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I must say that before I went to the U.S., I didn't consciously identify as African.
我不得不强调，在我前往美国之前，我从来没有有意识地把自己当作个非洲人。
But in the U.S., whenever Africa came up, people turned to me.
但在美国的时候，每当人们提到“非洲”时，大家都回转向我，
Never mind that I knew nothing about places like Namibia.
虽然说我对纳米比亚之类的地方一无所知。
But I did come to embrace this new identity, and in many ways I think of myself now as African.
但我渐渐的开始接受这个新的身份。现在很多时候我都是把自己当作一个非洲人来看待。
Although I still get quite irritable when Africa is referred to as a country,
不过当人们把非洲当作一个国家来讨论的时候，我还是觉得挺反感的。
the most recent example being my otherwise wonderful flight from Lagos two days ago,
最近的一次例子就发生在两天前，我从拉各斯搭乘航班，旅程原本相当愉快，
in which there was an announcement on the Virgin flight about the charity work in "India, Africa and other countries."
直到广播里开始介绍在“印度、非洲以及其他国家”所进行的慈善事业。
So, after I had spent some years in the U.S. as an African, I began to understand my roommate's response to me.
当我以一名非洲人的身份在美国度过几年之后，我开始理解我那位室友当时对我的反应。
If I had not grown up in Nigeria, and if all I knew about Africa were from popular images,
如果我不是在尼日利亚长大，如果我对非洲的一切认识都来自于大众流行的影像，
I too would think that Africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals, and incomprehensible people,
我相信我眼中的非洲也同样是充满了美丽的地貌、美丽的动物、以及一群难以理解的人们，
fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and AIDS, unable to speak for themselves and waiting to be saved by a kind, white foreigner.
进行着毫无意义的战争、死于艾滋和贫穷、无法为自己辩护，并且等待着一位慈悲的、白种的外国人的救赎。
I would see Africans in the same way that I, as a child, had seen Fide's family.
我看待非洲的方式将会和我儿时看待Fide一家的方式是一样的。
This single story of Africa ultimately comes, I think, from Western literature.
我认为，关于非洲的这个单一故事从根本上来自于西方的文学。
Now, here is a quote from the writing of a London merchant called John Lok,
这是来自伦敦商人John Locke的一段话。
who sailed to west Africa in 1561 and kept a fascinating account of his voyage.
他在1561年的时候曾游历非洲西部，并且为他的航行做了番很有趣的记录。
After referring to the black Africans as "beasts who have no houses," he writes,
他先是把黑色的非洲人称为“没有房子的野兽”，随后又写到：
"They are also people without heads, having their mouth and eyes in their breasts."
“他们也是一群无头脑的人，他们的嘴和眼睛都长在了他们的胸口上。”
