If people in this country think of Africa as a place with kids and flies swarming around their heads, then they won't understand that these people are you and you are them.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I think when you've travelled around a lot in Africa, you understand something that many people here don't recognize: the extraordinary power that is Africa at village level - at community level.
Africa doesn't leap on you immediately; it seeps slowly, and it's incredibly important to be respectful and humble there.
When people said Africa would change me, I didn't understand what they meant. To see the poverty in the townships, for instance, is overwhelming. I found it heart-wrenching to see young children walking barefoot and hungry in the dirt. I'm the kind of person who wants to change the world right here and now, so I got frustrated.
To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologise unreservedly.
When you ask people what they think of Africa, they think of AIDS, genocide, disasters, famine.
People wonder why I love Africa so much. I say this is where I was born and raised. My roots are in Africa; that's were I developed.
It's time Africa started listening to our young people instead of always telling them what to do.
You don't grow up naive in Africa.
What I find problematic is the suggestion that when, say, Madonna adopts an African child, she is saving Africa. It's not that simple. You have to do more than go there and adopt a child or show us pictures of children with flies in their eyes. That simplifies Africa.
One of the things I love about Africa is the amount of dignity and respect and humility you see all the time. You don't realise how often you're disrespected until you are surrounded by respect.