seriously, Africans are tired of this stereotype. They wouldn’t grant entrance into their country without a permit that shows you’ve been vaccinated against yellow fever at least 10 days before you travel. I call it ‘lack of awareness’ when people say you’ll contact HIV in South Africa, Ebola in Sierra Leone, Malaria in Burkina Faso. It’s like being branded with the most frequent infection in your country right before you get to disclose your health status. It’s a fallacy if it doesn’t come as a warning note against prevalent diseases in these parts of the world. You don’t just contact HIV by stepping on South African soil or ebola on deplaning in Guinea? If it’s actually not to warn travellers against these health concerns, it’s stigmatizing. Rather you focus on prevention than dwell on the stigma.
9. No social life or places to turn up
Even Africans think of neighbouring African countries in this light. Africa is a tight-knit society where there has always been an emphasis on communal living. Before the start of the social media revolution, someone said Africans have always valued help, friendship, sharing, and sense of family. Many of the continent’s neighbourhoods are happening, ask the next available local for a nearby hotspot and you’ll be thrilled.
By the time you break foreign misunderstandings about travelling to Africa into arbitrary pieces and cast a critical mindset on each point it throws at you, you’ll discover the real Africa where opportunities are endless and possibilities are beyond imagination. Think you might want to pay her a visit someday!
