Throughout my career I have traveled in many countries across the regions of Africa, Asia, Middle East and Europe interacting with multicultural people with different educational and professional backgrounds. But of all my experiences I must single out the Europeans negative portrayal of the other as something that is really amazing and deserves sharing. I have interacted with over a hundred Europeans some of whom have asked me the most amazing questions, and in turn given me equally, very creative answers to my questions – all that has left me wondering whether this is ignorance or a combination of arrogance and prejudice.
On my way to Europe one young European girl asked me …”so you can speak to animals?” I asked her why she thought I had that skill if she could not. She opened an in-flight magazine and saw Bushmen pictures and again asked whether Africans were given clothes only at the airport. Inquisitive people never stop asking, so I had to explain to her in simple terms about my people. It turned out the only films she had seen about Africans featured naked hunters.
On arrival, my Danish mentor, sat in my room and asked me if I were happy that I have a sleeping bed. I was too tired to dignify her misguided question with another lecture. The next day I was surprised to read in a British newspaper that …”Harare is clean by African standards…” What are African standards of cleanliness? If you walk for example in UK-Manchester you see a lot of people some in suits spitting everywhere? This would be considered disgusting where I come from. Is this an English standard of cleanliness? As I interacted more with people in this society a 24-year-old European-American student housemate in Denmark said she saw beggars, sick people and diseases surrounding her the moment she set foot in Africa. Her imagination ran wild as she tried to figure out what kind of airport if at all there would be in Zimbabwe. Another 40-year-old Danish electrician and father of two confessed he was surprised to see tarred roads and houses with swimming pools when I showed him my photos in Zimbabwe and Kenya. A 100% Dutch friend of mine said, “I would not need a driving license in Africa because there are no driving rules. People just drive the way they walk on the streets!” While a 32-year-old German political science student said to me, “I know Zimbabwe, neighboring Uganda. I hear there is genocide and people are killing each other everyday because of political misunderstandings”. Oh really? That’s when I realized the British colonizers did a great job in teaching their former colonies the European history and world geography. I know enough not to annoy people saying Netherlands is part of Denmark.
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