Hi Mariama,
                      Excuse me for intruding on your reply to Maria but I would like to comment on a couple issues. You wrote: '' I do not believe that we should waste our energy on fighting steroetypes''. Why should we not fight the negative stereotypes that have real and tangible undesirable psychological, economic etc. effects on Africans? Why should we not fight such stereotypes as nearly everyone in Africa has AIDS, that all Africans are corrupt and that doing business with them means getting skinned, that Africans are cannibals, that African is just a mass of huts and jungles without the necessary infrastructure to warrant investment etc.? Can you see the tangible effects of these stereotypes? Can you please tell me why we should not fight them?
    You also wrote: ''I believe that Africa should remain true to its values  even if this means dancing in masks and skimpy skirts''. I do not think that values have anything to do with the skimpy skirts. Africa is one of the richest continents in terms of values but the most backward in terms of development. The skimpy skirts have to do with poverty and underdevelopment and not values. Would you honestly rather wear skimpy skirts than say the latest innovation from Chan Khan? Both are African dresses. Would you rather honestly live in the huts that you idealised instead of modernised version of those huts. Mark here that I am not saying Westernised. I am saying modernised. See Chinese traditional architecture. It still looks Chinese but has been modernised to enhance the living conditions of the Chinese. If the hut look is so important, why not come up with modernised versions of the hut? Thanks and have a good day.
                                                                                                                        Buharry.

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