There is this particular minister I really like listening to. I admire him a lot and respect the grace of God operating on him. In fact, I have a series of his teachings on my phone’s music player that I regularly listen to.
So, this day, I was listening to him teach and he was trying to buttress a very valid point by listing the countries that were affected by a particular issue,
“…it happens here in the U.S…go to Britain and you’d find the same thing there…also in Brazil, India and even AFRICA!”
On hearing the last phrase, it took me the grace of God not to tune out of this particular teaching.
Days later, I was watching a charismatic revivalist trying to make another point. He was like,
“We’re seeing the revival commence here in the U.S…it’s spreading out to Germany, Argentina, Japan, AFRICA…soon it would be all over the world!!!”
Again, on hearing that, it took me God’s grace not to miss what the man was saying.
Now, I’m not a fighter for the “emancipation” of the Black race fashioned after the form of Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela and other legendary vanguards (By the way, if there’s any kind of freedom needed by anybody at all, it is the freedom provided by the right kind of knowledge).
I’m also aware that the people that categorize Africa as a country usually do not have ulterior motives/ hidden agendas to downplay the importance of Africa as a continent.
However, I believe in always standing for what is right!
And categorizing the whole continent of Africa as a country is not right!!!
You see, just because China has a population of over 1.3 billion people and Africa has a population of about 1.1 billion people is still not enough reason to refer to it as a country…
Seriously speaking now. I mean, I agree Uganda, Swaziland, Liberia and Morocco are all in Africa. But the aforementioned countries are part of the over 50 nations that make up the whole continent of Africa. I won’t say that the fact that I visited France means I’ve visited the whole of Europe, despite the fact that France, indeed is in Europe; the same way, people also shouldn’t use vague generalizations when dealing with specific African countries.
So, instead of saying,
“We want ‘so-so-so’ to happen in Canada,Peru, Belgium, Iraq and AFRICA…”
You can always say,
“We want ‘so-so-so’ to happen in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia”
You see how easy that was? Simple geography offends no one.
Furthermore, instead of saying,
“We’d be visiting Mexico, Bolivia, Holland, North Korea and AFRICA…”
You can always say,
“We’d be visiting Mexico, Bolivia, Holland, North Korea and Nigeria (or the specific African country/countries you’d be visiting)”
That, I believe, is right!!!