The Top 20 Silly Questions Non-Africans Ask About Africa Overseas- South Africa as Case Study.

Myths and stereotypes about Africa and its people continue to thrive in some countries. We count down the top 20 actual questions foreigners have asked South Africans.

Although our country has been welcomed back to an increasingly globalised world after the end of apartheid, some foreigners continue to harbour romantic ideas about life in Africa.

Certainly, one would not expect anyone outside South Africa’s borders to have an in-depth knowledge of the country or its history, but it’s surprising how many crazy myths and stereotypes about Africa and its people continue to thrive.

Not even the publicity surrounding Nelson Mandela and his involvement in the anti-apartheid struggle have succeeded in enlightening some people about the multiracial nature of SA society.

As a result, South Africans living or travelling abroad often face some ridiculous questions. We count down the top 20 actual questions our readers have been asked about their homeland:

20. Do you have the internet, phones, roads, cars, shops, schools, money in South Africa?.
19. Do you own a gun?.
18. Do you have lions in your garden?.
17. Do you ride around on elephants?.
16. Why would you want to come here (UK, USA, etc)?.
15. Can you see Kilimanjaro from your house?.
14. Oh you’re from Johannesburg – do you know my friend Peter in Nairobi?.
13. How many wives does your husband have?.
12. How does it feel to wear clothes?.
11. Have you ever had Aids?.
10. Which tribe do you belong to?.
9. So you’re down next to Australia, right?.
8. Do you speak African?.
7. Did you have a slave in South Africa?.
6. But you don’t have a South African accent? (not understanding that there are a lot of different accents)
5. I know that you lived in South Africa but where were you born? You must have been born somewhere else.
4. How did you learn to speak English?
3. Which country in South Africa are you from?
2. Are you black?
1. Why are you white?

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to poke fun at others’ ignorance but is simply a light-hearted take on something we’ve no doubt all experienced. What’s encouraging is that people are curious enough to ask. While it’s tempting to respond with sarcasm (or fiction), giving an honest answer will ultimately help to show what South Africa is really like. Just don’t be a whingeing expat, please!

Have you faced any of these questions before? What’s the most ridiculous question you’ve been asked about South Africa? Let us know below.

Below are hilarious replies Africans gave to the questions. (In case you're a non-African reading this, please note that most of the answers by the Africans are pure joke as they must have found the questions extremely very silly but funny). We Africans do have everything you have. Many Africans are even more trendier than most Americans and Europeans.

G

6 March 2014 at 12:16 am

I can add to that – heard plenty of stupid questions in UK, like:
– Do you have white people in SA? (I’m white)
– Do you like having Mugabe as president?
– Do you have trouble with tigers and kangaroos?
(lions I understand, but tigers & kangaroos?!)
Lynette Levinrad

6 March 2014 at 8:51 am
Nos. 3 and No.1. I’ve had a lot of fun at the ignoramuses expense over the years. :)
Petro

6 March 2014 at 8:59 am
I remember when I stayed in Saudi some people where really like if you are from africa why aren’t you black… Yip I kid you not…
- Ingrid
  
  6 March 2014 at 8:17 pm
  Was in Dharhan – just south of Damman – know the feeling well. Seems I was also the first english speaking South African they had ever met! They all thought I was British.
- Gail
  
  1 May 2014 at 7:09 pm
  I live in Kuwait and constantly get asked why I am not black if I am South African. Oh and do I have a pet elephant. Really, it’s a lion actually.. Lol
TJ

6 March 2014 at 9:11 am
LOL! I really enjoyed this article. Living abroad I’ve been asked a lot these questions, more than once, specially if I can speak African. Although I do find some people’s ignorance annoying. I always reply truthful lighthearted answer.
- tish
  
  18 March 2014 at 5:57 pm
  I’ve been asked some silly questions when I travel, but its become annoying and I think these people should be asked if they live under a rock. Their ignorance is a lack of exposure to good knowledge and I am not amused. They must live under a rock as far as I am concerned. We’ve had the WC, Mandela, Oscar, Springboks, Proteas, where have they been.
E VAN SOMEREN

6 March 2014 at 9:31 am
My daughter (11) was asked, by fellow pupil in Scotland, did you live in a tepee. She informed him wrong continent.
Wesley R

6 March 2014 at 5:32 pm
Scottish people in particular seem to be dumbfounded about South Africans.
99% of them just have to ask if I am from Australia. If I say no, they say “New Zealand?” And then “South Africa?”
“Oh yes, you sounded like you’re from down South over there, with the twang in your voice.”
“Why would you live over here?”
“Are you enjoying your holiday”
“What do you think about the Oscar Pistorius case?”
“Are you sad that Nelson Mandela died?”
It gets so irritating, that I want to move away, back to London…
It really leads me to judge their intelligence when they know so little about the world, even just the English-speaking world and such as lack of geographical knowledge. Education over here is hugely over-rated.
Carin Jansen v Vuuren

