Poverty and cannibalistic natives: What people think of Africa, but it turned out to be a lie

Often people only know about Africa from movies and books that describe the horrors of life on the warm continent. However, most of the stereotypes have long been untrue. And some have never been true at all. OBOZREVATEL collected the most ridiculous labels that have been hung on the continent.

• Africa is one state

When we talk about Africa, we often do not divide it into separate countries. Of course, there will be poor regions on the continent, and there are definitely wild tribes who are not familiar with civilization. But such examples can also be found in Europe, in America, and in Asia. Therefore, we should not attribute the characteristics of certain states to the entire continent.

{"imgSrc": "https://i.obozrevatel.com/gallery/2022/1/25/children-g4ab3528221920.jpg", "imgWidth":1920, "imgHeight":1279, "title": "Africa consists of many countries.", "sourceTxt": "pixabay.com", "alt":"\n\n"}

• Africa doesn't have the Internet or the latest technology

Back in school we were told that African countries were extremely poor, so there was nothing to do but farm and raise livestock. But that's not true. Most people have cell phones and use the Internet. There are companies that develop programs for local people. For example, there are special applications that make farming easy. And in some countries there are companies that produce machinery and even cars.

{"imgSrc": "https://i.obozrevatel.com/gallery/2022/1/25/people-g430977ecc1920.jpg", "imgWidth":1920, "imgHeight":1280, "title": "Most Africans have cell phones.", "sourceTxt": "pixabay.com", "alt":"\n\n"}

• Africa is populated by black people.

In fact, there are more than a billion people living on the continent and they all have different nationalities and colors. This is because many countries in Africa were colonies. People from Europe and Asia came here en masse, stayed to live here, married locals, and started families. So the diversity of races and nations on the mainland is amazing.

{"imgSrc": "https://i.obozrevatel.com/gallery/2022/1/25/morocco-gc7434f3381920.jpg", "imgWidth":1920, "imgHeight":1280, "title": "People of different nationalities live in Africa.", "sourceTxt": "pixabay.com", "alt":"\n\n"}

• It's dangerous for tourists to travel to Africa

In fact, some countries of the continent have very high crime rates. So Eritrea, the Republic of Guinea or Liberia are not the best choice for a vacation. In contrast, there are South Africa, Egypt and other developed tourist destinations where foreigners have nothing to fear. People here are hospitable, crime is rare, and the level of the economy is constantly growing.

{"imgSrc": "https://i.obozrevatel.com/gallery/2022/1/25/city-gfc6f545521920.jpg", "imgWidth":1920, "imgHeight":1279, "title": "Many African countries are safe for tourists.", "sourceTxt": "pixabay.com", "alt":"\n\n"}

• There's a big risk of catching a deadly disease in Africa

This risk is everywhere. So on the continent it is no greater. Tourists fear two diseases more often: Ebola and malaria. The first one is common only in Sierra Leone and rarely reaches popular destinations. Malaria mosquitoes do exist here. But now the disease is not considered extremely dangerous. There are medications that are effective against it, as well as recommendations to help avoid infection.

Previously OBOZREVATEL wrote about how to arrange a vacation in Egypt on your own and save money.