Africans are stupid?

Thats cos we got crazy parents(in the nicest possible sense)...always pushing for academic excellence. Most arent happy unless their kids are a Doctor, engineer, or a lawyer...

 

That's very true actually...

One of the few things my Bf and I have argued about repeatedly, is just that. He wants "quality children" (That pisses me of. It's a horrible term. I'll love my children even if they're idiots.) Also he wants them to go to summer school and things like that...(His parents always hired tutors during school breaks. ) While I think they deserve to have some fun during vacations.

And then he accuses me of being a poor teacher, since I'm more laid back when it comes to academic performance than he is. :lol:

 

Having spent a great deal of time in Africa (in various corners) and dating African BM in Europe I get really annoyed by this 'stereotype' that all Africans are stupid. The other one is that Africa is full of cannibals, dirt & disease!

Africa has a long way to go; yes, it could simply be said look at colonization and what happened there, look at Guinea & how the French left .. in haste taking everything with them. The British didn't leave Kenya in the same way but Kenya (for example) still has a long way to go. On the other hand, Abidjan was known as the 'Paris of Africa' and once the elections are over this year I have no doubt that the Cote d'Ivoire will get back on it's feet.

The worry for me now is the way the Chinese are plundering the continent taking every resource out with them to build their country (& sending in cheaper Chinese labour than Africans!) The African leaders in question such as Lansana Conte & Mugabe are stupid to let their countries be hoodwinked by the Chinese

Africa is one place that 'everything works' - if you need something fixing it gets fixed, everything has a use ... they are far from unintelligent in that respect. The continent needs to move forward, the only technological resource they've had in the last 5yrs is cell phone transmitters & they've all got phones - but might not have the latest drugs.

War has affected many African countries, it's killed their tourism industry in places; western powers have kept some countries in the dark ages such as Tanzania until recently. Greed has been a major contributor, look at Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Guinea & Kenya; their current/previous heads of states have stripped their countries wealth and what should have been distributed democratically has been used elsewhere. The current President of Guinea Bissau has a Hummer, his 10 best friends also have one but the capital doesn't have water or electricity ... he gets his money from the people and from using his country as a drugs forwarding centre from S.America to Europe - corruption is rife & should be stopped but until the larger powers such as Europe & the US go in & do something they'll stay where they are ...

It's a sad state of affairs, but never call an African 'stupid'

 

Your boyfriend is kinda of militant with his education :wink: . I guess if he was brought up like that way its gonna be quite hard to change him. Summer camp..good luck to your son...Your kid gonna end up at harvard :wink: I see where he is coming from though..even it does seem extreme. His parents probably drummed the importance of education to him..Your kid might get burnt out though..

 

You really know africa dont you? Heard about our king? King mswati the third of Swaziland? Well , some of things he does are similar to what the president of Guinea does..but instead of buying his friends hummers, he buys his wives top of the range BMWs; all at the taxpayers expense.
I think he has 15 wives( not 100% sure though), this will probably change in the near future. The swaziland situation is different to most though, cos most of the population dont challenge the way he lives.This is because of 'tradition'.Possibly another thorn in african developement. By tradition its seen as 'un-swazi' to challenge the king.

Yeah totally agree, our biggest enemy is corruption! Sought that out and we halfway there...

 

This stereotype is worth ignoring most of the time, but my friend runs RINGS around me, and I'm no slouch. I'm going to ask him to help me perfect my chess game. Love men with brains...

 

The Africans I know are lawyers,civil engineersand Doctors, damn they some smart fuckers.

 

I briefly met Princess Sikhanyiso in California . It was a long night after a long flight but I remember thinking how much she looks like her papa Mswati.. (is he III?) himself.

She did have a presence about her though, apparently the young thing wants to rap or some such.

I wouldn't dare comment on Swazi politics since I"m ignorant to it.
Extreme distribution of wealth always makes me very uncomfortable though. Bissau another example already highlighted, and even more extreme.

 

Ha..You saw her in California; think she is studying there now. Princess Sikhanyiso is the ' rebellious one'; all of the kings other children closely follow Swazi tradition...and she wants to be an entertainer. She is a kinda of an embarrassment to the royal family. She also quite outspoken. Back in 2006 she allegedly said what was seen as a slur, when she said:’ Polygamy brings all advantages in a relationship to men, and this to me is unfair and evil'.

