As a young American, I vividly recall most of my continental travel firsts -- embarking in Europe (Rome, solo, as a teenager on a bike), arriving in Asia (Bangkok, with friends, as a mid-20s backpacker), setting foot in South America (Quito, for a conference, in my early 30s) and, most memorably, crossing into Africa (Casablanca, solo, in my early 30s).
For reasons that will surprise few of you, the kickoff of my African travels was the one filled with the most stepping-into-the-unknown worry, both for me and those alert to my peregrinations. So many of us have been conditioned to think of Africa -- the vast continent of more than a billion people at home in 54 countries and speaking more than 3,000 languages -- as a singular and ominous entity, one wrapped in a thorny cloak of mystery and challenge.
But anyone who has been to Africa -- and I am now honored and blessed to have visited 12 countries in four regions over the course of eight trips to the continent, including an astounding month on a bike in Southern Africa with with trans-continental Tour d'Afrique -- knows that there is no such thing as a single Africa, any more than there is a unified or universally touted sense of Europe or Asia.
This is one of the big things addressed by this video spotlight:
Africa Straight Up debunks the (in)sensibility that Africa could ever be limited to a single narrative. The video is "a more complete story about Africa and its diaspora" and "a dynamic 'not your parents' documentary' about the stereotypes confronting Africa," according to promotional material written about it.
"Perceptions of Africa have been changing over the last couple of years, starting with the World Cup in South Africa in 2010," Teresa Clarke, writer and executive producer of Africa Straight Up as well as chairman and CEO of Africa.com, told me. "Viewers of our video have given extensive feedback; we have over 300 comments on Youtube alone. These viewers invariably felt that they learned something new about Africa -- including Africans who learned something new about another part of the continent outside of their own region."
The video appeals to all viewers to do three things: share word of the video (use #AfricaStraightUp on Twitter), look deeper at the Africa.com website and, most importantly, tell their own personal stories of Africa.