Someone asked me this again. A few months ago, during one of my trips back home to Atlanta, an American woman who had told me that she was interested in visiting Africa for the very first time – specifically contemplating Ghana – asked me, “do they speak English there?”

I calmly told her yes, they do. We do. We speak English. (Here’s a piece I wrote about linguistic diversity in Africa.)

I can articulate three reasons why I answered the call to be a journalist during my teenage years: 1) to explore my origin 2) connect with people across Africa 3) challenge the prevailing myths and stereotypes that many people have about Africa and Africans.

This woman’s question directly relates to that third reason. Her question is not uncommon. Growing up in America for more than twenty years, I heard variations of this line of thinking so many times. I moved to the U.S. from Nigeria when I was two years old and Atlanta was the only home I could ever remember – I had no pre-two-year-old memories of Nigeria at all. Even so, I still got comments about being African, about being “other.” One person told me that I speak very good English. Some ask if I speak African. I politely tell them that there’s no language called African. [There is Afrikaans, though].

Besides the ignorance on linguistics, there are other inaccuracies and outright fallacies. Here are some of the ones that I’ve come across:

• African spirituality (anything outside of Islam or Christianity) is witchcraft / juju / voodoo / devil worship
• “African witchcraft,” voodoo, juju and traditional herbal knowledge are all the same thing
• Voodoo practitioners and people in Africa who practice religion outside of Islam or Christianity are “witch doctors”
• Africans have wild animals as pets (lions, hyenas, chimpanzees)
• Africans don’t wear clothes
• Africans live in “huts” of straw and mud
• There are no universities in Africa (“They got universities in Africa?” I heard this not too long ago)
• Africans don’t have modern technology like iPhones, video game consoles, televisions, air conditioners, washing machines
• Every where in Africa is a jungle
• All Africans are great at running really fast or are marathon runners
• Africans are sickly, dirty and diseased
• Africans are generally impoverished
• Every African wants to live in the West
• There are no decent hospitals in Africa
• There is no middle class in Africa
• There are no professionals in Africa (professors, judges, engineers, dentists) – only farmers and evil politicians
• Everyday is blistering hot in every single part of Africa
• African communities do not have modern technology like elevators, multi-level buildings, cars, traffic lights, airports, banks/ATMs, malls
• Africans live or sleep or just spend a lot of time hanging out in trees
• Africans are usually starving
• Africans are hyper sexual
• African women are usually pregnant or breastfeeding or both, because they have so many children
• Africans are generally uncouth in mannerisms and backwards in intellect
• Africans don’t observe human rights
• All women in Africa are oppressed and suppressed
• African politicians are corrupt and despotic
• Africans are always at war with each other
• Africa is a country
• Kings rule in Africa
• The sunset in Africa is special because the sun in Africa is not the same sun that’s shining everywhere else in the world
• Tigers come from Africa
• Lions live in the jungle
• African kings live in palatial mansions like the one Akeem from Coming To America lived in
• Africans don’t know when it’s Christmastime (Thanks, Band Aid)

What stereotypes have you heard that I didn’t mention?

Journalism gives me a chance to do important information-sharing, myth-busting work that needs to be done continuously, to help shape attitudes and promote cultural understanding.

However, as much as I, or any journalist who is also reporting in Africa – I see you! – may want to educate folks, we gotta make sure that we’re not steering towards advocacy work or trying to promote a mission or a sociopolitical message.