As you can imagine as her dad is in a polygamous relationship, this didn’t go down too well in the Swaziland.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2006-09-01-the-princesss-polygamy-slur

About looking like her dad, in my opinion she looks like a female version of him...not a good thing in my eyes...

Swaziland's politics is 'different’. Political parties are banned. The king chooses the prime minister and the cabinet. This effectively means the political system is riddled with nepotism (so many incompetent ministers) and full of sycophants, who never dare disagree with the king, for fear of losing their priviledges..nice houses...government cars...etc.

If you also take into account that most Swazi people don’t own land and that most live on government land handed out by a chief, it becomes a bit clearer why there is less resistance about the lack of democracy than in other African countries. If you protest too much you could ultimately become landless, and your children have no education. I think this one of the major factors that stifles resistance in Swaziland. So resistance is effectively limited to foreign based Swazi’s and the few wealthy ones in the country.

As for the King, my opinion is that he has too much power! I’d prefer if he had similar powers as the British monarchy (never gonna happen I know…but we can all dream). He has done so many crazy things which I can’t be bothered to go into now.

I see your boyfriend is from Botswana, now their government is what I would call a decent African government. Still there is corruption, but Botswana is doing ok.

 

I don't think any race of people is stupid. There are places with less or more education than the west. I concur with what a lot of others have said. Africans are some of the smartest and most intelligent people I've met. Anyone can be a genius, especially if they have the opportunity to fulfil it...

In some ways the African situation bothers me, and in others I think, you don't know or understand. It is what it is. Who am I to judfe, interfere, or anything..?

There are things about a lot of countrys that bother me - but I think as a westerner, we are brought up to feel sorry for less developed people...and the image of the poor person needing sympathy is an african (preferably child ...

Yeah, there are things wrong, and I haven't been to Africa, but from the Africans I've met - they have a LOT going for them...and I have surely learnt a lot from them...and I think a lot of people could.

To ever think that an African is stupid is to prove oneself even more stupid.

 

Yes exactly, it is nice to get some robust discussion on here.

On the Princess, yes I can imagine she could be perceived as somewhat of an embarressment by some. It depends on your perspective, obviously. But from the Swazi perspective, yes.

I guess as an outsider I see it as- she may wish to promote change, but can never do this without gaining ultimate respect of her people, anyway to have any opportunity. And getting people off side is a bad way to start. No idea what she studies, she might be at UCLA? Not sure. For some reason IT or Communication or something rings a bell.. I could be making that up though! I really don't know.

And the looks- well yeah, with respect to the King he's not what I'd call an attractive man! I understand what you are saying about the land etc also- 'better the devil you know' etc. People still need to look out for their family. Noble values and campaigning for change are exactly that - noble. But it is a very rare individual that would speak out at the expense of their own blood. The pressue always needs to come at first from the diaspora who can afford to take the risk. Those at home will wait until there is no other choice- damned if you do, damned if you don't.

There is no comparison between nations, but Mugabe also recognised this risk which is why he made life impossible for any ex pats.

Yes, the Batswana do ok in the scheme of things. Of course, the heavy reliance on one particular industry is always a problem and there has been downturns as mining slows down, but even still. Corruption is still there of course but they are travelling along fairly well. I guess the interesting future will be if they can diversify from what they have built so far and continue to grow with success.

There are possibilites.

 

Not sure what Princess sikhanyiso is studying, but I guess its nothing too taxing(she is always partying)...probably a BA in Knitting & embroidery or something along those lines....Get your point that she could be progressive, but she definitely goes about it the wrong way..

During one of the reed dances (one of the most important ceremonies) she decided to throw a party...and the was booze (like most parties).She was caught by someone connected to royalty, who proceeded to hit her with a stick (Swazi justice for you!)..and stop the party. Just an example of her disrespect. Not sure about the stick hitting though!

http://www.corpun.com/szd00509.htm

About pressure coming from the diaspora, its seems that this has started happening in Swaziland. Not in the way I was hoping. A few weeks ago South African based Swazi group tried planting a bomb near one of the King's palaces. They didn’t make it though, cos the bomb detonated before reaching the destination and killed the bombers. Don’t agree with planting bombs, but I think these kinds of incidents actually make the world pay more attention, and apply more pressure on the government.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7638133.stm

Hmm…..the Zimbabwe situation is so controversial…

Mugabe, well don’t condone his actions but looks like he was put in a really tricky situation…If things worked as planned at independence, White farmers would have willingly sold their land to the new black government (Britain provided a fund to the Zimbabwean government to buy the land back), to address the land imbalance issues. White people owned most of the land, but made up a tiny percentage of the population. But only a few of the White people wanted to sell up! Not surprising I guess, most had made a new life in Zimbabwe. Mugabe was also under pressure from war veterans, who fought in the war of independence for land. Something had to give….

