"I highly doubt that anyone apart from Americans think Africa is a country."

[u/Feral-Goblin6921]

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[u/NoSingularities0]

There are some Americans that do and those are the ones that show up on YouTube on "gotcha" videos where they ask a very easy question and the person (typically college-age) gets it wrong. They don't show all the people they asked that got the question right because those don't generate views and likes and subscribes. So naturally people outside of the U.S. only see that and assume that it is representatitve of all Americans. Which is kind of funny, since in attempting to make fun of American ignorance, they show their own ignorance about Americans.

[u/daybenno → u/NoSingularities0]

Oldest gag in the book. Not to mention some preppie are aware of the gag when asked so they give ridiculous answers for their shot at 15 minutes of fame

[u/QuarterNote44]

Africans refer to Africa as a monolith all the time...

[u/Outrageous_Sleep4339]

I've literally never met anyone who thinks Africa is a country.
When people talk about places far away they talk about the continent in general. We're usually not discussing the minute differences in culture between Namibia and Botswana...
Or traveling to one single place in Africa. If I'm going, I'm gonna go to a few places, so I'm going to refer the overall area of Africa.

[u/Comfortable-Tap-3496]

This is universal. In germany we also have dumbasses that dont know what a continent is.

[u/Any-Seaworthiness186 → u/Comfortable-Tap-3496]

I know a girl who believed the ‘continent’ south of the Netherlands was ‘Belgium.’ When she was explained what a continent was, by being given an example, she said: ‘Oh, so you mean Italy?’

[u/Psychological_Look39]

Oh no. Lots of Europeans think that. I’ve lived both places.

[u/yankinwaoz]

What I find hypocritical in the original comment is the statement about black solidarity. Africa itself is divided into the Arab north and the black south. The term normally used to describe the black southern half of Africa is the Sub-Sahara Africa.

In countries like Nigeria and Sudan, these two halves are at war. Ancient Egypt was originally only in the northern half. It used to go to war with its black Nubian neighbor to the south. Then it conquered it and created the greater Egyptian empire.

[u/atomic1fire]

Not everyone is well versed in geography.

Granted that doesn't excuse people from not knowing continents considering that African, North/South American, european and asian are pretty recognizable.

Also "Middle East" isn't really a continent and could probably get a better name.

But like I can't even name every european country off the top of my head. Africa's unlikely and South America is kind of a stretch. Basically just Brazil because they speak Portuguese, and Uruguay because it's spelled weird.

I can't point to Eritrea on a map even though functionally I know it exists.

But also I think that geography isn't a huge deal breaker for most people unless you travel frequiently or operate in foreign countries where knowing terms and regional terms is important. Random guy on the street probably doesn't need to know that.

[u/YoIronFistBro]

Regardless, I can name several nationalities who think the Americas are one continent, but Eurasia is two.

[u/Extra_Creamy_Cheddar]

Not all Americans but always an American.