The African Inferiority Complex

As I've grown older, I've come to really resent this sentiment of people who were born in first-world countries; "We're so lucky we were born here, think of the people in Africa/(insert third-world country here)". As someone who grew up in Africa, I can't tell you how much I take umbrage with this idea that everyone who was raised in a Western country is automatically more advantaged than me. I was always confused hearing them say this - sure, the roads and streets of Lagos may not be as pretty as that of London, sure, New York has more and better skyscrapers, and yes, we don't have an aquarium or Disneyland. But I never suffered just because I grew up in Africa. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people who do suffer. But I thought it was common knowledge that poorer people existed in all countries.

Look, I get where the idea comes from; Africa seems to be an underdeveloped continent, with most of it's countries being 'developing' countries (I won't get into the reasons for that right now). But I don't think these people realize how myopic their sense of livelihood in this continent is. They think that the millions of people who are born here, all live worse, poor lives. I have seen so many other Africans fight to disprove that narrative, and yet it still prevails.

Johannesburg, South Africa

I am sure many people in the West who previously had this view of Africa have since realized that the idea that everyone here grows up poor and destitute is a large myth. There are poor, middle class, and extremely wealthy people in Africa - and only the poor grow up poor. I myself, thankfully, grew up in a nice house, had a wonderful childhood, certainly nothing anyone needs to pity me for. I always had more than enough to eat, went on vacation almost every year, had a good education and wonderful memories. My life in Africa was nothing to be pitied. This is the case with millions of people; we are not some people living on a different planet than you, where we have to fight over crumbs of bread to survive. We simply grow up normally; not everyone here is poor, living worse lives than you with barely enough to eat. We grew up with Disney, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Barbies, and the internet. We used Vine, Musical.ly and Youtube. We didn't grow up on another planet. Stop patronizing us.

I mean, even when searching for a picture to add to this post, when looking up the word 'Africa', I already knew what I would find, and yet I sighed in disappointment still; the rural villages with people on barefoot, the children in mud-houses. Even when more people in the continent live in actual urban cities, we still get the smaller percentage of the population of Africa living in rural villages with no internet representing the entire continent. Like Lagos doesn't exist, like Marrakech, doesn't exist, like Accra doesn't exist, like Nairobi doesn't exist, like Cairo doesn't exist. Show more than the villages.