Stereotypes Of Africa During The 19th Century

Western Eurocentric stereotypes erroneously portray traditional African civilization and culture as exotic, different, and primitive. For many westerners, Africa is stereotyped as a continent with tribes and villages with primitive social structures and hierarchies. African countries contain various cultures, languages, and religions. African’s experienced denial of religious and cultural identity after gaining independence from European countries because European’s imposed western ideologies upon a continent with numerous diversities.

During the nineteenth century, Africa was referred to as the ‘Dark Continent’ because of the insufficient knowledge of the inhabitants, history, and the large unknown demographic regions within the continent of Africa. European powers divided the land during the ‘Scramble for Africa’, however, the complex geography prevented the further exploration of Africa. Common Eurocentric stereotypes include poverty, uneducated, and primeval. Thus, the continual underdevelopment in Africa

Africa contains eight diverse physical regions: the Sahara, Ethiopian Highlands, Southern Africa, the African Great Lakes, the rainforest, the savanna, and the Swahili Coast. All of these regions have individual climates and ecosystems, which mean that the people living in these regions have different ways of life. Thus, those indigenous to Africa have adapted to the varying climate changes through the use of different tools, clothing, and altering methods of providing food. Although African’s have become resourceful in adapting to catastrophic climate changes; however, Westerner’s are consumed by the materialistic culture attributed to social hierarchy. The differences in cultural ideologies makes Africa different from other countries, thus Africa is viewed as backwards and