Or was Mugabe just being greedy and wanting to prolong his Presidency? And was just using this land issue as a way of getting votes?

 

Yes that is what I mean, the Princess definately goes about it the wrong way!

I don't want to comment too much as a 'white outsider' on the Zim situation. Agreed things did not go as they should have, but so many people have been tortured, mutilated, murdered. Children without parents.

I have heard it was not just white farms that are snatched- I work with a man who is Shona and his family's farm was taken just because it had a good damn. They raped his wife at knifepoint just for good measure.

The recent deal has again taken the little attention from the world off Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, they are back to the farm snatching tactics. Problem is, most of the land taken is rendered useless, hence the food situation.

The situation was crap from the beginning, white people fucked everyone in the first place, but Mugabe has not improved anything.

There had to have been a better way. I don't know.

 

Agreed....But no one seems to know the better way that would keep everyone happy.

 

Hi Ronja
This is just a cliché
People who say this have poor inner lives
There's noway to cultivate themselves.They are CHAINED by MENTAL SLAVERY.
Slaved of Mental Habits
There 's no way to move out of OPINION ,STEREOTYOES thus,MENTAL SLAVERY and theLIKE for theses people.
FOCUS ON, your newborn and your family.
These people are not worth the trouble.

 

If you listen to French jokes and French comedians, including the most popular one ever, Coluche http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coluche, you will get the impression that the French think everybody is stupid, including their favorite target the Belgians. Since the French gave birth to the word "chauvinism", you would understand why they think Americans, Swiss, Belgian, Russians etc are stupid.

Some think Americans are stupid and this footage shows why

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE


Why do they call Americans 'dumb?'
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/4824

People who speak with strong foreign accents are perceived to bestupid by many Americans and the same foreigners think that many Americans are stupid merely because they are clueless about Geography or world history.

My point is, everybody thinks everyone else is stupid for one petty reason or another. It's all relative. The word "stupid" is often used as a shortcut to describe people or individual who we think do not meet our standards of behavior, do not share our general knowledge, culture, IQ etc. We're all guilty of it

 

Africans to me seem to be more smarter than african americans

 

Hmmm, I am African from the Democratic Republic of Congo(the ex-Zaire), but I live in Los Angeles now, and I will strongly disagree with you on the choice of word. Africans don't seem to be more smarter than African Americans, they are simply more cultured. Being smart and being cultured are two different things. In the United States, there's a strong anti-intellectualism that is prevalent, and it's not a phenomenon seen only in African Americans, it's endemic to the American culture.

The Europeans(Swedish, Russian, French, English, Swiss) I meet always talk about how "dumb" or how uncultured Americans are or appear to them, and they talk about white Americans.


And appearing smart or dumb is all relative like I said and depend on what criteria people want to judge your intelligence or level of intellect. I am not a native speaker of English, so naturally there are several words in the English language I can't pronounce correctly when I speak. And I can tell that sometimes that the Americans look at me in a very condescending manner because I just appear" dumb" to them because of the way I sound. But when they ask me where I am from and I tell them and most don't even know where the country is or that it existed, who look "dumb"? Them, or me? You see, some people will use the regional nuances in speech and socio-linguistics to claim that they can feel the psychological advantage of feeling superior and smarter than an individual. Other will user the amount of general knwoledge one has, and will determine how wordly an individual is to assess is level of intelligence.

Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska and candidate for the vice-presidency of the United States didn't know that Africa was a continent. She thought it was a country! Do you realize how incredible that is and what it implies? She couldn't understand it was a country even when they tried to explain it to her. So not being able to process or assimilating simple information and facts is a sign of sheer stupidity, no?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo

 

Well, that doesn't suprise me at all


I will recommend you to read this site, it's hysterical and give you an idea of the mind set and what you can expect from many Americans. They are not dumb at all, it's just than too many like to casually flaunt their ignorance in even things that are considered basic information. So I'd say it's more like "blind chauvinis".

http://www.netcartoon.net/naaas/dumbamerica.php