Awesome photo of Nairobi via Afritorial.com

I belong to a slew of Facebook groups, a few of which are travel related. One group, Rare Customs, is planning a trip to Kenya early next year, and like a woman struck by a sudden and permanent case of wanderlust, I WANT TO GO.

Like…badly.

*long heavy sigh*

Truth is, I want to go everywhere. But after looking for something completely different, I ran across the blog Afritorial, and what did I see? A post about why folks need to go to Nairobi. Kismet? Maybe. But now I’ve got the itch and Africa is on my mind.

When it comes to the “dark continent” (insert a mean eye roll right there) you always hear about its wildlife, or see pictures of Western travelers going to shanty towns to be “down” with the people. But we rarely see Africa…ANY part of it…as a bustling, modern metropolis.

Cape Town, South Africa – via National Geographic

What we see is always war and starving babies and desolate landscapes and machetes. Or something.

Why is that?

Why is there often ONE story coming out of the whole of Africa as if it’s one big country (which, hello, it is not)?

Harare, Zimbabwe

If you want to see a “different” face of Africa you’ve got to do more than just Google “Africa”. Typically search engines will only point you toward stereotypical depictions of the continent.

But Africa is so much more than that, and I know this without even getting close to its shores.

Thank God for bloggers. And for sites like the cheeky Africa is a Country, or Afritorial, or Ms. Afropolitan, or AfriPop or any number of others that share the often overlooked parts of the Motherland.

And thank God for Africans who tell their own stories like only they can (peace to Danai Gurira whose commitment to telling African stories came through as soon as I met her).

I hope the wider world eventually catches up and is able to see what Africa is really all about. But in the meantime, I need to hustle up my coins and head to Kenya in January so I can see it for myself.

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