Nothing more than Mayor Mel Lastman's malevolent musings so vividly epitomize the North American popular view of Africa as a "dark" continent peopled by inferior, incompetent and primitive savages.
It is a tragedy that even in this information age, the events of contemporary Africa are dreadfully distorted, utterly outdated and absurdly inaccurate. As a newly landed African immigrant, I am daily confronted by these ingrained, stereotypical images of us as beastly prehistoric head-hunters, with bones through our noses, living in twig huts and existing on a diet of stewed Last man's!The point that must be stated here is the difference that appears in Canadians' attitudes toward Africa in comparison with their feelings for most other areas of the world. With every other culture, no matter how foreign or exotic, with some measure of grudging space, it has been admitted that something can be gained from another indigenous, yet highly different, sensibility. In a very real sense, everything African is denied, despised and distrusted.A pity that Mel could not succumb to the lure of Africa. For never so sinister as Mel paints it, Africa is less a dark than a lost continent — lost to the Lastmans of this Earth who do a great disservice to a great continent and even greater societies. Something quiet and grand in our ravaged, plundered past, we have retained the warmth and humanity that is bereft in this part of the world.Salma Ginwalla, MississaugaCopyright 1996-2001. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved.