Dance and Africa

Blog assignment: Do you have memories of dancing as a child? In your yard? To music in your living room when no one was watching? When you hear music, are you affected by the rhythm you hear? Do you start to tap your foot or bob your head in time to the music?
Do you think of Africa as a country or a continent? What images come to mind when you hear the word Africa ?

I'm not really much of a dancer. I'm not at all self-conscious about what I say and do in most cases; my friends will tell you that. For some reason, though, I've always felt a little awkward in my body, and I've never felt too comfortable dancing. I'm not very good at it anyway, though. The only dancing I even try to do is simple slow-dancing.

I did take Greek dancing at church for a few years when I was younger, and I never enjoyed or was good at that, either.

Music I'm enjoying definitely does affect me physically, however. I do indeed bob my head and play the drums with my hands and sing along, especially when I'm alone.

Well, Africa is a continent, and that's how I think of it. I do feel that I'm more educated about it than many Westerners, though. I've taken several classes that have covered different topics about the continent. I took The Reel World last semester and read much about Africa, especially Rwanda and The Congo.

I recall hearing a woman from Africa on NPR recently who mentioned having a well-educated man ask her if there are any sky-scrapers in Africa. I also had a girlfriend once who was completely shocked to hear that there were white people living on the continent at all.

When I think of Africa, many things come to mind. Of course, Homo Sapiens is thought to have originated there, and I'm very interested in Anthropology, so I consider it the birthplace of all humans. In that sense, we're all of African descent. The rich native cultures, dance, singing, and art are great. There's also the extensive social and political unrest that has plagued the continent since it began to be colonized by Europeans. Since I studied Rwanda and the genocide last semester, that awful period always comes up and it makes me so sad. Finally, there's the AIDS crisis that most of us know about which has no end in sight.

In all, it's unfortunate that the negative side of Africa is what we think of the most, but it is a continent plagued with problems.