AFRICA IS NOT A COUNTRY, IS A CONTINENT CONSISTS OF OVER 55 INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES.

Africa is not one country, there are over 50 diverse nations Says 'The Daily News online's  article  published on Friday 4, Ja...

Africa is not one country, there are
over 50 diverse nations

Says 'The Daily News online's  article  published on Friday 4, January 2015, by TONNY Zakaria that  ‘Africa is not one country, we are over 50 diverse nations.’ This  statemente moved me with its truth over Africa especially where it touches the fact that Africa is a continent that had  led in civilization ahead of other continents as he says.

“Ample evidence of African civilizations that were ahead of European civilizations exists. What befell those civilizations is a subject for another day but the rich knowledge and heritage is still there”

He starts by yelling to those who shows that they don’t know if Africa is a country or a continent and other dirties thrown to it.  Here is his full story..

“I WOULD love to give hell to westerners who say they are going to Africa as if Africa is a city or a location with geographical coordinates on Map info, but that will be unfair.

There are enough Africans in the Diaspora who say the same thing when they bid farewell to neighbours and friends on their way to their motherland or a business trip to South Africa or Angola. Even saying I am off to Australia sounds incomplete even though the Aussie continent is one nation.

So if you are going to Africa you better specify your exact destination, city, district and country. The continent is so big it can fit the USA, China and India and have space left over for England, Italy and the rest of Western Europe to squeeze in. So if you are off to visit some place in Africa, you are very much welcome.

There is enough variety, diversity and space among the 54 or so nations to occupy your time and energies for the next century. Capsize?

Some countries in Africa have histories going back centuries and millennia. Egypt had thriving communities long before the pharaohs made Israelites slaves, and long before Moses was born to liberate Israelites from bondage. The Egyptians made their own clothes and paper, and had own script.

I visited the church in Cairo that is built on the spot where Christians believe the family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus lived some 2,000 years ago after fleeing from the wrath of Herod.

Are you off to tour Egypt and to marvel at the architecture of the pyramids that are thousands of years old? Modern day Ethiopia boasts of a civilisation that predates the wise king Solomon of Judea, the king who inspired the Queen of Sheba to travel from Abyssinia to Israel in search of wisdom.

Ethiopia has its own calendar and alphabet. I can bet the Aramaic calendar and alphabet predates modern day Roman letters and numerals, but who is counting? You only have to visit Addis Ababa during one of those annual religious festivals to really appreciate the rich history of that great nation.

In medieval times, the richest man on planet Earth was an African, Mansa Musa. His headquarters was larger than London by then. When he travelled for pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, he had 60,000 people on his entourage.

Apparently he carried a lot of gold and spent it so lavishly that the price of gold fell for a decade on world markets. In the town called Mopti, there was a thriving university as much as 200 years before the University of Oxford.

It had a library with thousands of books on such diverse disciplines as medicine, mathematics, science and history. All the books were hand written.

Many of those books are still there today, un-translated and unpublished by modern print works. Ample evidence of African civilizations that were ahead of European civilizations exists. What befell those civilizations is a subject for another day but the rich knowledge and heritage is still there.

Is Africa a poor continent as some people both Africans and non- Africans would lead us to believe? Africa is not poor, but there are poor countries and some rich ones. Conflict, mismanagement, environmental factors and poor leadership have led some countries down the path of economic doom.

Somalia, Chad, Central African Republic and Sierra Leone have suffered greatly from conflict and leadership issues. Uganda’s Iddi Amin and Emperor Bokassa of CAR did not do their countries any favors either. No one would dare call South Africa a poor country and in many aspects, Egypt falls in the same category.

These are two of Africa’s economic power-houses. And of recent Nigeria has or is poised to overtake South Africa as the richest country on the continent. Libya used to be among the top four during the time of Muammar Ghadaffi.

Since his ouster in an illegal regime change orchestrated from outside the country, Libya seems to have slid into unknown economic and social territory. For a place which previously could boast of the best health care services and education system both provided free to its people, Libya has really deteriorated in a short time.

If the conflict is not arrested soon, Libya could become another Chad. That will be such a waste and unforgivable. There is what I would call phenomenal ignorance about the continent of Africa in America and to some extent, Europe and Asia. I am from Tanzania and that is nowhere near or related to Tasmania in the Pacific.

I was taken aback one time when I informed a certain Yankee in California that I come from Tanzania and he asked if it was near Australia. Did I look like an Aborigine from the Aussie outback or something?

Some Mzungus who have never set foot in Africa believe we have so many wild animals roaming the continent we practically shake hands with baboons. Now we have Ebola outbreak in West Africa and suddenly some Homo sapiens of the Neanderthal variety think Ebola is everywhere in Africa. Really?

There are more cases of Ebola reported in the United States in the last few months than there have been in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania combined for the last four years. And you can bet there are Americans who are too scared to visit East Africa at this time, perhaps imagining they will catch Ebola or AIDS from the trees and wildlife.

The rest of the world is not afraid to visit New York despite cases of Ebola being reported there. Four African countries have Ebola cases.

The other 51 African nations may have other diseases which no one can get just by breathing the air while walking down the street in any of our cities.

They say ignorance is bliss, but I think it is a burden. Perhaps the African Union needs to invest time and effort into countering all the negative stereotyping that has been leveled at Africa by educating the rest of the world about this big, beautiful, rich and diverse continent. God bless the 55 African nations.”

What Tonny says over how the Europeans see Africa and Africans is very true and to me I take it as not an ignorance issue but a deliberate false propaganda to ruin Africa and Africans  so that they can remain where they are and  fail to thrive again to those former civilizations.