Biological beauty. The sense of pride in family and country. Racial turmoil. Westernization. The rapid spread of HIV and AIDS. Education and hope. These were only a few of the issues and images that came up when I spoke to three of my peers about their experiences in South Africa. What began as a simple objective, get college students’ opinions of Africa before and after they visited, ended up catalyzing three unique and eye-opening discussions. My questions were simple, but Sarita Fritzler, Loretta Brown, and Jeff Lakusta’s answers were not. The working title for this article before I had completed my interviews was, “Africa: Before and After.” What I learned from these students is their opinions of and experiences in Africa were not quite this cut and dry.
Sarita Fritzler, a senior at Saint Mary’s College, has always held a positive opinion of Africa and its people and it shows. She lived in Egypt and Ghana for many of her grade school years.
“This was the perfect time for me to understand what was going on,” she explains, “I never felt unsafe and the people there are so friendly.”
Back in the United States, she discovered that the Americans, those with whom she went to school with were ignorant of what is going on in Africa. Another student actually asked her if she had to take a camel to school when living there.
Always anxious to go back to a continent that provided her with so many positive childhood experiences, she decided to study abroad in South Africa for her junior year at Saint Mary’s.
“I was super excited, but nervous because of what people were saying about the high crime and rape rates. After I was there for a week or so, I realized that the safety warnings were the same as they are here,” she said.
Sarita believes Americans of our generation and Americans in general hold negative views of Africa and its culture that she believes are perpetuated by the media. One example of this is the problem of HIV/AIDS.
However, she discovered that “South Africa is actually very modernized, just like here.”
Loretta Brown, a senior biology major, provided a similar testimonial. The Saint Mary’s study abroad program allowed Loretta to be immersed in South African culture. She was housed with African students and even played on the local Ultimate Frisbee team.
Before studying in South Africa, Loretta had visions of malnourished people and endless wilderness.
“South Africa was so modernized and westernized. It was really a big surprise to me. I visited Mozambique for a week and even that, the sixth poorest nation in the world, was so modern that it just surprised me.”
Before she traveled to Africa for a study abroad program in biology, Loretta knew little about Africa’s history and culture. She feels this is true of her entire generation.
She believes Americans do, in fact, have negative opinions of Africa that stem from ignorance and even fear.
Unlike Sarita and Loretta, Jeff Lakusta, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame and president and founder of the Eyes on Africa Foundation, believes Americans hold a positive opinion of Africa.
To clarify, he explains, “They have a very negative view of what’s going on, but a positive view about helping out. I think that going there really opens your eyes to how bad it really is. I think going there really brings the positive attitude down a lot because the problems are so big and, How do I help? There’s so much hope, but it’s so much of a bigger problem than even I was ready for after I did preparation. It was so shocking to see the conditions there.”
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