Chapter 1 'Myth and Facts'

My first impressions on Africa were mostly negative judging from commercials of poor, skinny children and parts of Africa that didn't look safe or comfortable to be in. One myth that I've always embedded in my brain was that the population was mainly blacks or “negro”. Wow! Was I wrong?! Another myth that I perceived was that most of the population were of the Islamic religion. Also not true. This chapter really doesn’t discuss much on race and religion like I thought. Even though it touches most of the myths that people would look at first, these were the myths that I pointed out before all the others that were mentioned in this chapter.

“There are seven races of Africa the Negros which are dominant in Sub-Sahara; Ethiopians/Somalis especially the ‘Horn of Africa’; Caucasians which are a part of the South Africa, North Africa, and Zimbabwe, but scattered throughout; Indians which are mainly urban, along the East African coast, Kenya has an especially vibrant Indian population; Khoisans which are mainly found in the Southwest of Africa, especially Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa; Orientals especially the Malagasy Republic after arriving from Indonesia; Pygmy which are in mainly the tropical rain forests and still to this day live from hunting the land. Thanks Professor David Hopkins for this information.

 

Now the religion of Africa is of course different from the religion of us in the U.S. All African religions are monotheistic in the sense that there is a single high God. However, many African religions are also polytheistic in that either pantheons of gods or large numbers of spirits or ancestors or some other kind of divinities may stand between human beings and the ultimate God. So there is the Islam, and Christianity, but also there’s Witchcraft: “The Parasite of Religion”. That’s really the only difference between our religion and theirs.They still ultimately believe in the same things we in the U.S believe.