It may be easy to fall in love with a good-looking man or woman without much thought and efforts put into it. It becomes super easy when that person is good looking and successful in his or her chosen field. The likes of billionaires, musicians and successful artists who are males if truth be told may recount stories of escapades, they may have indulged in countless times without the premeditated intention of putting up that act. Some may also tell you the countless date they entertained because women inflicted themselves on them.
People may judge all these women and do some name calling but one fact still stands and it is unavoidable; women or men are attracted to good looking and successful people. There may be few exceptions. The question that must be asked is this, among all the men and women who dated these good looking or successful people, how many of them find themselves in lasting relationships with these people? Often times, what the world witness is passing relationships and the background stories that incite the breakups are horrible while few are trivial but the parties are not willing to accommodate the individual differences. Perhaps they leave the relationships hoping to find that perfect man or woman and search as hard as they could but conclude after years that ‘there is no such thing as a perfect human being.’ Why should the idea of a perfect human being linger in their minds in the first place? Why not? When the social media create the perception of a utopia person or marriage and work at it so hard to make the majority of people believers of it.
This analogy can be likened to the perception about Africa; it would be rare for people in the western world to deny that they have heard about Africa. Many a times, what people know about Africans are skewed second hand information handed down from generations. Permit me to share some with you: “Africans live on tress, (have not tasted modern civilization yet), is a war torn zone, technologically challenged and many more.
These perceptions therefore influence the sense of fashion of first time travelers to Africa.
Most travelers who are not inspired to wear their best when journeying to Africa are hit with a wave of surprise when they arrive at the airports and realize that they underestimated Africans. However, a different attitude is put up with regard to the sense of fashion when people are travelling to the west. I have often times sat beside First time travelers in planes en route to Europe in suit, fly tie and I impulsively asked myself what the occasion was in the plane. The fact is that, there is no occasion in the plane, rather, the West is painted as the epitome of success and a source of attraction, influencing the sense of fashion of travelers who intend to visit for the first time. Wait a minute! Which person on earth would dress substandard on a first date? The love for a country or continent can be likened to the love between a man and woman. There are many variables that play major role in the antic of relationships. Again, Africa for so long a time has not been painted as attractive or successful to the world, making it harder for people to fall in love with it and prepare adequately through their sense of fashion to have a date with it (i.e. visit Africa for the first time).
I mentioned early on that it is super easy to fall in love with good looking successful people. If you doubt what I am saying let me put you to test with this scenario:
Imagine that you are traveling to Africa and you meet Oprah Winfrey, Denzel Washington, Beyoncé, Will Smith, Aliko Dangote etc and they express their interest of a date with you some time. What would be your response?
Let me be swift to remind you that the fact that you find these people in your company is enough for you to say ‘yes’ to that date and on the day of that particular date, I bet you dress to kill.
I also believe that at that moment, whoever you are, white, Asian or Caucasian may not for once consider their race or skin colour before consenting to that date. Why? Because they are good looking successful people and it is super easy to grant them a date.
Let me remind you that many people have forgotten that these successful Black people who live in America have black descent, yet people continuously fall in love with them because of their success and reject their ancestry. This rejection may be due to a skewed perception about Africa and its inability to showcase its sunny side to the world.
Africans must stop putting forth an angry case and unveil a reasoned case about who they are. Africa is a successful, attractive and wealthy continent that must be given the chance to showcase itself as an attractive date, waiting to charm whoever it spends the day with. It winks at the world with its beautiful round big eyes, yet little attention is paid to it because of the disdainful perception.
I am yet to see a continent that cough up so much wealth in terms of minerals such as gold, silver, diamond, bauxite and many others yet it is perceived as a “used and dumped tool by its date.
Africa is beautiful, sassy, wealthy, powerful and royally; it is calling on you, world to give it a chance to take you out on a date. It says, “I am just requesting one date with you and you would appreciate my worth.” Mind you, just like any other date, Africa is not perfect but attractive. Therefore, it needs to be understood for this chemistry to work.
Africa calls on you, would you respond?
Princess Poku-Ansah
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