Chanda's Secrets, By Allan Stratton

When I began reading Chapter 1 of “Mistaking Africa,” it reminded me of our first class meeting. Professor Crowley asked us to do the same exercise Curtis Keim talks about in the text. Professor Crowley asked us what comes to mind when we think about Africa. It is a great exercise and allow us to express our perceptions of Africa. Even in class, it took me time to think about what comes to mind when I hear the word Africa, because I have not really heard much about it besides the common misconceptions: “Africa is a primitive place, full of trouble and wild animals, and in need of our help” (5). I frequently see the UNICEF commercial with Alyssa Milano, who asks her viewers how it would feel to be able to save a child’s life for fifty cents a day. The commercial precedes to play really depressing music and shows a slideshow of undernourished children, who fend for themselves in

There are many misconceptions that have been universally accepted mentioned in Curtis Keim’s book Mistaking Africa, many of which are based on biased and incorrect accounts and are extremely offensive. Three important myths are that Africa is a land of cannibals, it is backward and very uncivilized, and that it is one country where everyone and the climate are the same all over. These will be explained, refuted, and the detriment to the people of Africa will be discussed.

¨There was a law against luke. Not him personally everyone like him, kids who were born after their parents already had two babies (pg 6)¨. Would you like a law against you? Among the hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix clearly shows that dictatorship is horrible. In this novel Luke is not allowed to leave the house or be seen. Luke leaves the house in cover and meets a girl the same as him she can't go anywhere so she tries to convince luke to rebel to be like regular people with her but he is to nervous. Luke shows the character traits of brave, jealousy and adventurous as he hides in the shadows.

Stigma is shown throughout many subjects; obesity, mental illness and the most powerful and worse stigma; the stigma of AIDS. The stigma of AIDS is clearly shown through a powerful story set in the middle of the African HIV and AIDS pandemic. The novel Chanda’s secrets accurately demonstrates the stigma of AIDS by portraying characters blinded by fear, being ashamed, feeling sinful, and living in denial. The stigma is shown through a maturing young girl’s point of view, seeing others and as well as herself confronting the different ‘symptoms’ of the stigma and what steps both she and the other characters took to overcome them.

It is unfortunate how often we hear about a disaster occurring in Africa. From civil wars in Somalia and Congo, famine in Yemen and viruses spreading through Liberia, people associate Africa as being chaotic, violent, corrupt, and incredibly poor to the point many Americans still believe animals freely roam in the cities. Naturally, many people and organizations feel the need to bring order and peace to the continent, by policing it, spreading the word of God among the natives, or provide resources such as food, water, or money. However, most people never take the time to learn of African culture and traditions, or understand that some Africans are content with what they have and how things work. We label them as being poor because they do not match our preconceptions of happiness, as we believe living comfortably with others leads to happiness.

Battling disease and personal connection, the life of a soon to be doctor can come with many opportunities, as well as regretful decisions. The Lassa Ward, a memoir told by Ross I. Donaldson, tells the true story of a medical student who embarks on a journey to Western Africa to face one of the most fatal diseases in the world. Published by St. Martin's Press, in 2009, in the city of New York, this story takes place in the early 2000s across many villages and refugee camps in Sierra Leone. The struggle of disease, differing cultural beliefs, and heartbreak due to a loss from death are the main topics of the book, although Donaldson does not fail to intertwine the issue revolving around the Rebel United Front in Liberia. In this moving book,

The existence of poverty is to commonly overlooked and denied by many. This is true when you or a friend have probably walked by a beggar and gave him/her nothing. You think he does drugs or you think he drinks but in reality he might have just made one mistake and there was no one there to help him back up. This chain of having no money is a factor that can destroy one’s self reputation. Poverty affects the health and education of those below the line of

However, what truly defines poverty? Is it a lack of money, or lack of food or even lack of proper hygiene? Although these characteristics alone or combined can often define people living in poverty, the truth is that these are only perceptions. To live in poverty means that your income falls below the official poverty line for a given family size. In a broader sense, the living conditions of the poor are difficult to measure, both because annual cash income is only one factor related to living conditions, and because the poor are quite heterogeneous (Federman, Garner & Short, 1997). The perceptions or "myths" that the population has about poverty are distinguished by a "high degree of constancy" across generations and by an "equally pronounced capacity for evolution", adapting to changes in knowledge and social circumstance (Blumenburg, 1995 pp.34). Society buying into these myths and some impoverished adhering to the myths feed the fuel for society's beliefs and perceptions.

