African stereotype

When we went deeper into the life of Chinua Achebe in class and we explored the reasons about why he chose to start his book in a particular way, I became interested in knowing his insdider view. As we know, he started Things fall apart by stereotyping African people as he knows they are labeled outside; like uncivilized peoples, savages who don't know any world other than their villages, etc. However, as we move further in the development of the first chapter, he introduces elements that are common in a civilized society. As an example, there is a visitor collecting money that someone owed him, which is a "ritualistic" action. I see Achibe's point and I really support him, because defending the public image of Africans in general is a noble task, not only due to his Nigerian (African country) nationality, but also because there is a embedded stereotype in the mindset of foreigners, which tends to generalize and underestimate countries in Africa. 

However, despite the progress most countries have made in comparison with past decades, Africa is still the poorest continent of the world. While in big countries food is thrown out, people in Africa are starving. The only thing that countries look for is the wealth that lies on and below their soil. For example, as well illustrated in the film Blood Diamond, Sierra Leone is one of the biggest worldwide diamonds provider, but it is also the second poorest country in the world. This country has an amazing economic potential in mining, fishing and also agriculture. However, the social structure is unstable, disorganized and the wealth distribution is unequal. Now, going back to Nigeria, the landscape is not so different. The corruption has rocked this country for over the last four decades, and some of the most bloody dictatorships have ocurred in this country. Its greatest resource is oil. However, wealth is not well distributed and the poorest people, who produce the wealth, work with poor security measures. Oil spills have been recurrent in the last years.

So, why does the entire world see Africa as such an uncivilized continent? Well, basically, because, in comparison with their counterparts, they are. They are two steps behind in terms of democracy (not that we have real democracy), human rights (not that we don't have human rights violators here) and social equality (not that we are an egalitarian society).