6 March 2014 at 5:37 pm
Aren’t you scared to go outside? Because of the lions?
E.Ellis

6 March 2014 at 6:06 pm
Yes, I have been asked most of the. I stay in USA. Originally from South Africa…
BOEREWORS

6 March 2014 at 6:23 pm
Ask most South Africans where a lot of other countries are and you will be met with a blank stare.
- Clare
  
  18 March 2014 at 3:24 pm
  Couldn’t agree more!
Deborah-Eve

6 March 2014 at 7:23 pm
These all sound so familiar! After saying I’m a South African, I’ve also often been asked, “So, what’s it like in South America?”
Heather Pansegrouw

6 March 2014 at 10:13 pm
Love it!! Nicely done Heather. A bloke on the phone asked me where I was from because I sounded black! What exactly does black sound like??
Sue

6 March 2014 at 10:36 pm
What has South Africa ever produced ?
Erna Brough

7 March 2014 at 1:01 am
I have been asked which part of Australia is South Africa?
lynette van heerden eveleigh

7 March 2014 at 7:16 am
ek is een van die nog wit oorlewinde blanke in AS en het nie n leeu in my tuin nie nog minder n Olifant vir n ryding nie wens ek het gehad dan het ek nie n probleem met potholes en diewe in my buurt gehad nie ek is afr sprekend
Heinrich Makkink

7 March 2014 at 11:58 pm
I am often surprised at the knowledge Kiwis have about South Africa – but have been asked by young people if I can speak South African (South Effrican, actually).
Rod Gregory

8 March 2014 at 11:15 am
He doesn’t look like Cassius Clay ! This was the reaction when I arrived in germany in 1976 and my wife presented me to a “distant” relative. We had married in Cape Town and the general idea was that she was returning with an African(black) tourist souvenier after having lived in africa for 5and half years !
Della Winterton

8 March 2014 at 11:45 am
What colour are your parents ? (Im white)
Wendy Hartley

11 March 2014 at 3:22 pm
You are white but you come from Africa!! and
Your parents must have been missionaries
amanda Pollabauer

13 March 2014 at 7:05 pm
When asking in a retail store for directions, I was asked which country was I from. When I answered SA, she replied, “where did you learn such good English? “
jaco

18 March 2014 at 1:39 pm
I’m partially part of the problem here. I’ve heard majority of these questions when overseas and I fuel the stupidity.
I tell about my pet elephant and the fact that we only have gravel roads and of course, the lions, who ate most of my family.
Don’t understand, with the Soccer World cup and all the other events that make international news, how the people can still ask such stupid questions?
Nish

18 March 2014 at 2:05 pm
So true!!! I have had so many of the one’s you list!
Some fellow saffers have also had ‘are you from Australia?’
Besides the ‘ u don’t sound South African’ and the puzzled look after I say that I am ‘South African’ with me clearly looking of Indian race ‘ but wher are you originally from?’ To which I answer ‘ from South Africa ‘ , then I get ‘ were you born ther?’ And I reply ‘ yes and so was my great great grandfather born in SA’, and the puzzled look gets more puzzled:)
Jessica Byrnes

18 March 2014 at 2:52 pm
Just to reverse the ridiculousness, what I find amazing about White South Africans is that very few speak a Native language. With Zulu as my first language growing up on a farm in Natal, the best thing about going back is being able to speak almost fluent Zulu to people.
- graham
  
  19 March 2014 at 10:45 am
  I often get asked do you speak African and reply in iSi Zulu. Floors them.
- G
  
  1 May 2014 at 12:28 am
  Mina ngingumhlope uyakwazi ukukhuluma isizulu – ngiyayithanda! ;D
Nazeem Dollie

18 March 2014 at 3:18 pm
Favourite Question:
“Why did the Springboks poison the All Blacks at the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final??? Was that the only way they could win? “
Kathy Whiteley

18 March 2014 at 4:46 pm
My friend is in the tourist industry and has been asked by South Africans:
Can I walk in the Kruger Park?
Will the lions be locked up in the Kruger Park because I am scared of them?
What time is the best for seeing lions?
When I returned to the UK after 8 years here, my father wanted to know why I wasn’t black.
Wm

18 March 2014 at 4:50 pm
Yet another bone question, this one from a younger-generation American:
“Afrikaans? That’s like… uh… SWAHILI isn’t it?”
Lynn Mortimer

