Harare, Zimbabwe. Would an American know that this is Africa? (Creative Commons photo by Flickr user Martin Addison)
During my first week in the United States, I went to lunch with a group of American students to whom I had just been introduced. Pleasantries were being exchanged around the room, as was some great food and conversation. Everyone was immersed in those typical introductory conversations that revolve around hometowns, majors, dorm choices and so on.
Someone then brought up the excellent idea that it would be a great thing if we could all share our Facebook usernames so that we could contact each other in the future. With everyone agreeing that this was indeed a brilliant suggestion, a piece of paper was circulated around the room by a girl who we shall refer to as Girl X.
Girl X went around the table and collected everyone’s details, and then just as I was about to append my own username to the list, Girl X snatched up the piece of paper from my grasp and haughtily declared: “Oh wait, you don’t have Facebook in Zimbabwe, right?”
As soon as those words penetrated my body, my appetite evaporated completely. I was stunned and disappointed. Not just by Girl X’s tragic assumption that being African somehow disqualified me from knowing what Facebook was, but also by the emphatic assuredness and certainty in her tone.
In her mind, she was absolutely convinced that my being African automatically made me technologically inept, and had extrapolated that assumption to reach the conclusion that I obviously had never used the internet, never mind dared to break new African ground by creating an account on a social networking website.
I quickly realized from that encounter that as an African in the United States, I was going to face a strenuous battle against the barrage of stereotypes that Americans have imbibed about Africa over the years. The media has conditioned Americans to think of Africa in the context of the exotic. If it’s not wild animals strutting leisurely against the background of picturesque plains, it’s mud huts, famished children, wars or despotic rulers.
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