Misconceptions In Curtis Keims Mistaking Africa - 1993 Words

There are many misconceptions that have been universally accepted mentioned in Curtis Keim’s book Mistaking Africa, many of which are based on biased and incorrect accounts and are extremely offensive. Three important myths are that Africa is a land of cannibals, it is backward and very uncivilized, and that it is one country where everyone and the climate are the same all over. These will be explained, refuted, and the detriment to the people of Africa will be discussed. Through outdated travel writings, general myths, and false truths many had come to believe the stereotype that many people in Africa practice cannibalism in the past. There is not much, if any, evidence of this but despite this misconception is still believed by some†¦show more content†¦This claim came to symbolize extreme dissimilarity, the more different one was the more likely to be accused of a cannibal or something as horrible this tactic was used by both the Westerners and Africans but mostly the Europeans. There is clearly not substantial evidence for this claim that Africans are or at least were cannibals and yet people widely believed this in the past. Even some modern writers proclaim that cannibalism occurred a lot in pre-colonial Africa. This was due to heavy reliance on nineteenth Century biased accounts of Africa that people used instead of going there to see and listen to oral accounts from the source. These scholars were only in Africa for a short time and could not speak the native language in most cases but their accounts were taken as fact. Also, some of these accounts were outright lies used to sell books or papers as it would be beneficial to write about false accounts like seeing cannibalism so their books were more interesting. An example of this is the Mondague that were written about in scholars’ depictions of Africa when they went during the 1800s. They described them as baby eaters, which was a Voodoo misconception. The problem with this is that the Mondague did not exist, which was discovered when modern scholars did some research outside relying onShow MoreRelatedThe Challenges Of Stereotypes Within Africa1513 Words   |  7 PagesThe Challenges of Stereotypes within Africa Between America and other European nations, stereotypes and misrepresentations have ultimately plagued the continent of Africa. To every side there is often another story, yet unfortunately for the many countries of Africa, they are ultimately victimized and suffer through further oppression. According to Curtis Keim’s book Mistaking Africa, Keim suggests that Africa is essentially under the public microscope, it tends to be scrutinized, and compared to