13 January 09
Flunking African Geography
When I flew back from Maine last November I sat next to two women who were studying a map of Africa, pointing to Kenya. “That’s where Obama’s family’s from,” one of them said. They struck me as people, residents of Sacramento, who had probably backed Hillary in the primaries but were now pleased to have voted for the first African American president and were eager to learn more about him. (We later played poker, badly, cooperatively as women do, which is not how you play poker.)
The current issue of Science News features unmarked maps of Africa showing first percentage of men circumcised by country vs. percent of people with HIV. The negative correlation is high — these maps are a great indicator of how government responses to demand for circumcision have helped slow the spread of AIDS — but to me it was a test. I knew all the countries, right?
Not quite. West Africa remains a jumble; I’d forgotten (how?) all about Liberia and Guinea Bissau, and what is Western Sahara? And how did I miss Congo separating out from Congo Democratic Republic? Oh dear.
My poor father is probably turning in his grave.
Edited to add this, in case you’re interested in taking a quiz…
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Oh, my African geography is dismal. I learned it in the first place from an old map, in my youth, out of date even then, so half the names I learned have disappeared. And I never learned the new ones.
I used to play tennis that way, with my friend Jane. Neither of us was good at it, so just keeping the ball in play was a minor victory.
As for maps—hell, I can’t even keep up with Europe anymore.
My sense of Africa is horrible. The only area of the world that I fare more poorly with is Micronesia.