Africa Is Not a Country Quotes

“Not everyone is allowed a complex identity. Throughout history, individuals and entire communities have been systematically stripped of their personhood and idiosyncrasies, often to make them easier to demean, denigrate and subjugate - and in some cases, eradicate. Being able to define yourself openly and fully is a privilege; it is a grace many take for granted.”
― Dipo Faloyin, Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent

“Assume any mention of the actions of an ethnic group refers to the leadership of that group at that time and does not reflect the majority beliefs of the entire community.”
― Dipo Faloyin, Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent

“In reality, Africa is a rich mosaic of experience, of diverse communities and histories, and not a singular monolith of predetermined destinies. We sound different, laugh differently, craft the mundane in uniquely mundane ways, and our moral compasses do not always point in the same direction.”
― Dipo Faloyin, Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent

“Kindness, as far as its ordinary meaning is concerned, is free and anonymous. If it can’t be free and silent, it is not kindness; it is something else. Blackmail is the closest it becomes"
- Joyce Banda”
― Dipo Faloyin, Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent

“Seeing yourself accurately represented, however, is a reminder that you and yours are not a side plot to a grander narrative. You are the narrative, the main characters for whom the sun rises.”
― Dipo Faloyin, Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent

“They devised the General Act of the Berlin Conference – a document that codified the end of Africa’s right to self-determination, and accelerated the rush to gorge on the continent until it was picked clean.”
― Dipo Faloyin, Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent

“What they were doing was illegal, and they all knew it. However hard they dressed it up as a humanitarian or Christian attempt to rid African natives of their so-called inherent backwardness, it was, by the standards of then – and now – grossly illegal and ethically indecent.”
― Dipo Faloyin, Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent

“By the end of the conference, the fourteen assembled interests wanted a future for the continent that allowed far-off strange nations to freely fuel their pleasures with Africa’s most lucrative resources, all while keeping the local people happy by developing their perceived undeveloped minds with a copy of the Bible, a smile and weapons.”
― Dipo Faloyin, Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent

“Eighty per cent of Africa was still free when Bismarck rose to stand in front of that map at around 2 p.m. on the first day of the conference. (Within thirty years of that moment, 90 per cent of Africa would be controlled by Europe.)”
― Dipo Faloyin, Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent

“Een terrorist voor de een, is een vrijheidsstrijder voor een ander.”
― Dipo Faloyin, Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent

“When the same narratives are repeatedly regurgitated, we internalize them, make assumptions and pass judgements based on the thinnest shreds of evidence, which would dissolve if only we subjected them to the lightest of truths.”
― Dipo Faloyin, Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent

“Not enough belief, however, was present in her audience for the words to settle on understanding.”
― Dipo Faloyin, Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent

“The interior structure of modern Africa was built on greed rather than an informed reality. It's the same strategy my eleven year old nephew uses in negotiations: ignore the well-established rules and parameters, and demand a fairy-tale outcome that brings short-term joy, with the long-term consequences relegated to a problem for a future version of yourself to deal with.”
― Dipo Faloyin, Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent