"Shit hole" is now the buzz word!

Hello, My name is Lilian and I am not from a "Shit hole" country! I chose not to go with the narrative or rhetoric of a white supremacist who utters the shittest things.  There is something seriously wrong with a person who chooses to hate others based on the colour of their skin or where they come from.

There are issues (serious issues) in my country of birth but that doesn't make it a 'shit hole'! What is meant by 'shit hole' and who has the right to describe a place as such? Surely, not by a person who has not taken the time to educate himself on the root cause of why people from where he labelled "shit holes" are seeking succour elsewhere.

He is not at fault for giving Africa a bad image. The press, academics and visitors to the continent project this negative view that people from the continent are helpless, need the help or intervention of the west, are inferior and need saving and that is the reality that is projected and believed by many in the West.

The reality for many in some African countries is that things are so bad that there is no hope. However, these things do not happen in isolation.  For many, there is no way out! No hope! and some people resort to taking the dangerous path of seeking a better life abroad. They embark on that dangerous journey to Libya where the women are raped and the men go through unimaginable and atrocious treatment. A people of no hope will do anything for some sort of meaning to their existence. They are willing to die just to live.

So, in a way, it is a "shitty" situation for people to find themselves in; a life that they did not have a say in to come into. No one chooses to be born into abject poverty where there is no hope of coming out of it. No one chooses to be born to go through the horrors of war, have every member of their family killed by Boko Haram or herdsmen. No one chooses to be born in countries where the government, people who are supposed to be serving their people, are their oppressors!

'Africa' was labelled as a 'shit hole'. The continuous homogenising of the continent is just ridiculous and ignorant. In this day and age, one would expect that there are few people who are so ignorant to homogenise the continent. Oh yes, Africa is a continent. It is diverse, with different histories, people, race,  languages and way of life.

An aspect of the continent which can almost be homogenised is one which is sidelined; the history of its colonialism. When certain individuals call people from the African continent 'shitty' or from "shit holes", they sideline or erase one very crucial part of history, colonialism, which whether by their making or not, are linked to. The destruction of every fabric of life in many African countries from religion to language is one that has engendered the loss of identity and in some ways, today, fans the embers of war in countries such as Nigeria.

I chose not to be angry but to find ways to contribute to the world through education. I believe that information to a certain extent will help make people less ignorant. It may not change the world but it will sure change the narrow epistemological lens through which they view humanity.