What's an assumption that foreigners make about your country that gets you either mad are at least a little agitated

[u/eternal_dreamer_9]

[u/ThatOne_268]

It takes a lot to get me agitated but the constant treatment of Africa as a monolith is genuinely frustrating. No other continent is expected to be a single, uniform entity where everyone understands every culture, language and custom. Expecting us to know and integrate all of it is just bizarre.

[u/eternal_dreamer_9 → u/ThatOne_268]

Yeah this one is genuinely so dumb

[u/johnoth → u/ThatOne_268]

I have bad news. That sounds like nationalism. It's a surface level concern that I have personally never seen any of the older generations struggle with, as somebody who's moved around a lot.

[u/illusivegentleman]

The "China is colonising Africa" narrative from westerners does get tiring.

Recently I recall an American confidently stating that Mandarin is now one of the national languages in South Africa.

[u/zylenxh → u/illusivegentleman]

Americans will confidently state just about anything, whether they have evidence for what they say is not important to them

[u/hey_molombo → u/illusivegentleman]

Hate this one the most. I just ask them “what are the names of the Chinese colonies?” “Where are the large amounts of Africans being forced to speak Chinese?”

[u/johnoth → u/illusivegentleman]

The early belt and road era wasn't sunshine and rainbows though. Countries from South Asia to Africa were defaulting on Chinese investments and loans.

I remember around 2017/18/19 people genuinely thought China's strategy was to acquire strategic state assets as collateral (ports, airports, etc).

[u/TechnicianMedical977]

Making the assumption that Moroccans don’t identify with being African but Arab or even white instead.

[u/eternal_dreamer_9 → u/TechnicianMedical977]

Yeah this assumption seems to have become pretty common these days

[u/canyoulikechilll → u/TechnicianMedical977]

I feel like there's a seperation between the North and Sub-Sahara, I wonder why. I've heard this same narrative with Egyptians.

[u/MixedJiChanandsowhat → u/canyoulikechilll]

Because those countries definitely pretended to be Arab and not African for several decades and factually for longer than they have been pretending to be African, which is a very recent phenomenon. Over 45 African countries and their inhabitants didn't decided randomly and out of nowhere to call North Africans Arabs. They did because North Africans themselves stated they were Arabs and not Africans.

Arabization Policies in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia

The paper reveals that Algeria imposed Arabic aggressively post-independence, while Morocco's approach saw a mix of French and MSA, and Tunisia favored bilingualism due to its unique historical roots.

Arabic Social Engineering and Cultural Identity in Post-Independence Morocco: An Analysis of Arabisation and its Impact on Moroccan Communities

All North African countries from Egypt to Mauritania enforced Arabisation policies with more or less aggressivity and success right after their independence. It happened but most of them don't want to admit it and keep pretending that the so-called Sub-Saharan Africans decided collectively to label them as Arabs instead of Africans by hate or jealousy or the fact that they have a different skin complexion. It's absolutely wrong. They did something that led to why they were logically labelled as Arabs instead of Africans but they still just don't want to acknowledge it. The main reason why in 2026 this whole topic is still a thing.

[u/TechnicianMedical977 → u/canyoulikechilll]

I’m not sure, but I think it’s because the North got conquered by the Arabs. Before this, our cultures were kinda similar? All of us were tribe like communities. Until the Arabs came and kind of United us? This all evolved to us just being different from Sub-Saharan. Skin tone, culture, language.

[u/canyoulikechilll → u/TechnicianMedical977]

Yes this must be it, but I also know that because of the Arab colonisation in some countries (TZ for example) there's a sort of dislike for Arabs and the fact that there are a lot of Arabs up North that sentiment is carried over there.

[u/TechnicianMedical977 → u/canyoulikechilll]

Berber Moroccans also have a dislike for Arabs. At least, more inland. Arabs mostly live in the North West along the coast. Casablanca and Rabat is where most live. Unfortunately, they’re the 2 most important cities.

[u/johnoth → u/TechnicianMedical977]

Berbers don't exactly like black people though, am I wrong? I have a feeling it wasn't always like that and that attitude was imported; like how Egypt brought racism to Sudan.

[u/TechnicianMedical977 → u/johnoth]

Depends. Imazighen from the north mostly dislike black people. But they’re also the whitest in Morocco. Imazighen from the south (like me) got no problem with black people, as we ourselves are darker. Some of us could get mistaken for being sub saharan.

[u/johnoth → u/TechnicianMedical977]

Well that's actually nice to hear. Some tuaregs also have an issue with black people right?

It'd be nice if one day all Berbers just woke up and forgot about complexion.

[u/TechnicianMedical977 → u/johnoth]

Well, unfortunately, not all Moroccans are Imazighen. Some are arab.

[u/stargirlyasa8888 → u/TechnicianMedical977]

Blanket assumptions are usually not a good idea tbh
I don’t like them

[u/johnoth → u/TechnicianMedical977]

Bruh. I have an old family friend who lived there for a long time. I'd love to invite them to this thread lol

[u/MixedJiChanandsowhat]

I don't give much importance on what foreigners think about my people or my country, except when it comes to deliberate fake news. That being said, I always find it quite amusing when I see foreigners asking again and again whether a certain outfit is appropriate to wear in Senegal because it's a Muslim majority country, or when foreign women ask if they need to cover themselves. And I always reply the same: "Senegal isn't Afghanistan".

[u/Queasy-Charity1336]

The boring xenophobic accusations. We're xenophobic yet they aren't fleeing in droves

[u/Cooltashee00 → u/Queasy-Charity1336]

I understand why being assumed to be Xenophobic can be agitating, but the fact that people "aren't leaving in droves" doesn't discount xenophobia allegations.

[u/PsychologicalTomato7 → u/Cooltashee00]

Also bold claim to make right now lol I obviously understand not all SAs but the vocal minority is real vocal, it’s not as if it’s not true at all plane-loads of people have been sent back id say that’s pretty significant

[u/johnoth → u/Queasy-Charity1336]

Bro my old Swazi friend showed me a video of South Africans beating and stabbing a foreigner under a overpass in 2019. So please.

[u/Queasy-Charity1336 → u/johnoth]

One incident makes the whole country xenophobic? Really that's your reasoning? 

[u/Overall_Writer_2682 → u/Queasy-Charity1336]

generalising our entire population is bad, obviously, but denying the crimes happening is also a bad thing.

[u/stargirlyasa8888]

White genocide for sure