Yes, Africa is a country!

Samantha Mandiveyi
I find it ironic that it took me leaving Zimbabwe to find my identity. What I found in North America among the African Diaspora surprised me. Although there were cultural differences and everyone had a sense of pride about which African country they were from, for some reason, as long as you were African, you were family.
It was a sense of unity I’d never seen in Zimbabwe or South Africa among Africans of different nationalities.
I remember learning in History class that Africans had to band together to get liberated from colonialism and the racial discrimination they faced collectively, but sadly that sense of unity has long gone.
Growing up, I never thought of Africa as a whole. I thought of my own country and my own people as one in the same. But never the Zambians, or the Nigerians, or the Mozambicans.
They were different.
Those ones were loud and boisterous, those other ones timid, those ones did not speak English, etcetera etcetera. In fact, they seemed so different, I paid no mind to their existence.
It’s strange how I see things so differently now. Yes, I do roll my eyes when foreigners refer to Africa as a country out of sheer ignorance. Ours has become the portrait of shame. Inside it, a kwashiorkor-laden, hungry child with a runny nose and dusty feet. That is Africa to the rest of the world. So in vain we try to paint a different picture. Giving examples of the numerous countries that make up the continent of Africa. How some have mostly Arabs, and some dark-skinned, straight-haired people. While others have light-skinned, kinky-haired bushmen.
How in Nigeria alone, they speak scores of languages, or in South Africa, if you go there, you may as well be in a first-world country.
It’s not a country, you wish you could yell from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro which happens to be in Kenya, East Africa. It’s a continent. You finish.
Made up of 54 different countries and races, we have over a thousand languages; you add, not that you have actually counted but you are quite sure of this.
After yet another conversation, with someone who could care less, you sigh, because you know, that is just one drop in the ocean of the ignorant. And my oh my, is the ocean a big and mighty one. But we must press on and enlighten.
But to my own surprise, while pondering the many different, “Africa is not a country conversations” I’ve had, my subconscious interrupted me. It poked me on the shoulder and whispered, “Africa is a country.”
“It’s a country?” I echoed back questioningly. “It’s a country,” my mind assured me and cracked a smile which turned into a headache.
No! I cannot utter those words. That would be akin to a feminist suddenly declaring that men are better than women, or so I thought.
But I indulged this crazy thought. Why not. I love dichotomies.
Africa is not a country, yet it is a country. It is not a country because factually it is a continent made up of many different countries, who identify differently on the African spectrum. Yes, there is a spectrum, but more on that later.
It is a country because in essence, our history is connected. The entire southern region was a bustling kaleidoscope of different tribes that interacted with one another.
And it’s at this point in our history I stand and observe. Africa is a country because ultimately, we are in the same boat. Heading for a similar destination. Our desires and visions are aligned across the board. Peace, unity, justice, an end to corruption and first world level success and progress.
We can blame many things and many people, including ourselves for where we are now. It is what it is, but, there needs to be unity among Africans and African countries for us to move forward.
We need to stop seeing each other individually as we have for so long. No, we are not better than the least of all African countries; so even if you have first world-like cities, towns or neighbourhoods, as long as there are those of us who are exposed to abject poverty, we are not where we were ever meant to be. And the face that the media will use to represent us will always be the worst.
A simple example would be the desire to know, see and learn more about other African countries. Promoting tourism among Africans which promotes the various economies. No, contraire my lovelies, Africans travel for vacation purposes in the millions. Millions. Now imagine what those millions would do if we invested them in each other’s countries, through inter-continental travel.
Or let’s imagine our governments stood for justice and service above all. Nigeria’s war would be Africa’s war. Imagine the strength of an army of over 50 countries battling terrorism, or rebel groups? Maybe even toppling corrupt leadership? A girl can dream.
In the wise words of Bob Marley “Africa unite, unite for the benefit of our people. We are grooving right of Babylon, moving to our fathers land.”
In the eyes of the world, Africa may always be a country. And for the many times we have fought it, maybe it’s time to embrace it.
Maybe it’s not so bad if someone mistakes an Ethiopian for a Nigerian. Or a Nigerian for a South African. Let’s take a page from Elsa and just Let. It. Go.
Maybe one day, the shame of being associated with certain countries will dissipate because any country from Africa will bring beaming pride. And no-one will care if people continue to call Africa a country.
Because as much as we are vastly and complicatedly different, we are also intricately similar. — Culture Fund