Secrecy and stigma are themes throughout the book, “Chanda’s Secrets”, written by Allan Stratton, takes place in a place where it precisely and accurately resembles a place where over a quarter of the population is living with HIV. Stratton confronts many of the difficult choices women and girls are asked to make in poverty-stricken situations and also contradicts many myths and falsifications about HIV/AIDS in the novel. The protagonist in the novel, Chanda, perseveres and defies the overpowering stereotypes and stigma and begins to expose the truth about HIV/AIDS in her community.

Readers also learn a lot about Central Africa and the issues with which people from there often deal. Many people lost their lives because of the civil war without actually dying. While Deogratias grew up, he saw many people in need of medical attention, and few received help, “Infectious and parasitic illnesses were ubiquitous and there was no public health system” (36). Deogratias was a true savior for the people of southeastern Burundi when he established his medical clinic. Many of the rich people in Burundi were corrupt and did not care about the well-being of other people “In Burundi, as in much of Africa, foreign aid had long been a principal source of wealth for the wealthy” (96). The foreign aid did not go to the poor and sick people who needed it. Readers learn what it feels like immigrating to America and how immigrants are treated. Throughout the story, people were shocked to find out Deogratias attended Columbia University, especially students attending other schools in New York. Deogratias’ boss from his first job in America, Goss, made prejudiced assumptions about why things in Burundi were the way they

In “Chanda’s Secrets”, by Allan Stratton, the topic of focus is HIV/AIDS. A historical event I have studied relating to HIV/AIDS is the black death, also known as the bubonic plague. Although HIV/AIDS and the bubonic plague are very different diseases, they have many similarities as well. HIV/AIDS is a rare, opportunistic infection that cannot be cured. It is a chronic condition that spreads through sexual contact. Whereas the bubonic plague is a very rare, short-term, treatable bacterial infection that spreads through animals or insects. HIV/AIDS has killed roughly 35 million people, and the bubonic plague has killed between 75 and 200 million people. Symptoms of HIV/AIDS include loss of appetite,​​ night sweats, sweating, ulcers, sores, white

Africa is a continent plagued by misinformed and false stereotypes, rarely being seen or portrayed as what it really is. Countless amounts of myths and ideas are formulated based off of single stories or one-sided stories from the region, often without a second thought. These stereotypes give Africa an overall negative image to the rest of the world and suppress the reality that is hidden behind the slew of stereotypes. The belief that all of Africa is poor and undeveloped is an uninformed statement that harms the reality and worsens the image of the continent by perpetuating an incomplete idea into the world.

On October,19,2017 I watched a Ted Talk Called “ Dangers of a single story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She spoke about her life in Nigeria before she studied abroad in The United States of America and the dangers of knowing 1 side of the story this is also known as ‘Bias’. After watching Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Ted talk, I believe not everyone in Africa lives in poverty, stereotypes in Children 's books cause unrealistic ideas of reality and the media fabricates news to generate views and labels specific groups of people.

The myth and stereotypes about Africa are not anything new and they are very present in our daily lives and the way Africa is portrayed. For example the reason why many people today think that Africa is bleak land of poverty and diseases is because early writers, historians, and geographers talked about Africa in that way. Because these stereotypes are so readily available, they infiltrate people’s daily thinking. Furthermore this makes people less likely to actually seek to really learn about Africa because they feel that their [inaccurate] suffice for their worldview of Africa. This is in turn leads people completely ignoring anything that contract their already established ideas.

Bill Cosby, an American comedian, once said, “Is the glass half full, or half empty? It depends on whether you are pouring, or drinking.” Nowadays, when one mentions of Africa, picture of a continent with a vicious cycle of war, poverty and hunger immediately appears in people’s mind. Thus, over the past 50 years, millions, trillions of dollars were sent to aid Africa from developed countries, or organizations. However, poverty and hunger still remain as issues as if nothing has changed. Trying to find the core reasons to this unchanging phenomenon, Good Fortune, a movie directed by Landon Van Soest, explores the disparity between the developers’ and the native’s perspective of needs in urban Africa as well as in rural areas, while explaining riots and chaos are formed due to lack of communication.