What do you know about Africa?

 Africa is one the largest continents, boasting hundreds of millions of people, over fifty countries, hundreds of languages and cultures, and a rich history going back several thousands of years. However, ask the average westerner about Africa, and chances are that it is sort of a black hole of knowledge for them. Still, due to a rise in awareness of foreign locations, especially due to the recent conflicts within Ukraine and Palestine, the overall trend line is for the average person to be much more aware of what happens in the world. This is surprisingly well outlined, in Africa's case at least, by the treatment of the natives in X-Men and Storm comics. 

In the 1975 version of Storm, Professor X sees a group of primitive African tribespeople make a sacrifice of livestock for better rain to Storm. After doing her duty as their god and idol, he has the above conversation, referring to her situation as a complete fantasy. While there are still parts of Africa which are quite technologically primitive, and animal sacrifice is still practiced in many of those communities, choosing this as the portrayal of Africa shows the contemporary western view of Africa during the time, as a place that is basically the same as it had always been, a quite orientalist view not out of place in an 1800's adventure novel. Never mind the massive, modern, and completely overlooked conflicts, such as the Congo Crisis, which happened a decade before, and the rest of the quite bloody history of African independence during this era, since really it was not reported on much or even thought about much beyond actual diplomats and soldiers. One interested in learning more about this interesting and overlooked part of history should look at Dag Hammarskjöld, and the excellent documentary film Cold Case Hammarskjold. 

Meanwhile, flip to the 2014 Storm, and Africa is depicted in a much different light. Perhaps brought upon by worldwide attention to the Rwandan Genocide, and the viral Kony 2012 campaign, Africa evolved in the western consciousness from prairies and tribesman to a much more realistic view of militias, political parties, and modern societies with governments, elections, dictatorships, corruption, and all sorts of political problems, just like the rest of the world. The man in the above image is trying to get Storm to leave, in a political ploy to work with the opposition in a pro-mutant manner, and is later seen trying to kick locals out for the development of a resort. This view of Africa, as not a primitive but a quite modern place, with all of the disputes and battles over resources, land, and ideology that everywhere has, shows a growing awareness of global events, and a decline in the orientalist view of places such as Asia and Africa. Now, of course, the temptation would be to describe all of Africa as constantly corrupt and entangled in war (which sadly some parts, such as the DRC, are), when there are now modern cities and even successful nations, such as Botswana, which is about as wealthy per person as Argentina or Brazil are.