Africa is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent

Africa Is Not A Country: Notes on a Bright Continent by Dipo Faloyin explores the history of Africa from a colonial perspective and gives the reader a deeper understanding of the many diverse cultures the continent has to offer. I'll admit, as much as I study history, I have not read nearly as much as I should have about Africa. Our society is biased, believing that it is a primitive, underdeveloped continent run by war lands, when in reality, it is so much more than that. 

Dip Fayolin starts the novel off by giving a brief background of his life growing up in Nigeria, explaining their culture, and the shift of moving from Nigeria to the UK. He then goes on to explain the rich cultural history that different countries in Africa have and how colonialism affected them. Fayolin describes the horrors that 19th and 20th century Africans were forced to endure due to the colonialists' greed. Their cultures were destroyed, families were torn apart, and their historical artifacts were stolen and kept on foreign museums where, to this day, many still remain. The British Museum in London has actually refused to repatriate Africa’s stolen artifacts for a variety of reasons, including the claim that they would not be able to take care of it properly and how more people are able to view it where it is now located.

I’d highly recommend reading this novel. Not only is it incredibly informative, but it is also a quick read. I think it’s incredibly important to read diverse novels and to gain a better understanding of other cultures. Overall, I’d rate this a 4/5.

Quotes

• Page 41

• The British were old hands at this business. You could argue they invented the sport — they understood the plays and could execute under pressure when required. For centuries, they had been empire-building across Asia, the Americas and Australia; collecting trophies that ranged from gold to flesh.

• Page 214

• The film worked to occupy a broad space that African-American writer Adam Serwer of The Atlantic calls ‘The Void’, which he defines as ‘the psychic and cultural wound caused by the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the loss of life, culture, language, and history thay could never be restored’.

• Page 215 

• ‘Because all they gave was lost to The Void. I can never know who they were and neither can anyone else’.