africa is not a dark continent

(windhoek, namibia) africa is not a dark continent. even though this may be obvious to some, i feel the need to set the record straight. africa is not a dark continent. it is hard for me to believe that in this new millennium, the year 2008, there are people that manage to avoid the news and some general common knowledge. these are educated people. since my whole quest started for my journey to africa, there have been people along the way that have said some curious things. no need to go into detail and list the five w's but in a sense they thought that everyone in africa was still walking around barefoot in villages and they didn't have modern conveniences, anywhere in africa. now this is not even just reserved to africa, i can't count the number of times i've heard people say that its just a frozen tundra in russia (as in the whole entire country is like siberia). now the problem with all these statements is that there is truth to them, africa has does have villages where people walk around barefoot and don't have modern conveniences and the extreme northern part of russia is basically a frozen tundra (shoot, so is the US- alaska). the problem is those are only some areas. russia is a big place, the south is warm man, i promise you. its on the same latitude as US cities for goodness sake. the whole continent of africa is not the same everywhere, there are different countries that vary like night and day. compare south africa and the congo or morocco and zimbabwe. take even namibia for instance, the capital (and most white populated areas) have a stark contrast to the north where there are villages or the northwest where people still live like they did thousands of years ago (himba). so to sum it up, some places in africa, in each country probably are like what you picture but for the most part you will find a modern city in every capital of a country, yes that's every african capital.