Common misconceptions about Africa

When most people hear the word 'Africa' the first thing that goes through their mind is a land of pain, suffering and anguish, a place where nothing good comes out from. Some people even think Africa is a country with one autocratic leader ruling the whole of Africa. And it's really hurtful that most of these assumptions are made by self acclaimed educated people from civilized countries.
Firstly, Africa is not a country but a continent. It's the second largest continent in the world. There are 54 independent countries. And there are so many diverse cultures with little or no similarities.
The whole of Africa is not filled with pain and anguish like the western media tries to paint it. Yes, there are some parts of Africa where there is war going on but it's not everywhere. There are so many people here in Africa who has never witnessed war or any of it's kind in their entire life.

Another common misconception about Africa is that it's a jungle where people live in huts and trees surrounded by wild animals like lions, elephants etc. Even people most African had any contact in the European there were organized systems of government in different kingdoms and empires. They didn't live in trees. It's the twenty first century and people don't live in huts, this mentality needs to change. Majority of Africans live in conducive houses. Please drop that 15th century mentality already.

All African are not illiterates, for example I'm a Nigerian and where I come for education is most people number one priority and it's cumpulsory in most states. And so many Nigerians acquire tertiary education and they excel in their various fields both in their countries and other foreign countries. Just this year, a pupular Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie was asked if Nigerians read her books and she said yes. And she was asked again if there are books stores in Africa. I don't know if the journalist is stupid, ignorant or just want to be offensive but she fooled herself because the joke is on her.

Africans are not malnourished people like the media shows. They feed well just like other people from other continents. They don't live from charity, most of the money people donate are scams made by the organization. That's why they love showing cooked up stories like people drinking dirty mud water and stuff like that to scam people with charity money. We don't even need such money because we're hardworking and can fend for ourselves.
Yes we do have bad leaders in many African countries if not we would have been better than the way we are. My aim is to enlightening people, to stop the misconceptions. We're not as bad as some people are trying to make us look like and it needs to stop.