Dumb questions on Malawi

awmygawd · Guru

Dumb questions on Malawi

TT · Veteran Member

how about oh ,malawi is in Harare..............

me and my friend were once asked if its true that we live in trees...this was in London . i was so mad and wanted to wring her neck till it got red but my friend was so relaxed and politely replied ..oh yeah we do and our president lives in a big boabab tree.,u must come visit ,i will keep a branch just for you and i promise the lions wont chew your white ass...... u could have seen this persons face .......it was priceless

-- Edited by TT at 09:36, 2006-07-11

abre les ojos · Guru

I totally doubt that there are any real people out there in the 21st century that still ask that 'live in trees' question. It probably was just a bad, UnPC joke. Not even the most ignorant country in the world (take a bow USA) are that ignorant.

TT · Veteran Member

gees i cant believe ive been out of this forum for so long ..i forgot how mean you are ...well it actually happened and am not going to explain myself ........

maybe if u saw sisqo 's interview on etv (sa),when he was touring SA two years ago ..he actually said he thought Africa was so laid back and that maybe we stay with lions .......

jy moet kry a lewe my broe

Pope · Guru

awmygawd wrote:

What's the dumbest question about Malawi you've ever been asked? This one would be quite forgivable if it hadn't come from a South African; "Malawi's next to Ghana right?"-- Edited by awmygawd at 12:03, 2006-07-11

Or Malawis next to France?(it matters how you support teams in WC)

abre les ojos · Guru

Sisqo? What do you expect. He's a rapper. Or something like that...

I still don't believe you about the trees thing. It sounds a little disingenuous.

Mboba · Member

I`ve been asked a number of questions among them are;

`Malawi is an island right?`

`Are their cars in malawi? it was a 10 year old asking - forgivable doh

Black Panther · Senior Member

I need to step up pn that one, I know at least two people who ask if we live in trees to my friends that are African.... people still believe that tree thing...but its flawed cuz they also believe that Coming to American scenario..... no logic...people think we live like bushman.. I was asked if we wear regular clothes... or can go around naked , or if tis a choice...etc..

abre les ojos · Guru

Black Panther wrote:

I need to step up pn that one, I know at least two people who ask if we live in trees to my friends that are African.... people still believe that tree thing...but its flawed cuz they also believe that Coming to American scenario..... no logic...people think we live like bushman.. I was asked if we wear regular clothes... or can go around naked , or if tis a choice...etc..

I don't know where you guys hang out but Like I said before, It's probably meant to be a bad joke. I have lived in some of the most racists places and even those people still at least know that Africans don't live on trees.

I don't believe that one bit. This is the 21st century.

Black Panther · Senior Member

abre les ojos wrote:

Black Panther wrote: I need to step up pn that one, I know at least two people who ask if we live in trees to my friends that are African.... people still believe that tree thing...but its flawed cuz they also believe that Coming to American scenario..... no logic...people think we live like bushman.. I was asked if we wear regular clothes... or can go around naked , or if tis a choice...etc.. I don't know where you guys hang out but Like I said before, It's probably meant to be a bad joke. I have lived in some of the most racists places and even those people still at least know that Africans don't live on trees. I don't believe that one bit. This is the 21st century.

Thats ok Abre , you dont have to belive that it happened for it to have happened. This was in a college setting too, and no, people really are ignorant when it comes to Africa. regardless of education, it depends how much exposure you have to other cultures.. a blue coller guy may know better then a college grad and vice versa when it comes to this topic. When I was in Malawi, someone asked me if they have gardens and parks here..they thought it was all bulidings and sky scrapers... the process of enculturation is usually from Tv so its understadable that people thin the way they do.

malafrikawi · Newbie

After a day's hardwork one day I was sitting on the banks of River Congo having a breather ,two American ladies that I just met asked me where I was from ,when I told them about my origins,one black said "Where is it ?" the other white said "I have been there, small beautiful country with friendly people,I want to go back there, cheap beers,you cant know about it, these people dont fight".Iwonder whether it was flattery or an insult but we all ended up laughing.

