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This week I read something that triggered some fond in a sad way memories of my life in the UK. I can't really remember where I read it as I am one of those people who read several materials simulteneously, but it was something to do with the perception of Africa by the less travelled Brit!

The image they have of Africa is ...weird! Diseases, caveman style (read machete) wars, rape, illiteracy, child marrieges, polygamy, election rigging, mob justice and wild animals/people. Who could blame them - that's all the African news they seem to get from their news channels. Once in a while they will show a smiling Masai jumping happily up and down, or Kofi Anan and Thambo Mbeki!!!

I was exposed to this ignorance beyong measure once in a while. I was asked where I learnt to speak English (fair enough question I guess), whether I lived in a tree house (oh, how I would love that), whether my pet was a lion (how do they come up with that?? I doubt even the news show Africans with pet lions - I musta missed that news item), whether I was circumcised (ouch!). Some overzelous dude who I suspected to have been deliberatelly ignorant once asked me whether I walked to London!!!

I lied to them! I told that I arrived in UK on a cargo ship, having no food or drink for that duration (afterall I was used to hunger), I only learnt to read and write on my arrival to London, I lived on a tree house, and yes, my pet was a lion named Simba! The last lie always provoked a lot of admiration, I guess because of Lion King!

I used to be rather upset by the ignorance, and in my mind, a normal adult shouldn't have suffered from that degree of ignorance. Didn't they teach them anything positive about Africa?? Didn't they learn in Geography that it is virtually impossible to walk from any part of Africa to London? Now I regret my lies; I regret my lies because I had a chance to set the record straight, but I wasted it!

From now on, if someone asks me about Africa, I will give a long lecture. I will tell the truth, that Africa, with all it's teething problems, is a beautiful continent with lovely people. I don't have a pet lion called Simba, instead I have a sheepdog name Fluffy, and whenever I want to see a lion, I would have to go out of my way to look for them in the forests, my dad did not kill a lion with his bare hands, I do not live in a tree house; I, like a lot of Africans, live in a modern house with running water, electricity, flushing toilets, and the houses have all the modern gadgets like TVs, Videos etc etc! We even watch Ugly Betty and Prison break! I will tell them, unlike an average Brit, most Africans speak at least 2 languages.

There are proper roads in Africa (maybe not Eastleigh), there are all sorts of cars, we have airports, we have trains - doesn't matter they are slow, they are trains all the same, we have discos, malls, and our children actually know about Father Christmas, which am not sure is a good thing! I will teach them about Africa, then I will invite them to visit....

I am sorry I lied!