By Muhsin Ibrahim
My wife and I got an appointment to meet some real estate agents to show us a new apartment we applied to rent. I wanted to practice the little German I could speak to impress them, but it didn’t work. Sensing my disappointment, one of them, apparently well-educated, told me I was lucky I understood a little German. In contrast, he couldn’t speak any Nigerian – referring to a non-existent language he called “Nigerian”. I appreciated him, but reminded him that there was no such language. I have had similar encounters in India, as I wrote here.
In contrast, many people, such as my friend (above) from those countries and others I didn’t mention, know little or nothing about Africa and Africans. As a result, their perception of Africa is primarily archaic, false, and shallow. Of course, some are even African experts, but they are very few.
Unfortunately, the media, especially the local ones in the West, aren’t really enlightening their audience as BBC Hausa does. They are very selective in what they tell them. I was shocked while discussing the ongoing Ukraine war with some students and colleagues. It felt like we were talking about different conflicts. The propagandist media they watch paint the conflict way differently; Russia is the villain (and it is), and is woefully failing in its campaign (which is highly contestable).
Talk about the Palestine-Israel crisis and get more astonished. Some will tell you it’s complicated – of course, it is. Nevertheless, it’s a topic worth discussing à la the Russia-Ukraine war. I am aware of its sensitivity in Germany, by the way. Still, it’s also about human beings; remember, we ‘care’ about human rights and ‘condemn’ their violation globally.
Anyway, enough of this musing. I want us to stop underrating ourselves because we are Africans. The developed world doesn’t have it all. Moreover, knowledge is abundant today. The smartphones we constantly carry can help us get better informed and enlightened. Books, journals, newspapers and so on are only a few clicks away. So, utilise your data/Wi-Fi subscription and get enlightened on any topic you like. Nobody has a knowledge monopoly.
Muhsin Ibrahim wrote from Cologne. He can be contacted via muhsin2008@gmail.com.
Interesting and true.
ReplyDeleteI'm going straight,they just painted us all with a color tainted brush. To them A Muslim is just a terrorist. They know nothing about fundamentalist and terrorists, which doctrine they follow or their differences.
ReplyDeleteThrough the same mentioned movies especially the Brits imposed the hatred of Islam in the eyes of it's viewers. How many movies do they produced showing an act of so called jihadist to the world?? The Alqaeda,ISIS, haqqani,even shekau and we all knew that these people follow other teaching not what Islam really mean.The movies are outnumbered and still doing it. There are so many things to which we people were so attached to them but they were never be here or there for us. There's a need to resharpen our next generation, we accepted that we're Africans, We're Muslim we loved being the AfricMuslim and no one is above us. There was no blood meant to shade mercilessly.
Very Excellent Writeup... Thank you
ReplyDelete