Black Panther · Senior Member

malafrikawi wrote:

After a day's hardwork one day I was sitting on the banks of River Congo having a breather ,two American ladies that I just met asked me where I was from ,when I told them about my origins,one black said "Where is it ?" the other white said "I have been there, small beautiful country with friendly people,I want to go back there, cheap beers,you cant know about it, these people dont fight".Iwonder whether it was flattery or an insult but we all ended up laughing.

interesting story. and Id take it as a compliment- she may have meant that since there is no violence in Malawi , it doesnt get much coverage as african countries that are in war.. the west loves to show fighting African s over peaceful ones, perhaps the comment was ment to stand on its own ' oh by the way these people dont fight" as in we are an exception to African countires whos inhabitants are babarian and are ment to fight,.- in whcih case it would have been an insult ..hmm interesting point...

awmygawd · Guru

malafrikawi wrote:

the other white said "I have been there, small beautiful country with friendly people,I want to go back there, cheap beers,you cant know about it, these people dont fight".Iwonder whether it was flattery or an insult but we all ended up laughing.

@ least she was courteous enough to say something nice about the place. I once asked a lady who had been there what she though about the place and got a sad (and honest) "I've never seen such poverty". I found that experience very deflating.

TT · Veteran Member

THINK ITS ALSO ALL ABOUT HOW AFRICA IS POTRAYED

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE OUTCOME WILL BE WITH MOVIES LIKE ,TARZAN .THE JUNGLE BOOK ,THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY AND THE REST ...........THEY ALL THINK WE LIVE IN A FLIPPING JUNGLE MAN........

WE NEED TO START BRINGING THE BEST OF AFRICA OUT THERE ..INSTEAD OF SHOWING THAT AFRICA IS ONLY GOOD FOR NATURE AND STOP SHOWING PICTURES OF POVERTY AND HUNGER ...AM SURE WE VE GOT SUMTHING BETTER THAN THAT ..

Pope · Guru

TT wrote:

THINK ITS ALSO ALL ABOUT HOW AFRICA IS POTRAYED WHAT DO YOU THINK THE OUTCOME WILL BE WITH MOVIES LIKE ,TARZAN .THE JUNGLE BOOK ,THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY AND THE REST ...........

You think with Nigerian movies we may be somewhere.

abre les ojos · Guru

TT wrote:

THINK ITS ALSO ALL ABOUT HOW AFRICA IS POTRAYED WHAT DO YOU THINK THE OUTCOME WILL BE WITH MOVIES LIKE ,TARZAN .THE JUNGLE BOOK ,THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY AND THE REST ...........THEY ALL THINK WE LIVE IN A FLIPPING JUNGLE MAN........ WE NEED TO START BRINGING THE BEST OF AFRICA OUT THERE ..INSTEAD OF SHOWING THAT AFRICA IS ONLY GOOD FOR NATURE AND STOP SHOWING PICTURES OF POVERTY AND HUNGER ...AM SURE WE VE GOT SUMTHING BETTER THAN THAT ..

Aww please! Tarzan is from the 1930s. Everyone knows that Africa is not all bush. They might not be aware of other things like languages spoken or level of civic development but if someone ever asks you about whether they live on trees; you can rest assure that it is simply a racist statement than anything else based on ignorance of Africa.

TT · Veteran Member

It doesnt matter what year tarzan was made ,i was born in 82 and i watched the movie ,the kids are still watching the movie as we speak ...its regarded a classic and ask any ten year old if he /she knows tarzan or not .. you will get your answer ...

and with nigerian movies .its more about whichcraft than anything else ..i dont need to explain where am going with this one ....

abre les ojos · Guru

Maybe you DO need to explain where you're going with this one. Any sane person knows that Tarzan is not a documentary, same as Star Wars isn't really in space. Besides the story itself is set in the turn of the last century. I don't know where you live but everyone already knows that people don't live in trees anywhere in the world. And I can say that with certainty such a comment is simply just a racist rant like monkey chanting and the like.

Yes, even liberal white folk can be ignorant or racist but using that living in trees stuff is not a fair deduction of anything.

Black Panther · Senior Member

TT wrote:

It doesnt matter what year tarzan was made ,i was born in 82 and i watched the movie ,the kids are still watching the movie as we speak ...its regarded a classic and ask any ten year old if he /she knows tarzan or not .. you will get your answer ... and with nigerian movies .its more about whichcraft than anything else ..i dont need to explain where am going with this one ....

TT your absolutley right..the medica screws us over and the time doesnt matter, images are passed on from generation to generation....even with simple movies like the Lion King, there were no humans in it... not even a single village or anything..it kind of dehumanises africa...all other stories disney has made about any other country had heros , human, and the one time they do an african one its about the savannah ? the wild...

