What is something most people don't know about Africa?
非洲有什么事是大多数人不知道的？

 

获得634.7k好评的回答@Innocent Masengo：

That most Africans are poor, not because they really are poor, but because someone decides to describe them as such.
大部分非洲人很穷，不是因为他们真穷，而是因为有人故意把他们说得很穷。

My grandfather is ‘poor’. He certainly lives on “less than a dollar a day”. He is now 95 years old. In his nine and a half decades on earth, he has never lacked, and he has never begged. He only attended one year at a mission school in the 1930s and learnt how to read and write. This is how he pulls it off:
我外祖父就“穷”，他的生活来源当然是“每天不到一美元”。他现在95岁，过去的95年里他从未缺过什么，也没要过饭。他只在20世纪30年代上过一年教会学校学习读和写。下面就是他的生活：

When he wants food, he goes to the banana plantation, looks at tens of bunches of matooke (banana) and decides which to harvest for the day’s dinner. Adjacent to the plantation is a sweet potato garden, cassava garden, yams and finger millet. To the south of the banana plantation are beans, cow peas or peanuts gardens. Down the valley is grazing land with tens of cross-breed cattle. They provide him with milk daily, 365 days a year.
他想吃东西时，就去香蕉种植园，看着数十株大香蕉，想想摘哪些做晚饭，挨着这个种植园是红薯园、木薯园、山药和龙爪稷。香蕉园的南面是豆子、豇豆或花生园。沿着山谷继续走就是牧场，有几十头杂交牛，每天都产奶，一年365天不间断。

He also has about 20 goats. In Uganda, goat milk was generally not considered palatable, possibly due to the abundance of cow milk, so we never milked goats. He would sell a couple of them to supplement income from other produce to send his children to school. He also reared a couple of chickens, more as a hobby.
他还有约20只山羊。在乌干达普遍认为羊奶不好喝，可能是因为牛奶太多，所以从不挤羊奶。他会卖掉几只羊贴补其他农产品的收入来送孩子们上学。他也会养几只小鸡，更像是个爱好。

The farm produces more than he can consume. He sells the surplus to afford such essential services as kerosene (recently upgraded to solar), soap, sugar.
农场上产出的东西他自己用不完，就把剩下的东西卖掉买些生活用品，比如煤油（现在都升级为太阳能了）、肥皂和糖。

Scattered across the farm are sugarcane (for eating, not for making sugar) and fruit trees (guava, mango, pawpaw, avocado, orange, passion fruit, pineapple). He drinks fresh juice from mangoes and passion fruit. As is evident, everything here is on a subsistence basis, but very organic. He has done this for the past 75 years.
农场上四处散落着甘蔗（是吃的，不是制糖的）和果树（番石榴、芒果、木瓜、牛油果、桔子、百香果和菠萝）。他喝新鲜芒果汁和百香果汁。显然这里的一切能满足日常所需，而且都是有机的。他过去的75年都是这样过的。

He had eleven children, my mother being his first born. He sent all of them to school, saw eight of them through college. He sold at least two cows, some goats and some produce each school term to send his children to school.
他有11个孩子，我妈妈是老大，他送所有孩子上学，其中八个上了大学。每学期送孩子上学他要卖掉至少两头牛，一些山羊和农产品。

I went to live at grandfather’s place when I was 5 years old. I left when I was 14 (my family lived in an urban area). I learnt how to farm, milk cows, tether goats, harvest fruits and harvesting honey.
我5岁时住在外祖父家，14岁离开（我家住在市区），我学会了如何务农、挤牛奶、栓山羊，收获水果和蜂蜜。

Why the long story?
为什么要说这么多？

My grandfather, just like millions of other Africans that live like him, is considered poor. He rarely holds money, and he rarely needs it. He produces most of what he needs. But using the standard World Bank/IMF description of ‘poor’, my grandfather is poor. I live in the city and earn about USD 12,000 a year after tax, which in Uganda is a decent salary. But I can hardly match my grandfather in terms of providing for my family with fresh milk, fresh food and fresh fruits.
我外祖父正如数百万像他一样生活着的非洲人一样被认为很穷，他手里没什么钱，也不需要钱。他自给自足，但用世界银行或国际货币基金组织对“穷”的标准描述来衡量的话，他很穷。我生活在城市，税后年薪约12,000美元，这在乌干达是非常体面的工资水平了，但我外祖父能为家人提供新鲜的牛奶、新鲜的食物和水果，在这一点上我跟他比不了。

 

（翻译：菲菲）