18 March 2014 at 10:31 pm
How about “Where are the fences?” referring to Apartheid and the ‘fences’ that people were supposedly kept behind?
Richard Austen

18 March 2014 at 11:12 pm
Do you have cheese in South Africa
Me:Yes we do
Ahhh i bet you don’t have cheddar cheese he say.
Face in hand
Brad

19 March 2014 at 1:07 am
Your English is so good,So do you speak South African as well?
michael marks ex copier king

19 March 2014 at 5:55 am
souties are thick
Heide

19 March 2014 at 6:22 am
I was asked which country I lived in in South Africa- when I said it was a country in itself they still asked “but which country” thinkin it is like South America
- Maria
  
  5 May 2014 at 11:19 am
  well, technically you live in the Republic of South Africa. ‘South Africa’ is a misnomer.
Mad Mother

19 March 2014 at 6:42 am
Iâ€™ve been living in Australia for just over 5 years and was recently asked by my friend if I could translate a letter that was sent to her from a child that she is sponsoring in â€˜Africaâ€™. Turns out that the child is in Ethiopia! My friend was very surprised that I couldnâ€™t help her with the translation and insisted that I have a second look.
It drives me nuts that people think that Africa is a country!!! You hear it on TV all the timeâ€¦
â€œIâ€™ve been to Paris, London, Sydney and AFRICAâ€
Africa is a continent people, wake up!
Jo Maxwell

19 March 2014 at 7:47 am
While this was many years ago, from supposed educated people, the questions were “Do you live in a proper brick house?” “Do you have flushing toilets inside?” “Do you have Department Stores?” This was before the days of shopping malls. Even today many in the UK haven’t traveled further than 50 kms from their town of birth and never been up to London. Brits always say UP to London no matter if they live in Liverpool.
Louisa

19 March 2014 at 9:09 am
Where are you from? Me: South Africa. Other person: Oh your from Africa? Me: Africa is a large continent. South Africa sits right at the bottom of that big continent!
graham

19 March 2014 at 10:43 am
1.3 and 8 i have had many times over. When asked if I speak African I usually reply in Zulu (fluent) which bowls them over. #18 I used to get when I first went overseas in the 70′s.
adele

19 March 2014 at 3:43 pm
When in the states years ago I was asked how did I manage to leave the country? because there aren’t any airports. And planes can’t land in the jungle so how did I manage to get to LA? I Also had all the same questions about the pet elephants and lions in the garden and the fact that we have to go hunting with spears. But the best was when I bought a pair of Nike sneakers and commented that they were the first Nike’s I had (having always bought Reeboks) “oh shame, is this your first pair of shoes?” I was asked that while wearing a pair of shoes – I know that foreigners can be ignorant but really??? I looked down at my feet, showed the shoes I was wearing and answered “um, Yes” to which she replied “oh, you have to go shoe shopping” we were standing in a shoe shop!!!
Vusumuzi O Sibanda

20 March 2014 at 6:57 pm
Some of the “misinformation is peddled, promoted and perpetuated by Africans…….I have actually “caught” a white South African man telling “northern boys” that black people are not indigenous to South Africa………weird I know!
- Schalk CronjÃ©
  
  27 May 2014 at 6:48 pm
  Strictly speaking, (at least according to my anthropological knowledge), the Khoi & Khoisan was there long before anyone else.
  If that was the point he was trying to make then fair game.
  OTOH if the dude’s a racist, maybe you should have m***d him.
Linda

25 March 2014 at 2:39 am
My son-in-law, a native Pittsburgher, was asked what MacDonald’s was called in SA. “Uhm, MacDonald’s”?!!!
Mike de Fleuriot

9 June 2014 at 11:22 pm
Best I ever hear, was a slightly pissed Afrikaans game guide telling a bunch of British tourists about how the government allows the hunting of the “wild blacks” that live in the deep bush. The Brits were disturbed and talked about writing letters to government about this.
Louise

10 June 2014 at 9:38 am
Do you sleep with lions next to you? Do you starve in South Africa? Wanted to buy a sim card for the phone and when told that I was from South Africa oh where is that? Is that in Canada?
Paul Renwick

1 July 2014 at 3:09 pm

Great article, thanks.
Having been in email contact with a host family in the US,I was asked if I had Internet. Also been asked if I live in a hut, are there wild animals in my garden, do we have cars, are there any roads… and questions from those who have clearly heard negative report from expats, I’ve been asked if it’s safe to return home, won’t I get shot, and plenty of advice given for me to never return because of the violence that awaits me.

Source: The South African

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