We “gotta” do better

While growing up, my friends and I regularly joked about Africa. It seemed like such a foreign place. A place where many of us knew our ancestors came from, but a place we never thought we’d have the opportunity to go. Whether our jokes came from a general lack of knowledge about Africa or other factors, our jokes were very ignorant. Now that I am in Ghana, I think back on the jokes said as well as what I was exposed to about Africa before coming to Ghana and I have to admit that the media played a large role on my perception of Africa and plays a large role in the lives of the many Americans. Although many Americans have access to public libraries, book stores, the Internet, televisions, radios, people who have traveled to Africa and/or Africans who live in their communities and various other sources of information, many will never research anything about Africa.

Many Ghanaians I’ve spoken to say that Americans think that Africans live in trees and in the jungle with lions and monkeys … and I think that observation holds some truth … it’s definitely something my friends and I joked about “back in the day”. But what I found more interesting is that when I asked these same Ghanaians about the U.S., their perceptions were based on American movies and television shows they had watched. I think many Americans have fallen victim to doing the same.

Through mass media, a lot of quality information as well as ignorance are distributed. If I were to solely base my perception and what I expected my experience in Africa to be like on movies I’ve watched such as “Coming to America”, “Blood Diamonds”, “The Last King of Scotland”, and shows on National Geographic, the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet and a Jamie Foxx stand-up comedy skit I saw on YouTube called “Africaaa can you feel it”, I would have a very skewed perception!

It is vital to seek information from various credible sources, not just the mass media and especially not from only television shows or movies.

I think there is a general misconception amongst many Americans that all people in Africa are living in poverty, have HIV/AIDS and are exposed to wildlife on a daily basis. I think the reason why this occurs, is because many Americans simply lack knowledge about Africa but also because they perceive Africa as a country. So when some Americans are watching a movie such as "Blood Diamonds", they may think that those events are happening throughout all of Africa.

It has been a well worth it experience to come to Ghana and be able to see things from my own lens and not rely on what the mass media decides to expose to me. Hopefully I’ll get many opportunities to share my experiences with others once I return home.