Five years later, five myths about Africa

Scott Baldauf, Africa bureau chief of The Christian Science Monitor has a interesting and anecdote-rich piece from last week in which he lays out five common myths about Africa that keep coming up in his work. If you're feeling impatient, the five points are:

1. Africa is 'poor'
2. Africa is 'violent'
3. Africa needs our help
4. Africa is 'backward'
5. Africa is a country

That he considers none of these to be true isn't necessarily surprising (the idea of Africa being a country is so commonly joked about that there's a major Africa blog titled "Africa is a country"), but it is a nice little summary of the difficulty of trying to "understand" an entire continent, and one that I largely agree with. Though let's not forget that even that is not an uncontroversial idea.

Previously: Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like.