We interrupt your regularly scheduled reading for this rant.

Please, please excuse me if I come off as snobby, elitist, or condescending in this short post.  It's truly not my intention.  I just really get annoyed when people use the term "Africa" to refer to a specific place within the continent.  Since I'm a part of a program where almost 20 Americans are headed off into different parts of the continent, my Facebook is filled with "have fun in Africa!" messages from everyone's friends and family.  Perhaps I'm being a little sensitive, but I thought this map might be helpful in trying to illustrate my point.


Look how HUGE Africa is!  I saw this map for the first time in one of my African studies courses in undergrad and it was really mind-opening for me.  I'll say it again - Africa is HUGE!  Larger than most of the largest landmasses in the world combined!  So when someone says, "Hey, how's Africa?", my snarky instinct is to say something like, "Oh, I'm not really sure.  Rwanda, though, is fine."


(On an unrelated side note, after pondering the map at left for a bit while writing this post, I thought to myself that it's no wonder Africa struggles with governmental issues.  Think about combining the dysfunctionality of the governments of China, the States, Europe, and India.  Hell, Western Europe battled for thousands of years to establish the order we see today and it's a pipsqueak compared to Africa!)

Of course, if you've never had the opportunity to travel to the continent, or study it, or learn about the mind-boggling spectrum of language and culture, perhaps it's not such a crime to think of the entire continent as a unit.  After all, we don't teach much that's different in school.  On the other hand, I've never had someone ask me about Mexico when they really meant the United States, even though both countries are within the same continent.

For the record, here's how Rwanda looks in the context of the continent as a whole.  You get the point.