I remember growing up in Canada hearing nothing but negative things about my ancestral home. Africa was referred to as the “Dark Continent” and a place where there was wide-spread poverty, disease, and uncivilized people.
As a child, to be called an African was an insult. We did not know any better. We were children who were living in the West, bombarded with negative stereotypes of the Motherland. Africa was only ever shown negatively in the media.
The poisoning of our minds began as soon as we were old enough to watch TV, or read newspapers and magazines. Every single thing we saw about Africa was bad. We were fed a steady diet of two images… war and famine. African jokes were heard everywhere from the streets to television.
I remember as a young child wondering why animal shows such as Wild Kingdom would have entire episodes devoted to observing some tribe living in a very traditional setting. I wondered why most episodes were about animals, yet some were about people. Did they perhaps look at these people as animals? This had a profound impact in the minds of young children all over the Americas. We were made to believe that all Africans lived this way.
During the 1980s, the media was bombarded with photos and videos of starving children in Ethiopia during the famine. Several pop stars came together and held a concert to raise funds to save the children. Songs were made in an effort to raise money. One such song was called, “Do they know it’s Christmas in Africa?” Really? This lead to the stereotype that all Ethiopians were suffering from famine. Jokes were made about Ethiopians. The jokes continued right through the nineties.
I remember one evening after school, while hanging out with friends at the mall food court, a girl mentioned Africa. I told her that I was not African. She then reminded me that my parents were from Jamaica and that the vast majority of Jamaicans trace their ancestry to Africa.
This had a profound impact on me. Here I was, brainwashed into being ashamed of Africa, and being reminded by a non-African girl that I truly am African and it is nothing to be ashamed of. We have been stripped of our very identity by those who enslaved us not too long ago. Slavery as is discussed in the West only ended around 160 years ago. In terms of history, that might as well be considered yesterday.
From that day on, I stopped feeling ashamed about Africa and started to read about the so-called Dark Continent. I learned about the beauty of the continent where my ancestors came from… a place rich in history and culture. A place which should have been my home all along.
Hip Hop culture started to embrace a pan-African spirit which lead to us kids feeling pride in Africa. We read all the books we could get our hands on. It became quite common to see guys wearing medallions in the shape of the continent of Africa. At the time, I had an Indian friend who also embraced pan-Africanism but wore a medallion shaped like the Indian subcontinent.
Somehow, hip hop took a turn for the worse and gone is the pan-African talk replaced by gangsterism and sex. I cannot stereotype the entire genre though. A lot of good hip hop is still being made, but it does not receive the attention or exposure that the other stuff does. It seems to be by design.
Fast forward to the 2020s when Africans have taken to YouTube to show the wonderful continent to the world. They are showing us the real life and not the stereotypical nonsense that we are usually fed by the Western media. We are now able to see the true Africa from the comfort of our homes. Now, more than ever, Afro-descended people in the West are starting to visit or even move to Africa.
I have been doing research into my African roots and found that most of my ethnicity can be traced back to the Yoruba, Edo, and Igbo, of what is now Nigeria, the Akans of what is now Ghana, and the Mende from Sierra Leone. I also have Welsh and Norwegian ancestry, so I have a lot more history to study.
I started to research these cultures online and discovered a thriving African YouTube community spearheaded by young men and women who are driven to present their continent in a true light.
The most well-known of these YouTubers goes by the name Wode Maya. I first stumbled upon his channel when he was studying engineering in China. I was fascinated by his command of the Chinese language. Watching him inspired me to keep studying the languages that I was studying at that time.
He eventually left China and went on a tour of Africa launching an initiative to bring Africa to the World. His videos during those trips made me want to visit Africa more than ever before. Wode Maya has done exponentially well at promoting the beauty of the African continent to the world.
The African continent, also known as The Motherland, has a very rich history and culture. The people are warm and inviting. The scenery is breathtaking and city life is vibrant. The quaint villages are peaceful oasis of calm life nestled in some of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth.
I have been watching videos from a growing number of African YouTube stars such as Virtue Grace, Tayo Aina, Bayo Adio, and others. My list keeps growing as I discover more and more channels.
I also watch Arise TV and Channels Television for my daily fix of Nigerian news. These two networks are fantastic and keep us in the know about all things happening in Nigeria.
If the Internet were around during our childhood, we would not have been so easily fooled into believing all the negativity that was spread about Africa. Since high school, I had been studying African history and culture via books from the library and the Internet.
Stay tuned for articles about Africa and these wonderful people who are transforming our lovely continent into a must-go destination. The world truly is a beautiful place. All continents are filled with beauty and culture. I would love to tour the entire planet.