Travel and See

Thus a popular saying goes, travel and see. The logical question that follows then becomes "travel and see what?" The idea is that you get a great deal of exposure when you travel. You learn new ways of doing things, meet and know people and learn about new cultures that you never knew existed.

However, after traveling and seeing, what this statement brings to mind is the purpose to which this should serve.

Being the adventurous population that we are, Africans and Ghanaians in particular love to travel.

We travel around the world, make new discoveries, see and marvel at how "advanced" or "backward" other people and places are and then what? Do we come back to ruminate on how disdainful our home countries or localities are compared to where we have been? Do we return with the energizing hope that our original localities could be as "progressive" if we applied the little knowledge we learnt from our exploits and travels? Or we gain a sudden realization that we have all this while, failed to duly appreciate and acknowledge what we had until we saw how much others did or didn’t? My aim is for us to reason together along these three questions.

I got into a conversation with some non-Africans and as usual, they asked me the dreaded question; where are you from? I told them I was from Ghana, West Africa and the next question then was; what language do you speak? Without waiting for my response, one of them made a guess; African? (This question was not even asked in reference to the South African language Afrikaans).

There are a countless number of times when I have been asked whether I spoke the same language as Zimbabweans, Kenyans or some other African country. Like every other African who has been in this situation, I have been annoyed at the sheer display of unpardonable "ignorance" that the plausible answer and question from these two respective instances exude.

How could they not know that Africa is not a country but a continent with diverse groups of people who speak different languages both within and without countries? How could they not know that just as you do not ask Europeans whether they spoke "European", Africans also do speak different languages? Is this information not just a click away; especially in a country where the internet is a basic necessity and not even a luxury like in other parts of the world? Don't they learn anything on their numerous summer vacations to various African countries? I have shared these frustrations with other Africans and we always shake our heads in utter disbelief at the "ignorant" average American who doesn't know anything beyond the borders of America.

However, upon second thoughts, I wish to make a case for the ‘ignorant’ "average" American so vilified. North America is approximately about 9000 miles from the African continent. With its fifty states and the addition of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, America has a population of a little over 300 million.

In a country where travelling from one state to another could take you as much as 46 hours by road, how much could one know about his own country, much less a faraway continent albeit the internet? While we grumble over how much less others know about us, why don’t we do some soul searching and ask ourselves how much we know about ourselves as Africans and each other as fellow Ghanaians, Nigerians, Kenyans, etc.?

Like the average American, how many average" Africans know the total number of and names of all the countries in Africa including the Western Sahara? How many average Africans know that there are now 2 Sudan and that Madagascar; probably the most famous African Island, is only one of 6 others? How many average Africans know that there are 2 other Islands on the continent that are still French overseas territories and members of the European Union? We always talk about the most populated country on the continent and forget that there should definitely be a country with the least population; which is Seychelles.

If these questions are too academic for the "average" African, how about the basic things we could know about our neighbors and our own countries? Even though Ghana and Nigeria claim to be closer to each other than to their immediate French speaking neighbors, how much do we really know about each other beyond the famous political facts and figures? How many Ghanaians know or acknowledge that not all Nigerians are Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba and how many Nigerians know that not every Akan speaking person is an Asante? How much do we know about the other Ghanaian, Nigerian or African we meet beyond the collective descriptions? If the answer to these questions are not encouraging, then the "ignorant" American - asking whether I spoke "African"- Â is no different from me calling every person from the Northern part of my country a "Northerner"; thereby disregarding the name and the unique ethnic identities they identify with.

If we so hate to be stereotyped, pigeon-holed or ‘basket-cased’ by other people, why don’t we first begin to acknowledge and appreciate our differences. If we - as Africans who pride ourselves in our diversity - are attributing to ourselves collective nouns instead of proper nouns, why should we complain when someone else does same? I do agree that Africa is a huge continent with a total population of about 1.2 billion, unprecedented diversity and considerable obstacles to travel and access to information. However, as much as we strive to go on vacations to Dubai, Paris, etc.to look at the world's umpteenth wonders, we could also start appreciating the diversity we have in our localities, countries and our continent.

Thus, I travelled and guess what I saw? I discovered that I had not really taken time to appreciate all the diversity that was around me.