breakfast, sunshine and a good book.

i wish i could start my mornings like this every day! ☕️

africa is not a country, dipo faloyin

released 2022

read: 04 november 2023 – 22 november 2023

global perceptions of africa are surface-level, often fictional, and quite overwhelmingly negative. the countries themselves are treated as homogenous in a way that we do not with other continents (the number of times i've heard people refer to visiting africa and it's like, is it nigeria? south africa? somalia? they are not the same!). even my own perceptions of the continent and the country of my heritage had been skewed thoroughly by how we've been taught to perceive that area of the world, only changing when i actually visited myself. africa is not a country, as its name suggests, is meant to be an antidote to this issue, and i think it does a brilliant job.

dipo faloyin takes a broad, yet fairly in-depth approach to exploring the african continent, taking the time to explore many facets of the area and painting portraits of specific countries to illustrate his narrative. he covers colonialism and the way in which the arbitrary drawing of borders tore apart tribes; the history of politics, specifically the existence of dictatorships and why they came about; the myths of the poor black african who needs saving from "white saviours", and how this is exploited by charities; and so much more. of course, he also couldn't not mention the great jollof wars (if you know, you know, and if you don't, read this book).

i really had a great time with this book and learned so, so much. i will be looking to buy this to add to my personal library, and i would highly recommend it! even if you don't read much non-fiction, this is a great pick as it is informative without being heavy, and he writes with humour and sarcasm that'll keep you engaged.

rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Enter into the daily life of children in the many countries of modern Africa. Countering stereotypes, Africa Is Not a Country celebrates the extraordinary diversity of this vibrant continent as experienced by children at home, at school, at work, and at play.

Educate our youth

https://a.co/d/2srl8Gt

Caribe's Read Around The World TBR - Part 4

Books set in Africa <3

I had a really good teaching day today.  I was teaching about the Scramble for Africa and the Belgian Congo and I was really nervous preparing for it and feeling inadequate to the task of dealing with the atrocities in the way they deserve.  But class discussion went great.  In the context of a discussion of a cartoon of Leopold where a student said “his face is evil,” and I asked, “how do you know?” and she said “because his nose and chin are long,” I was able to explain that the long nose is an anti-semitic stereotype that’s become associated with evil in our visual lexicon to the point where they all know that long-nosed faces are “evil” without knowing why or what the roots of that are.  I said, “think about the Disney villains you know” and their eyes went wide and their jaws dropped.  And then I took that opportunity to ask them what they’ve heard about the new Harry Potter game and what they remember about the goblins in Harry Potter and they all exclaimed “oh!” as they realized what anti-semitic caricatures they are.  And then in second period while talking about the resources being exported from Africa under forced labor regimes, they mentioned cocoa being one of those and I said that chocolate is still often produced under conditions of slavery or near slavery and that if they’re interested, they can do research on fair trade or non-slavery brands of chocolate.  After class, one student said she this class is her favorite because we study stuff that’s important and that connects to the present and explains why things are the way they are.  And two other students near her joined in and agreed.  Just warmed the cockles of my heart!

And yesterday with the ninth graders I was doing my usual lesson which involves a short conversation about differing interpretations of Akbar and Aurangzeb and how our values affect how we interpret historical figures and it turned into a thirty minute discussion on subjectivity vs. objectivity and how history textbooks are created and how bias doesn’t have to mean malice and how authorial identity affects the stories we tell.  And it was just amazing!  Only about six out of 17 kids were into the discussion but those who were just lit up and the others were trying their best to follow along for a good fifteen minutes before they lost the capacity to pay attention to something that was too abstract for them.  

It’s just been one of those days when I feel like I do good work and am in the right place and might make a difference and those days have been few and far between lately.

Your regular reminder that we are already on 1,1 degree warming.

The ambitious, nearly unreachable goal is 1,5 degrees. 

There are feedback loops between various warming effects, and very few dampening effects.

Yeah, I try not to think about it either. 

India is not a tree

For Christmas dinner, we were at my uncle’s and aunt’s. They live in an area where there’s a lot of tea culture, but this being up northern Europe, there is no tea that grows there. my father asked what tree the tea came form because it was not from here, and my mum responded, I shit you not, “Probably india”

Anyways, I feel like “India is not a tree” and “Africa is not a country” have the same energy

Every country has one city that soaks up attention and attracts origin stories and myths that are repeated back in smaller hometowns, by those bragging about all they have achieved under the floodlights. You either live in it or resent it.