I really dont think you need to bend your self backwards explaingin to Abre abuot the Nigerian movies..but I wouldnt worry about them b/c the west is yet to take to Nigerian movies..they'll never see them.... I dont know which world Abre is living in...my only conclusion to ehy he thinks that people dont think of Africa as a jungle is b/c he hangs around the same people ...Abre, my challenge to you is to go outside your common circle of friends" go speak to the layman in the streets, to the businessman at the office, a college student ...etc... just get outside your circle so that you can Abre Les Ojos (which ironically means open your eyes)... You may be surprised !!! My frined from China told me that grwoing up there that is what they were taught....africa is wild and a jungle..she came to college here at the age of 30 and when she met me, in her second year she still had those beleifs... but she doesnt anymore b/c she asked... Abre if you let people become comfortable with you , they are more likely to ask the questions that are really ticking and festergin at the back of ther minds!

Anyway, moving forward, Lets hope that at least at the World cup 2010, teh world we see a different take on Africa !!!

abuhakim · Senior Member

Our fellow Africans Still think that we live in the bushes. i have chayamba on the back ground of my pc, and i was asked by a SouthAfrican about where the building is situated in JHB. i told him that it is in the heart of Brantyre! he couldnt believe since he believes that we live in the bushes and that people are our staple food!

-- Edited by abuhakim at 17:18, 2006-07-12

abre les ojos · Guru

You know, I don't know what type of ignorant people you know or hang out with or went to college with, but in terms of the average population out there, I can be certain that they know Africans DON'T live on trees or anyone for that matter.

Now, don't tell me about Nigerian movies. It's an industry that produces more films than Hollywood every year. And like Bollywood, their film are made for a Nigerian or sometimes African only audience. They don't bother to appeal to anyone else i.e. are not "mainstream" (white people don't watch them).

Yes people are ignorant of Africa; and Africa is portrayed negatively in the media - I'm not desputing that. I'm saying that even western ignorance doesn't fall to the post colonial levels today with the internet and cheap travel. Only a very SMALL minority can actually believe that any humans in Africa or elsewhere live on trees.

Now I've been everywhere on earth and encountered the worse for of ignorance about Africa. But you have to differentiate sometimes a simple racist comment to a genuine ignorant one.

chichi · Senior Member

I've been in America for over 16years and it never seize to amaize me how ignorant pple are and yes abre pple think africans live in trees and i've been asked that so many times even my friends who i had to educate and tell them about africa. Its just these past two years that pple have been learning something about africa well for watching oprah and mtv when ludacris and angelina jollie went to africa. Its now when pple are realizing that there is much more to Africa but some pple are still ignorant. Some pple here in America have never even been out of their state or ever went on a plane before. Oh there was actually one person who asked me how i got here She asked me if i swam all the way here. Oh a friend of mine from malawi went on a vacation to Las Vegas Nevada and when she came back to work an American asked her how her trip was and asked what kind of language they speak in Las Vegas now if pple dont know anything about their own country what more another country an African country mind u. Its really sad how Americans are just so ignorant and yet they think they know everything.

abre les ojos · Guru

You're probably right. I probably mix with the crowd of people who actually have knowledge. I must confess more than half the people I've met actually know where Malawi is; maybe not much more than that. I never really knew anything about Malawi till I went there for the first time and it's my fatherland.

That said, I do realise that Americans are awfully ignorant. I did meet someone in Florida who thought England was in Texas and couldn't understand the concept of Europe as another continent.

The living in trees argument does stretch credibility a tad, but like I said maybe I underestimate people's ignorance.

Pope · Guru

Ignorance is the absence of knowledge,and in this case how could someone know of Africa before we make them know.The curriculum in their school are focused within their bounderies and we have a duty to preach of our continent or country.I knew most of big cities even before I travelled,I have problems about Nyamapanda,as much as I know harare.There are some small towns I visited in canada that I cant even remember.So its exposure rather than ignorance that need to be corrected.

abre les ojos · Guru

Pope wrote:

Ignorance is the absence of knowledge,

Geez how did you deduce that dude?

It's impossible to know everywhere in the world. Truth is who cares if they are ignorant about Africa. There are cities in China that produce more than most western cities that no one has ever heard about in the west. Because someone's ignorant about something doesn't make it non-existent.

Malawi would always be there even if you've never heard abou it.

Pope · Guru

Abre, the name china tells you about cheap products,and anyone with reasoning capacity would not waste time with cheap things.Malawi need to produce for her to get recognition otherwise we will be there geographically.Malawi has died in every corners that even malawians themselves have disowned her.

game · Guru

abre les ojos wrote:

I did meet someone in Florida who thought England was in Texas and couldn't understand the concept of Europe as another continent.

they do have england in america just so you know,its called new england.

abre les ojos · Guru

I know. But they don't have a UK there. Besides New England isn't in Texas.