Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Generalization in Africa
The danger in generalizing Africa is pretty intense as it's an entire continent! And, not only is it a sizable continent in land mass, but it is also one that is full of diversity. From my perspective, there is danger even in generalising people that come from a certain City or High School, as within my High School, there was a very diverse graduating class. On the local level, it shows the danger and inhibits us from really understanding and getting to better know people. On the national and continental level, it is pretty much like putting a blindfold on as to one's perspective and understanding of an entire continent's worth of people and cultures.
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People do tend to think of Africa as just a country and not as a separate continent that is comprised of many countries, and in doing so, generalize a whole continent made up of people who are extremely diverse!
ReplyDeleteAfrica is the second largest continent on the planet and home to over one billion people, so one can see the dangers in generalizing such a huge number of people.
ENGR 103
Indeed, it is almost comical when you look at the numbers you stated....second largest continent in the planet, with over 1 BILLION inhabitants. And, in my experience, this seems to be the inhabited continent that people know the least about. In Europe, most people learn in school about at least the countries that were formal colonies of their nation, so in France, everyone knew quite a bit about especially Algeria, Congo and the Ivory Coast, but when it came to the rest of the continent, most everybody was pretty clueless. Thus, it would be enlightening to meet people from these various countries and hear about them.
ReplyDeleteENGR 103