Dipo Faloyin, Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent

Snow in Lesotho

Namibian Presidency (official account), 13 Jan 2024

this comes after germany announced that they, in defense of israel, intend to intervene as a third party in the ICJ trial

in the official government statement, they argue that the accusations of genocide against israel "has no basis whatsoever," and declares themselves to be experts on recognizing genocide by virtue of the fact that they're the ones that committed the holocaust (yes, seriously)

small problem for our self-declared genocide experts though — it wasn't until 2021, over a hundred years after germany killed and enslaved tens of thousands of herero and nama people (in what is now present-day namibia), that the german state was willing to officially recognize that they had committed a genocide; a genocide where, about 80% of the indigenous population of the herero and nama people were wiped out, thousands were enslaved in concentrations camps (with death rates between 45 and 75 percent), and many hundreds medically experimented on.

here's a good article from al jazeera which lays out the history of the genocide, and why germany's offer of "reparations" were met with disgust and anger in namibia

this part, in particular, is worth highlighting:

Today, German Namibians make up 2 percent of Namibia’s 2.5 million population but own about 70 percent of the country’s land, most of it used for agriculture. Multiple state-led efforts to legally restore ancestral land to Indigenous peoples by buying land from private farmers have only partially succeeded because it has proven too expensive for the state. Although the Namibian government sought to transfer 43 percent (15 million hectares) of its total arable land to landless communities by 2020, it has only succeeded in acquiring about three million hectares.

➳ monthly book round-up: november

read:

the battle drum, saara el-arifi. 2*. read 16 october 2023 – 01 november 2023. [DNF]

the deep sky, yume kitasei. 3*. read 01 november 2023 – 17 november 2023.

africa is not a country, dipo faloyin. 4*. read 04 november 2023 - 22 november 2023.

the perks of being a wallflower, stephen chbosky. 5*. read 22 november 2023 - 26 november 2023.

the lost sisters, holly black. 3*. read 27 november 2023 - 28 november 2023.

currently reading:

foul heart huntsman, chloe gong. started 16 october 2023.

scythe, neal shusterman. started 28 november 2023 2023.

Africa Is Not A Country: Breaking Stereotypes of Modern Africa

By Dipo Faloyin.

Design by Kishan Rajani.

White French people hate it when they get a taste of their own medicine. 

I was discussing with one of my colleagues and she told me how she was planning to go to Senegal for the holidays because she thought it was a good way for her kids to see more diversity and people who don’t look like them (ie Black People).

So I told her it was a good idea because I was 4 the 1st time I saw a White person (and I cried btw...) And she was so shocked, like she couldn’t understand that some Black kids have never seen White people in their lives but somehow doesn’t think twice about the fact that her kids are in a similar situation.

Another time, I was talking to someone else about how I arrived in France when I was young but had lived in many African countries growing up (RDC, Kenya , Gabon, Center African Republic...).

And then that person proceeded to go on a tirade about how I must have felt so lucky to arrive in France, and how I should have been relieved to arrive in a developed country like France, blablaba. I just told him “not really”, because growing up I was told that France was amazing and so wealthy, but the first time I saw homeless people was when I arrived in Europe, so I didn’t really understand why people always talked about Europe like that. And again, the guy was shocked, just because I didn’t say my life in Africa was miserable and sad, and because I said that Europe was from what I had heard as a child.

If you’re going to bring your assumptions without knowing, I’ll retort with mine ( the view of an 8-9 year old). I don’t understand how someone can feel so entitled and assume something about your situation without asking first. I’m sorry the only thing you know about Africa is that one documentary you watched in middle school but leave me alone.

Decided to switch gears for a bit and design a rainbow high doll. I just got Victoria and got really inspired to try designing my own doll.

I noticed that there are not a lot of yellow dolls or dolls with natural Afro hair styles so I wanted to design around those two things. I settled on Honey Yellow as the color. Eventually I started looking into Nigerian fashion trends from 2022, and learned a bit about how Ankara is used and more about fashion in general. I’m trying to figure out an Ankara print that would work well for this doll.

But yeah, I would be curious to know what your guys input on this design is (especially if you know a bit about Nigerian or black American fashion). I’m still learning so some things about this beta design are probably not accurate yet, haha.

“I don’t talk about Palestine because I don’t like going into politics : /” fuck you. The existence of Muslims and MENA people has always been political to the West. Their lives and their deaths. Their happiness and anger and sorrow. Their love and hatred. Their sweat and blood and tears. Everything has always been reduced to politics when they are more than you could ever begin to comprehend. Palestine will be free. And so will Sudan and Pakistan and Lebanon and Yemen and Syria and every other country, place and people who suffer only for their pain to be called political by those responsible for and complicit in it

Lighthouses of Africa.

by researchremora