Where in the world is Demi Lovato, because Africa isn't a country.

Reblogged from http://voixmagazine.tumblr.com/

It is about time that the conversation about Africa changed. The conversation has been so ill informed that an unbelievable number of people still present Africa as one country, and not a continent with 54 countries.

On the 14th of August, Demi Lovato, the ex-Disney Princess and current American pop sensation tweeted this:

Now, I imagine she meant well, but could she not tell us where in Africa she was going? And if not that could she at the very least not have added a building or a person to her collection of frogs, caterpillars, cattle, monkeys, snakes, elephants, tigers and the sun? From her tweet, one can easily infer that she expected to be shown a sprawling savannah with an amazing outcrop of rocks where Rafiki was in the process of officiating Simba’s naming ceremony. I’m sure she was extremely disappointed when she found that not only did the animals not hold a party for her arrival, but that there couldn’t possibly have been any tigers in attendance because there aren’t any tigers that are indigenous to Africa. 

And what of after she hopped in the plane and flew to “Africa”. Surely she’d know where exactly in Africa she was as she’d have looked at her visa because believe it or not there are no “African” visas but no, she didn’t, so she still doesn’t know where in Africa she is. And no, I’m not making this up. Why else would she tweet this?

If Demi, a rather wealthy, reasonably well travelled 21 year old American is so ignorant, then what hope is there for the rest of them? I can hear the excuses forming in your heads. You think I’m reading too much into it don’t you? But wouldn’t you think it odd if I landed in Paris and said “Am I seriously in Europe right now?” 

As the lifestyle and health editor of Voix, I will attempt to change the conversation or at least contribute to it. Contrary to public opinion, or at least the opinion expressed here, there are buildings and people in Africa. When I say people I don’t mean wildlings roaming about in loincloths, I mean people doing things that people do everywhere else. I can’t speak for the whole of Africa (because it’s not a country), but I can speak for Nigeria (one of the countries in Africa), and I didn’t spend Friday night running away from an imaginary tiger. I went to a nightclub. It’s a decent nightclub as far as nightclubs go. And please don’t imagine that it was in a hut, and that we made music with animal skin drums, and bamboo sticks.

 So Demi the next time you tweet, please let us know where the devil you are.

Happy Days,

Afam